End of Year Newsletter 2025-26

Dear AAECS Families,

I want to share with you some reflections of 2025-26, our 10th year of operation!

We kicked off the school year by bringing all first, second, third, fourth and fifth grade students to the Allentown Art Museum to view their exhibits, but in particular, their Tiffany Windows collection. Afterward, with art teachers Miss Groff and Miss Nehmeh, each student created their own version of stained glass art. In January, at a special evening event, we hosted our own Art Exhibition of these works, where students in grades 1-5 then spoke to guests, reflecting how the art and this project impacted them. This was a very unique and first-ever moment both for us and the museum, and we are very proud!

Later that same month, we ran our first ever Trunk or Treat and it was a huge success. We plan to bring it back this year even bigger so more can participate!

In November, we celebrated 173 K-5 Math Masters (Falling into Math) who memorized their basic math facts, and in April, we celebrated 236 Math Masters (Math Madness)! Our goal is 100% of students next year!

We had record attendance at our family events, such as our Math & Reading Glow Night with a line around the building the whole evening! We had tremendous involvement for our Spring Spotlight & Art Fair, and a full audience at Miller Symphony Hall for our 4th and 5th Grade Spring Musical production of Little Mermaid, Jr. We ended the year with a fantastic Field Day in spite of record heat, thanks to our staff, Coach Cal 🤣 and many parent chaperones!

We are still calculating the final numbers, but we did see an increase in attendance overall for our students. Attendance is crucial to student learning and we thank you so much for your efforts. We plan to continue incentives to celebrate and motivate our students to attend every day.

We successfully completed PSSA testing completely online, along with the entire state of PA, and our students put forth sincere effort.

We couldn't do any of this without you!

As you know, we are pursuing a new K-8 charter school in Bethlehem, Pa, the Community Charter School of the Arts. We have participated in 2 hearings and look forward to a vote by Bethlehem Area School District at their August board meeting.

We will offer Zoom meetings throughout the summer for any who are interested in learning more or keeping current with our progress. Please keep an eye out for emails and Class Dojo posts for meeting dates and times. One thing we currently need is documented support for our new school, especially from Bethlehem residents. Please fill out our survey and share the link to others you know!

I want to thank all of you for a wonderful 2025-26 school year. Have a wonderful summer and we'll see you August 25th!

Sincerely,

Mrs. McCollum, Principal

As you know, we have applied to Bethlehem Area School District to propose a new, K-8 charter school follow our same arts integration model, with an expansion of community arts opportunities, titled Community Charter School of the Arts, to open in the 2027-28 school year.

The Bethlehem location has many benefits, including:

• allows for the continuation of our arts-integration model to the middle school grades
• a larger facility with windows and more learning and arts classrooms
• more space to accept all families currently on our waitlist
• a beautiful property with mature trees, a walking path and plenty of parking
• property with plans to construct a gymnasium, auditorium and Community Art Center to host resident artists, community activities and events
• transportation for all of our families.

⏰ Please note we have a new start time of 8:15 am. Classes begin at 8:30 am.

🧑🏽‍🏫 Around the 2nd week of August, we will send a message notifying you that your child's classroom/teacher assignment is posted in Jupiter.

🚌 Bus assignments typically come out around that same time. In most cases, you will receive the information directly from your resident district. Typically, Allentown School District will send us the route and times and we will communicate it to you.

🏫 We will send information out in the next couple of weeks regarding our Before and After School Program.

🍏 All families will need to update School Dismissal Manager for the 2026-27 school year. The system usually rolls over in August. Instructions to do this will be included in my August update.