Hello Scholars' Academy families.  This is always an exciting time for us:  School is in full swing, the children are now immersed into their studies and have cast off the lethargy of the summer months, sports teams are completing their fall schedule and looking forward to the winter programs, and friendships have long been re-established.  2010-2011 is particularly exciting as we break in a new school and get to know new teachers and new students. From what I've seen, both the new students and new teachers have been made to feel welcome and our sense of community has been imbued to our new families.  One of the important cultural qualities of our school has been our sense of an "us against the world" type of mindset.  We know that our children need a special school that is not available to us through the traditional public system or the area private schools and we have endeavored to start a new school to support our children and invest our time and gifts into this school to assure its stability.  Many of us come from different geographic, religious and cultural backgrounds, but we all value the importance of a good education and a curriculum that suits children with unique gifts and aptitude.

Besides the curriculum and a culture well-suited to the highly gifted, we offer so much more than a CMS school: a low student/teacher ratio, smart boards in every classroom, and unique programs like Chinese.

Your financial gifts have made much of what we have possible, but we need to do more.  As we close in on the final days of our Annual Campaign, we are woefully short of our goal. Currently, 50% of our parents have contributed a total of $390,000.  The board of directors has contributed $66,000 of the $390,000, with 100% participation.  Mind you, our goal is not an arbitrary number that our development team put together.  Our goal is consistent with the budget that we shared with BB&T and is essential in keeping our debt service payments in order and our school programming moving forward.  We are not a private school and, therefore, do not enjoy the abundance of riches that a school of affluent parents can afford. We are not a CMS school and do not enjoy the infrastructure that CMS schools enjoy.  We rely on ALL of our parents to dig deeply and to give sacrificially to make the school a success.  All must give what they can, but those who can contribute more than the average must do more for us to succeed.  Our board has been and continues to be transparent regarding all aspects of the school.  Please let me be transparent about this:  we will be forced to discontinue some school programming if the fundraising goal of $570,000 is not met. 

We need 100% participation from our parents to make our goals of having the most notable and successful school of highly gifted children in the country a reality.  Let's not breathe a sigh of relief that we're in a new school building and, therefore, there is no further need to contribute.  Now is the time to step-up, contribute sacrificially, and deepen the resources that are available to our kids now and in the future.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Gaston Gage

Board Chair