Upper School

3.23.23

Be on the lookout for an email from your student’s Advisor for more information on registration conferences. If you have not yet heard from your student’s advisor and do not know who they are, please reach out to Nicole Morin or Sean Vervain so we can be sure you are connected.  We have a few coaches and people with second jobs that had to coordinate schedules before having availability.

Prom tickets are on sale NOW on MySchoolBucks. Eligible 11th and 12th grade students can purchase tickets.  There will be a separate email coming to families of 11th and 12th grade students with more details about date/time,  location, guest approval process, and the theme.

Upper School Track had its first meet yesterday against Owen. The rest of the spring sports will kick off next week. Check out the calendar on the athletics website.

Do everything safely: Students handled an off routine day on Wednesday with composure and integrity. We also had a tornado safety procedure  practice this week where all students were engaged and compliant through the duration of the drill.

I am a leader: Many of our seniors were able to become certified in CPR on Wednesday, we appreciate their desire to have the ability to step into serious situations if they come their way

Value: Our 11th graders came to school on March 8th to participate in the state-wide ACT exam. We had nearly 100% participation.

Engage: Forty Upper Schoolers headed to Montreat College on Wednesday to take a tour and eat in the dining hall!

1.26.23

11.21.22

We are fortunate to spend our days with our students.  While we welcome the break from the daily grind of school, we will also be thinking of our students throughout the upcoming season of reflection.  Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this important time in their lives. It is an absolute pleasure to watch them grow from adolescence into adulthood and we sincerely appreciate the opportunity to have a front row seat to all of the action.

 We know that having time off can be fun but they might begin to get bored and need a few suggestions.  Here are a  few ideas for students who are looking for things to do during the break:

  • Complete required community service hours- Learn more here

  • Check into Driver’s Education

  • Check out some college campuses.  Most of the time you don’t need an official tour to get the feel of the campus. It’s a great way to take a break on a long road trip or a good use of the time off to get a few visits in without missing school

  • Visit the many parks in our region, winter brings amazing views and lower crowds

  • Attend some of the performances of the fine arts around town

  • Go to the movies!  Regal offers $5 Classic Holiday Movies, Cinemark offers 50% off of first run movies on Tuesdays,  and Asheville Pizza Company offers $3 Classics. Be sure to check the fine print, you know how these things go!

  • Get some games in by going to the Retrocade, Well Played Asheville, or Asheville Pinball Museum  

  • Checkout some old school fun by going bowling or roller skating

  • Try your luck at an Escape Room

  • Get a Zoom Pass from the Buncombe County Library for free entry to many of the area attractions

This a reminder that our students are scheduled to eat outside each day. Please be sure they are coming to school in layers that allow for them to be comfortable in the brisker weather.

Do everything safely:  We have appreciated how our students have demonstrated safe behaviors around campus through the first part of our school year.

I am a leader:  Our students have proven they are leaders in our community by volunteering at multiple venues and getting donations for Babies Needs Bottom and our winter coat drive.

Value: Our students and advisory groups have shown that they value our school and campus by taking on various beautification projects and mentoring our younger students.

Engage: Check out an amazing and FREE opportunity to learn more about helping your family overcome teen angst.  This upcoming virtual summit includes a variety of interviews that will help provide tools to support the many challenges that occur within families with teenagers.  You’ll hear from 10 experts that occur throughout the day on Tuesday 11.22 from 9:00 am-9:00 pm.  Kriya Lendzion will have her session, “The Art of Teen Whispering for Connection and Influence” at 3:00 pm. Check out more about her here. A few of the other interview topics that interested me right away are listed below-

  • How to Get Out of Power Struggles With Your Teen

  • Coping Skills for Teens

  • How To Communicate With Your Teen

  • Social Media and the Power of Normalization

  • How Teen Shame Leads to Conflict

  • Helping Parents Stay Grounded When Triggered

With Gratitude,

Upper School Principals
Sean Vervain & Nicole Morin

 

10.27.22

This November we will be making a collective effort to end vaping in our school building. Parents, we are asking you to speak with your students about vaping in the school building and encourage them to be leaders by reporting all vaping activities they witness in the building. We will continue to share more information about our collective effort. When students honestly report vaping activities they are not incriminating themselves and they are joining the communities efforts to create a safe learning environment for all students and staff. 

Join us next week for our Second  Parent University on November 3rd at 5:30 pm on campus. This event will focus on community service requirements for our students.  We hope to see you there! 

Do everything safely:  We appreciate our students’ maturity and behavior during a potentially stressful situation this past Friday. 

I am a leader: Our National Honor Society members hosted an induction ceremony for 18 of our Upper School students. We appreciate their leadership in hosting a wonderful ceremony.

Value: Students participated in the Fall Festival this past Friday running booths and supporting activities. Our students showed true value for our community being an integral part of the festivities. 

Engage: Join us this Friday and Saturday at 7:00 PM for the Upper School Fall Theatre Production She Kills Monsters. 

   

Winter Wear Collection Drive:

The Sophomore class is collecting winter wear for homeless people starting October 31. They will collect gloves, hats, coats, scarves, sweatshirts, sweaters, and socks. These items can be for any age. They will start collecting these items during arrival and dismissal starting November 2. We will have bins to collect these items in Ms. Bryant, Mrs. Crayton, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Shaughnessy, Ms. Skierczynski, and Mr. Zimmer.

9.22.22

10th grade Community Service trip with Riverlink

Do Everything Safely: As role models in the school, it is important that our Upper School students demonstrate safety throughout their day.  An area we could use help with is keeping hands etc. to themselves during transitions, lunch, arrival, and dismissal.  While much of what we see is innocent horseplay it can get out of control quickly and turn into safety concerns.  It is important that our students in K-8 see that our students in high school are following the expectations for the school, as well. Please encourage your students to keep their hands to themselves, especially during unstructured times when this seems to occur with more frequency.  We appreciate your support with this!

I am a Leader: Leadership can take many forms. At IC Imagine it means that our students take time out of their lives to give to others.  Students in Upper School complete 10 hours of community service each year as part of their graduation requirements.  Many of our students exceed this requirement because they enjoy participating in community service.  This year we have partnered with several local non-profit organizations to provide opportunities for our students to earn some of those hours during the school day with their advisory group.  This week we had students in Mrs. Houghton’s advisory group participated in service with Greenworks. During their time together they worked at the Sand Hill garden to provide upkeep to their plants.  Highlights of the trip included picking some fresh fruit to enjoy in the heat of the day.  We are proud of our students for their hard work and look forward to more trips in the coming months. Don’t worry, you will be notified in advance when it is your student’s time for a field trip!  See the list of grade level partnerships below:

9th- Manna Foodbank

10th- Riverlink

11th- Asheville GreenWorks

12th- Habitat For Humanity

Value: Some of our students will have the opportunity to participate in the PSAT NMSQT on Saturday, October 15th. Eligible students include 10th and 11th graders. This exam measures the knowledge and skills in reading, writing, and math students learn in the classroom—the same knowledge and skills your child needs to succeed in college and career.  11th-grade students may meet the requirements to enter the National Merit® Scholarship Program, an academic competition for recognition and scholarships. You can read more about it here.  If interested, Register here. 

Engage: Our students have been heavily involved in extracurricular activities and showing off what they have learned in their classes.  This was a busy week when students had soccer and volleyball games, both teams representing IC Imagine with that Kingfisher Pride!  Our chorus and band put on some amazing performances these past two weeks.  The entire choral program was incredible but our seniors stole the show in one of their final performances of the year with a few special solos and an all-around beautiful showcase of their talent.  We hope you get the chance to see what our Fine Arts students have been working on throughout the year, we have very special shows in the coming months. Several of our Upper School students are helping coach our LS/MS Mountain Biking Club.  We have seen excellent leadership by our students out on the trails and look forward to seeing our youngest Kingfishers become more comfortable out there through the support of our Upper School volunteers.

9/16/22

We are settling into the 22.23 school year. This past Wednesday, students in the AVID program had the opportunity to visit Boone for a tour of Appalachian State University. By all accounts, it was an engaging experience and our Kingfishers represented our community well.

Students were provided with their progress reports. Students have plenty of opportunities to raise those grades prior to the end of the quarter.For those of you who are off to a great start, stay the course! 

Next week, we will have our first community service field trip for a Junior Advisory group. This year we are providing each Advisory group the opportunity to travel into the community with their advisor for a unique volunteering opportunity. 

We will also begin rotations for our weekly CLIMB interventions or enrichments. This is an excellent opportunity for students to access a re-teaching session, make up a missing assessment, or dive deeper into the course curriculum. 

NHS

It takes a village! Our NHS Dignity Closet is providing discrete spaces across the Upper School where students can get things they need without embarrassment. We offer things like: school supplies, mouthwash, deodorant, soap, tampons, and snacks. Many teens find themselves needing these items, either because of family hardship or just an off day where they forgot something. Please help us keep this option available for our hungry (or sweaty) students by donating items. All donations may be brought to school and sent to Mrs. Shimer in room 1220.

Senior Families

Hi Senior Families,

We have some important, exciting information regarding special events just for seniors. Read below for information on senior portraits, senior ads, and the senior section in the yearbook! 

  1. Senior Pictures:

Senior portraits will be taken on Tuesday, September 20th. Families must sign their student up for a specific time for portraits that day (make sure to communicate this time to your senior!). At your student’s designated time slot, they will need to come to the gym for their formal senior portrait. There is no sitting fee for this formal portrait and Legacy studios will be taking 2-3 poses of your senior in this attire. Students will need to wear some specific items on this day to accommodate the formal wear. Please click the link for the exact information on attire and to sign up for a time slot! (Makeup picture day for those absent will be on Tuesday, October 25th). 

https://seniors.legacystudios.com/ic-imagine-charter-school-asheville-nc/

  1. Senior section of the yearbook: 

To commemorate the special moment of graduating high school, the yearbook staff likes to make the senior section especially memorable. To do this, they are asking students to submit a senior quote and a picture to accompany their senior portrait. While many seniors often send in a cute baby or kid picture, you are certainly welcome to send in a picture that shows off your student’s personality at any age. Please email your choice of picture and quote to photos@icimagine.org. Due date for quote and picture is Friday, October 14th. 

  1. Save the date for Senior ads: 

For the first time, the yearbook will be offering senior ads. This optional section is available for purchase and is a special place where families can surprise their  student with a congratulatory page, celebrating their memorable moments and successes over the years. This is a great place for well-wishes, other senior pictures you may have taken, pictures of your senior growing up, with friends and family, etc…

Senior ads will be available for sale from November 14-February 3rd. 

Prices are as follows. Senior ads and can be split into multiple payments through the Josten’s website: 

1/8 page: $25

1/4 page: $50

1/2 page: $100

Full page: $ 200

More information and the website to purchase and create ads will be provided closer to the opening date.

Purchasing a yearbook:

If you would like to purchase a yearbook for your senior (or other students), then follow the link below. Yearbooks are on sale for $40 until September 16th. After that date, the price will increase.

www.jostensyearbooks.com

Please email photos@icimagine.org with any questions.

8.26.22

Three weeks completed! Students are starting to fully settle into the school year. Students learned about community service expectations this week during our class-level meetings with principals. There is a wonderful plan for Advisory groups to have at least one community service field trip this school year, thank you, Ms. Gelineau. Ms. Lafferty has been meeting with families and students to support college application processes, discuss AB Tech course options after graduation, and acting as a liaison between families and job training organization, Pre-ETS.

This Friday we had our first extended lunch celebration at the Blue House. Students relaxed on the field, had picnics, played field games, and enjoyed the camaraderie.

Check out the latest issue of the ImagiNation Insider


8.19.22

We had another amazing week here in the ImagiNation! Everyone is doing an amazing job DIVE-ing into the 2022-23 school year.

Do Everything Safely: Our Kingfishers have been learning about our expectations to stay safe while at school. In Upper School, we are focusing our discussions on the harmful effects of vaping and understanding the risk-taking tendencies of the teenage brain.

I am a Leader: Our students are discussing the importance of peer role models. In our unique k-12 model, Upper School students have the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership skills and role model positive behaviors.

Value: At IC Imagine, we value inclusivity and equity while remaining focused on understanding the impacts of social justice movements across the globe. This is to create a sense of  empowerment for our students to better understand that they can be agents of change within their community. See this JEDI Explained document for what JEDI means to us here at Imagine (also available on our website).

Engage: We have so much to look forward to this fall: Parent University, College & Career Nights,  7th Annual Fine Arts 5K and Fun Run, Fall Festival, and more! We look forward to seeing students engage with coursework and community expectations not only in the classroom but also out in the broader community activities.

Please join us on Thursday, August 25th from 5:30-6:30 pm on the campus of IC Imagine in our IPAC for the first of our Upper School Parent University sessions. This series will kick off with Upper School 101. We will cover information about accessing PowerSchool and Google Classroom, Attendance Requirements, New Expectations, and Q&A.  Future topics within our Upper School Parent University series will be announced soon and largely dictated by the needs of our community.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Upper School Principals

Nicole Morin
Sean Vervain