The Weekly Line

Monday, October 20, 2025

Dear AMS F-A-M-I-L-Y (Students, Parents/Guardians & Staffulty),

Welcome to quarter 2 of the 2025-26 school year! I hope you were able to attend AMS’ fall parent teacher conferences in-person on Thursday, or virtually on Friday, and found those conversations a good use of your time. My observation of our AMS process is we can do a better job with the communication and process. AES is fully in-person, AHS is fully virtual, AMS has one in-person and one virtual day with a little different format in each of our four grades, and ASD has one person at the district office coordinating the online sign up for all three schools which crashed a couple of times on Wednesday and Thursday. While offering both in-person and virtual options adds flexibility, I noticed some parents signed up for virtual on Thursday when it was only a Friday option, signed up for a teacher that doesn't have their child in class, weren't sure if the student should attend the conference with them (they should), and weren't sure if they should or could schedule a time with their child’s explorations teachers (Health/PE, Art, Music, Design, Spanish or French), or just their core teachers (Maths, Science, Language and Literature, Individuals and Societies). You're welcome to do both. Keep an eye out for an ASD survey coming out soon to solicit your conference experience feedback. We’re all about continuous improvement at AMS, so we will make some enhancements to increase the vertical alignment of our four grade level teams (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th) and communicate those more clearly to families in the spring. Lastly, the following documents were attached to your child’s mid-semester IB Approaches to Learning (AtL) progress reports in Toddle explaining how we assess the AtL skills (3 of 5 this fall) and IB criterion-related grading at AMS:

AMS AtL Report Card Rubric ENGLISH/SPANISH 9-22-25

AMS IB Criterion-related Grading Parent Letter ENGLISH 10-15-25

AMS IB Criterion-related Grading Parent Letter SPANISH 10-15-25

On a more exciting note, AMS is pleased to host the 5th Annual Aspen Words Poetry Week this week, October 20–24! Our visiting poets Jasminne Mendez, Logan Phillips, and Natty Carrizosa are leading workshops in our Language and Literature classrooms all week, and we’ll wrap up Poetry Week with a Student Showcase All-school Assembly in the ASD Theatre from 2:15 - 3:15pm on Friday, October 24. Parents are welcome to attend, and will be seated together along each side of the two main entrances, but please know we may not have enough time for every student who volunteers to read their poem at the showcase. Students will sit with their reading classes and teachers. You can watch the visiting poets' introduction videos here. Special thank you to Ivy Chalmers, Aspen Words Senior Program Associate, and the Aspen Education Foundation (AEF) for making AMS’ 5th Annual Aspen Words Poetry Week possible. We appreciate you!

Shine on,

Dr. Tom

Tom Dodd, PhD

#AMSAllIn #AMSF-A-M-I-L-Y #TheAMSDifference

AMS Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO), Tuesday, 10/21, 8:15 - 9:30am, AMS Conf. Rm.:

Our next PTO meeting is Tuesday, 10/21, 8:15 - 9:30am in the AMS Conference Rm. The agenda will be a debrief of our 1st Annual Tough Middler High Altitude Adventure Race, the 4 upcoming November ballot measures per this invite, etc.:

AMS School Accountability Committee (SAC) #2, Thursday, 12/11, 4 - 5pm, AMS Conf. Rm.

We had a great SAC meeting #1 on Thursday, 10/16. AMS SAC Mtg. Agendas 2025-26. The next AMS SAC quarterly meeting to discuss school performance will be December 11th. Dr. Tom will email a calendar invite to the parents/guardians who let him know of their interest in serving on the AMS SAC.

The AHS Booster Club is hosting a prize drawing for 5 Premier Parking Spots and Major Skier Swag at the final AHS football home game Friday, 10/31! Click this link for a chance at winning: https://sfnd.io/qry4z.

Lost & Found is already full with plenty of lost sweatshirts, jackets, lunch boxes, water bottles and more. We have moved it up in the front vesibule as you walk in the main AMS doors. If your child is missing an item please have them check Lost & Found.

Thank You to Chef Matt Zubrod and his staff at the Viceroy Hotel for the awesome Chili and toppings for our staff last Thursday during Parent Conferences.

Every week the AMS Lunchroom is looking for volunteers to support our staff by volunteering from 11:40am - 12:30pm on Mondays - Fridays. Please sign up for a volunteer shift HERE!

Add our AMS Family Calendar to your Google calendar and see important upcoming dates:

• Monday, October 20th - 24th ~ AMS Scholastic Book Fair

• Saturday, October 25th ~ 70th Annual Aspen Ski Swap 9:00am - 1:00pm - AMS

• Friday, October 31st ~ AMS Fun Run

• Tuesday, November 4th ~ 7th/8th Boys Basketball Game vs Riverside 4:30pm - 7th AMS Gym / 8th at Riverside

• Wednesday, November 5th ~ AMS Retake Picture Day

• Thursday, November 6th ~ 7th/8th Boys Basketball Game vs Rifle 4:30pm - 7th at Rifle / 8th AMS Gym

• Saturday, November 8th ~ Boys Basketball Rifle Tournament

Dear Parents,

School picture retakes are coming soon! Attached is a PDF flyer with all the details.

You can also order online at www.mymjthomas.com using our school’s event code: C440

Retakes are available for:

*Students who were absent on picture day

*New students

*Students who want a retake

Important: If your child wants a retake, they must bring back their original photo package to receive a replacement.

For any questions, please call MJ Thomas Photo at 1-800-219-0199.

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Estimados Padres,

¡Las repeticiones de las fotos escolares serán pronto! Se adjunta un folleto en PDF con todos los detalles.
También puede hacer su pedido en línea en www.mymjthomas.com usando el código del evento de nuestra escuela: C440

Las repeticiones están disponibles para:

*Estudiantes que estuvieron ausentes

*Nuevos estudiantes

*Estudiantes que desean una repetición

Importante: Si su hijo desea una repetición, debe traer su paquete de fotos original para recibir un reemplazo.

Para cualquier pregunta, por favor llame a MJ Thomas Photo al 1-800-219-0199