Blog of Craig Smith: Beginning of Year Letter to LNC Families 2022

Dear Parents and Families of the LNC Community:

I hope the summer weeks have given our entire community a well-deserved opportunity to relax, refresh and rejuvenate. On behalf of the Lake Norman Charter High School faculty, staff, Mr. Funchess and the administrative team, I would like to officially welcome all returning and new families to LNC and the 2022-2023 school year. This is a unique and an especially important year as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of our school. I am honored to serve as principal of the high school, and your partnership, in addition to our collaborative efforts aligned with LNC’s mission and core values, will continue inspiring our students to “learn, lead and serve.”

This letter provides valuable information to assist in a smooth opening to the school year. Please do not hesitate to contact me (csmith@lncharter.org) with any questions.

Fostering a place of belonging for each LNC student and helping develop and support their "whole" self will be the two overarching themes throughout this 2022-23 school year. We will continue to build upon our district-wide Global Diversity and Inclusion initiative with the goal of every student knowing they belong and feeling valued for all their individuality and uniqueness. It is fitting as we celebrate 25 years of school service that we return to our roots implementing LNC’s THRIVE strategic area of focus. THRIVE focuses on our students' overall well-being, supporting their full selves while growing areas of individual strengths and needs. To that end, we are grateful that mental health therapist, Dr. Danielle Graham, will be returning to LNC to support our students.

TECHNOLOGY

We are proudly in year nine of LNC’s 1:World Program and the sixth year of laptop utilization at the high school. If your student is a freshman, they took/will take their laptop home at the conclusion of Freshman Kick-off provided they paid the $125 tech co-pay. Our upperclassmen may pick up their laptops on Thursday, August 4 between the hours of 9:00-11:00 AM and 12:30-2:30 PM, no sign-up required. Families of 10th-12th grade students must pay the co-pay by Tuesday, August 2 before picking up their technology. That co-pay can be paid here. If your family cannot pick up the laptop on August 4, your student will receive their laptop on the first day of school, again, provided the co-pay has been met.

SCHEDULES

You can expect to receive your student’s schedule via the email address we have on file by Friday, August 5. Please remember these schedules are final unless there is an obvious scheduling error. If you wish to send us an updated email address, you can make that change using this form.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The first day of school for our freshmen is Wednesday, August 10 from 7:45 - 11:15 AM. We welcome all of our HS students on Thursday, August 11 which is a regular, full day from 7:45 AM - 2:45 PM. Student enrollment is critical to ensuring that students are engaged with their teacher and curriculum in order to be successful from day one. This student enrollment is also crucial to our school’s funding. Please be reminded that prior to the first day of school all parents are required to complete LNC’s parent acknowledgement form.

HEALTH PROTOCOLS

While we continue to monitor COVID conditions in our area, we return to normal, pre-COVID school operations. We continue to have strong health and safety protocols in place, striving for the healthiest possible learning environment. Since we are a mask-optional school, some families will opt to mask. Please speak to your child about being respectful of individual choices. If you have specific questions, please contact Ms. Rebecca Shipman at rshipman@lncharter.org.

LUNCHES/CARPOOL/STUDENT PARKING

Remember, the PTO does not offer an ordered lunch option in the first few weeks of school so students will need to pack a lunch. We will communicate more information about the PTO-led lunch program before school begins. Additionally, look for carpool and student parking information to also be communicated before the opening of school. As always, we appreciate your patience in advance during the first few weeks of carpool, as it takes some time for everyone to learn the appropriate procedures.

SERVICE & ENGAGEMENT

We look forward to fully reinitiating our commitment to service, both for our HS students and our parents through our Serve10 program. Our PTO, led by Ms. Kim Schild at the HS (hspto@lncharter.org) has many exciting plans to support our teachers and your students and needs your involvement. Your family already belongs to the PTO and we hope your membership fosters a sense of belonging to our school community. Please sign up here to get involved.

SAVE THE DATES

Homecoming is Friday, September 9. Look for more information about pregame tailgating activities once we are back to school. Our annual Royal Golf Outing, benefitting LNC athletics, is October 17. We are also devising fun ways of celebrating our 25th year milestone throughout the year and will share those during the course of the year as they develop.

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT

Our Back to School Night for the high school will occur on Thursday, August 18 at 6:00 PM, giving all families the chance to visit classrooms, engage in critical conversations with teachers, and simply tour the building by following their student’s schedule. We will provide more information on Back to School Night as it draws closer.

PARENT/PRINCIPAL CONNECTION

Our monthly Principal Coffee Chats will continue and I cordially invite all parents to join us for the first installment of the school year on Tuesday, September 6 at 8:00 AM. We will also continue to live-stream the coffee chat via a link on Schoology, allowing all families to view the chat live or watch/listen to the archive at their convenience. If you are not a member of the LNC2HSP Schoology group, the code to join is M4XT8-Q43FD. More information will be shared closer to the date, but the agenda for the September chat will include a high school counseling overview for the year.

In addition, I encourage our families to connect with me through Twitter and my professional blog. I utilize both of these forums to communicate our successes, promote school-related events, share resources and collaborate with my professional learning network. You will also find school-wide social media shared via LNC's Facebook page, Twitter account and Instagram. We are very active on all three and they offer an opportunity to gain an understanding of our school culture and keep up with the "softer" side of the news at LNC.

NEW HS STAFF

Next, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new faculty to LNC:

Andi Barkley officially joins LNC as a Spanish teacher after serving as a long-term substitute in Spanish I and Spanish II at the high school in ‘21-22, as well as a Spanish I teacher in the middle school. In ‘20-21, Ms. Barkley served as a long-term substitute in a biology and chemistry classroom for the second semester. She will be teaching Spanish I and Spanish II for the ‘22-23 school year.

Audrie Graham is a science teacher, recently completing her second year at West Cabarrus HS (Cabarrus County Schools), which opened its doors in 2019-20. She will be teaching Biology and Earth & Environmental Science for the ‘22-23 school year. Ms. Graham will be participating in the final year of our beginning teacher support program and will be coaching within our HS cheerleading program as well. Furthermore, Audrie Graham is a Lake Norman Charter Graduate, Class of 2016.

Amanda Hubrich is a veteran math teacher, previously serving at Independence High School (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools) since 2012. Ms. Hubrich is also National Board Certified in Early Adolescence Mathematics. Throughout her career, she has taught a wide-range of courses, including Math I, Math II, and Math III. She will be teaching Math III for the ‘22-23 school year.

Julie Phelps is a veteran English teacher, previously serving at Mallard Creek High School (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools). Throughout her career, she has taught a wide-range of courses, including English 9, English 10, English 11, AP Language and Composition and Executive Class Council. She will be teaching English 9, English 11, and English 12 for the ‘22-23 school year.

W. Kaleb Reavis is a music teacher, having served as the Band and Chorus Director at Highland School of Technology (Gaston County Schools) for the previous five years. Due to the performing arts restructuring at the middle school and high school, Mr. Reavis will be serving as the Band and Chorus Director at the HS, collaborating with Mr. Scaringelli and Mr. McSwain as they transition to being full-time at the MS, due to the continued increase of enrollment of both programs.

Joanna Wallace is a veteran Spanish teacher, previously teaching at Woodlawn School and Holy Trinity Catholic School. Upon arriving in North Carolina, Mrs. Wallace taught at East Montgomery High School (Montgomery County Schools). She will be teaching Spanish II and Spanish III for the ‘22-23 school year.

Sydney Wright is a social studies teacher, previously completing her first three years at Corvian Community School. For the past two years, she was the social studies department chair at Corvian. Ms. Wright taught a wide range of courses, including European History, Civics & Government, Civics and Economics and U.S. Government and Politics. She will be teaching Economics & Personal Finance and Sociology for the ‘22-23 school year.

Lastly, Kimberly Van Buren is a veteran counselor, having served the South Iredell High School (Iredell-Statesville Schools) community since 2004. Her career began as a career counselor at Nova Southeastern University before relocating back to NC, where she served as an Assistant Director of Career Development at Wake Forest University prior to joining South Iredell HS. While in Iredell-Statesville Schools, Ms. Van Buren was the lead HS counselor for the district, in addition to her role at South Iredell HS.

Here are the student-counselor assignments:

9th - 12th graders with Last Name A - G are assigned to Ms. Van Buren

9th - 12th graders with Last Name H - O remain with Mr. Porter

9th - 12th graders with Last Name P - Z remain with Ms. Casillas

We are excited to welcome this group to our LNC Community.

SAFETY AT LNC

Our greatest responsibility and first priority is to provide a safe environment for our students and staff. You can expect to receive a communication next month explaining our protocols and procedures for ensuring our school’s security. Mark your calendars for “Coffee with Officer Bo” on September 9 where you’ll hear directly from School Resource Officer Bononno and have an opportunity to ask questions. This informational session will also be live streamed and archived for your convenience.

ELEVATE PROJECT

Construction on Knights Fieldhouse, our final campaign objective, has begun! Although we have yet to raise all of the funds needed to build Knights Fieldhouse, after careful deliberation, the LNC Board of Education decided to move forward on construction, essentially agreeing to be paid back over time as funds continue to be raised from the Elevate campaign. On behalf of the LNC board and administration, I want to thank those of you who supported and continue to support "elevating" the experience for our students and invite those of you who haven't to support your child's school experience in this important way.

I hope you continue to enjoy these last few weeks of summer break and we enthusiastically await the opening of school on August 10 (freshmen) and August 11 (all students). We thank you all in advance for being your best in 2022-2023.

Yours in education,