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Dear Community,
It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and lots of new ones as we attended the back to school nights recently.
As many of you heard us speak briefly about Innovation Academy and our annual fund program, the 100% Club, we wanted to reach out to those of you who we were unable to meet personally.
Briefly, our names are Janet Morris, Alex Knight and Jennifer McDonald. I, Janet, have 2 daughters attending IACS and am the President of the Community Association. I’m Alex Knight and my wife Kimberly is a reading specialist here at IACS. Ben our oldest is a junior at the high school, Eric a 6th grader and Megan is at Vining Elementary in Billerica. I am also a new member of the Board of Trustees this year. I, Jennifer, am a parent of two wonderful students at Innovation Academy. Our oldest, Kaylie, started at IACS in the fall of 2005 as an incoming fifth grader. She has just begun her freshman year here at the high school and Shae is now an incoming sixth grader. I am also honored to have served on the Board of Trustees for the past two years.
The IACS annual fund is called the 100% Club. An annual fund is a program set up by an organization to help in supporting it financially as it continues its great work. This Club at IACS, and your participation in it, are important for us as a community for many reasons. As you may or may not know, we are funded differently than traditional public schools. One major difference is that we are not provided a building by the state. So as we continue to grow and to offer a high school program for our middle schoolers, we need to find a new campus to house us all. We have found our forever home, but we have to pay for our own building and its maintenance.
In addition to helping us fund our wonderful home, the 100% Club will insure we are able to continue to offer our fantastic academic programs and attract outstanding teachers to IACS. As a wonderful, dedicated IACS parent said to me last year, “What is more important then education?” This is a place where critical thinking and the application of ideas and the ability to keep learning are imperative. Students at IACS learn to think outside of the classroom, connect their learning to the real world and then apply their academics to the world at large. We must make sure this continues.
Please consider making a donation to the 100% Club in whatever amount makes you and your family feel comfortable. Help continue these programs for our children and the children of the future. Please consider asking extended family; grandparents, aunts/uncles as well as your places of work. Many corporations having a matching program where for every dollar you donate they will then match it with a corporate dollar. Having 100% of our families donate helps in our fundraising to outside sources as well, like corporations and foundations. When outsiders see our families’ dedication to IACS, they are then more likely to consider helping to fund programs or support our school as well.
Join us, our immediate families and our extended families as we continue to support the 100% Club -- together we as a community can help to build students for the 21st century.
Our Best,
Janet Morris, Alex Knight and Jennifer McDonald |