By Robert L. Chakar, Jr., Ed.D., Superintendent
The Board of Education has been working diligently to prepare a school budget which will stay within the tax levy threshold for ACS of 6.70%. That said, the Board has proposed a tax levy increase of 2.89%, which is within the legal limit under a simple majority vote. The Board is also managing increases in mandated costs such as salaries and related costs, as well as our first interest payment for the approved capital building project.
The public hearing on the budget will take place at 7 pm on Thursday, May 9th in the Distance Learning classroom. Voting on the budget and Board of Education members, as well as a proposition to purchase a new 30 passenger school bus, will take place on Tuesday, May 21st from 2 – 8 pm in the Fitness Room.
The Class of 2019 has worked hard over the last several years to raise money to go on their senior trip. During Spring break, they were able go to Costa Rica, with chaperones Mr. & Mrs. Tom Little. They would like to thank everyone who has supported them over the years to help make this trip a reality.
The Drama Club presented The Wizard of Oz on Friday and Saturday, April 5th & 6th. We’re so proud of all the students and the hard work they put into the musical. I would like to thank Elaine Smith, Kellie Daino, Lisa Valkavich and John Bernhardt for all their time in directing the play. I would also like to thank Sharon Tucker for all her hours of hard work creating sets and costumes. We’re so lucky to have such talented people here at ACS to work with our students to be able to put on such a wonderful show.
We’re enthused that, after the long winter, work has finally started again on our front pedestrian bridge. We hope to hold a dedication ceremony once the project is completed, hopefully in the coming weeks. We have also had masonry work started on the main school building, which is part of our capital building project. It’s exciting that after so many months of exhaustive work, we are finally seeing signs of progress to make our building more energy-efficient and up-to-date for all students and staff.
April was Poetry Month. Every morning, a student read a poem of their choice over the PA system during announcement time. During the week of April 8th – 12th we celebrated by having a poetry dress-up week, with a different poetry theme each day.
Tuesday, April 30th was Poem in Your Pocket Day, where everyone had to carry a poem with them and share it with others throughout the day. We 
even had a PoeTREE in the entryway with many poems hanging from it, for students to choose from if they could not come up with their own poem.~