Anticipating the arrival of students on September 8, our staff is working to provide an outstanding school year for our students. Our students achieved Adequate Yearly Progress on the 11th grade PSSA assessment last spring. Building on their success, we want to further increase the academic achievement of our students this school year. This aspiration to improve academic achievement drives our planning. Our goal is to deliver a quality education for all students in order to prepare them to be productive, self‐reliant and responsible citizens.

Our planning this summer focused on implementing a school‐wide vocabulary program, training in literacy, and investigating the role of monitoring student progress in order to provide the appropriate interventions to support learning. With the assistance of parents and the dedicated work of our students, the staff is expecting strong academic growth. To realize our goal of increased academic achievement, we need the support of our parents and concentrated effort from our students.

During the last weeks of August, our campus came alive with various summer camps for student activities. Knowing that involvement in co‐curricular activities helps students to connect to school, we encourage them to participate in clubs and sports. Their participation in co‐curricular activities helps them develop positive character traits. For example, collaboration is a 21st century skill, and learning how to work as a team member is important in developing the qualities of collaborative work. Accordingly, the more involved students are in their studies combined with participation in co‐curricular activities, the more connected they are to school, resulting in higher achievement.

Parent involvement in the academic life of their children is an essential component in the academic success of their children. Our goal this year is to increase our contact with our parents. For our parents of the freshman class, we are holding an opening house on September 3, beginning at 6:30 p.m. to promote this goal in the auditorium. In addition, all parents are encouraged to attend our "Back to School" night on September 17 at 7:00 p.m. We need our parents to become active partners in the education of their children.

In addition, the freshman class is invited to an open house on September 3, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Information letters went home with schedules earlier this summer. We are providing school bus transportation to this open house. During this session, students will receive their locker assignments, locate their classrooms, and review school policies and procedures.

With student and parent involvement, we look forward to a successful school year. Students, we will see you on September 8 as we open school with special homeroom, beginning at 7:25 a.m.

Nancy C. Alexander

Principal of Chichester High School