May 2016 Newsletter

We have an exciting month as we close out this school year! Please save these dates:

Thursday May 5: Lacrosse Game

Our lacrosse club will play against St. Raphael at 4:15.  Our team is coming together well with novice and advanced players.  They played their first game on April 27 against an experienced St. David's team, which also has 3 times the number of players as our team has, and we lost 12-1.  

Thursday May 5:  Debate Tournament
Our UNDEFEATED debate team is holding a tournament with Prestonwood Christian Academy in Texas using the telepresence system at Cisco in RTP.  Our teams are Zachary Wald with David Anderson and Jordan Chaulk with Jon Anderson.  Their resolution is "Resolved: In the United States, students should be guaranteed two years of free tuition to a community or technical college."  

Friday May 6: Arts of the Swordsmen

Doors open at 6:30 with a full coffee bar, chocolate fountain, and other goodies await you. Performances start at 7:00.  Tickets are $5 with a $20 per family maximum.  IA students, Playbill sponsors, and prospective families have free admission.  Don't miss this exciting event - please invite your friends and relatives to share this fun evening!  

There is a SignUpGenius that is requesting some items for AOTS.  Please visit this SignUp to see if anything else is needed.     

Saturday May 7 to Wednesday May 18:  Online Book Fair
As we are a school that promotes a culture of reading with our young men, we are partnering with ChildrensBookstore.com to hold an online book fair!  For books that are purchased between May 7 and May 18 from our IA website with Childrensbookstore, our school will receive a donation of 30% of the purchase price!  ChildrensBookstore has over 200,000 titles from babies to young adult, fiction and nonfiction, and many genres, as shown by this list of categories.  The code to use when checking out to be sure that we receive credit for the purchase is IRON.  We'll email a link to everyone on Saturday morning and ask that you share this link with as many others as possible to purchase their summer reading materials.  We will use the proceeds from the book fair to purchase library books and classroom materials as well as award prizes for our Iron Summer Reading Challenge - more details about this student challenge will come at the end of May.       

Tuesday May 10 and Tuesday May 17:  TerraNova Standardized Testing
IA uses TerraNova, a nationally normed standardized test, to assess our students.  You can find more information about TerraNova's tests here.  For students on which we have two years of data, we saw an average increase of 6 percentile points in their scores in the second year.  For a previously "average" student, that would translate to an SAT score of 40 points higher on reading and math after one year.  Should we continue with even modest annual gains from this trend throughout their IA years, the Targeted Learning of the IA curriculum should result in improvements of about 160 SAT points in math and reading.  Please be sure that your son is well-fed and well-rested on these two days and encourage him to give his maximum performance on these test days. 

Tuesday May 10:  Family Information Session for Prospective Students
Please invite interested families to come to our final Information Session for the school year at 6:30 pm.  We are gaining several high quality applicants and some grades are full or nearly full.  The grade with the most open spots is next year's 6th grade.  Remember that we have a referral program in which Iron families of currently enrolled students can earn a $500 tuition credit per referred student who enrolls.  A generous donor has also made some scholarships available specifically for newly enrolled students if you know of young men who would be a great fit for the IA experience.  

Tuesday May 10:  Kamado Grille Spirit Night
Thank you to everyone who has been enjoying the wonderful food of Kamado Grille!  IA receives a 10% donation of ALL meals purchased between 5:30 and 8:30. 

Wednesday May 11: Father's Breakfast
Iron dads and guests are invited to hear Dr. Archie Bost, founder and executive director of CrossLife Ministries, speak on the topics of biblical manhood, including marriage and parenting.  Dr. Bost has over 20 years of experience in counseling and discipling individuals and families.  Our fathers find this time to be of great encouragement as they share experiences and lean on scripture to be the men that God intends for them to be.  Feel free to bring a friend, relative or coworker!     

Friday May 13: Revised due date: Friday May 20 Blade Maintenance Plan Biblical Manhood Video Due
The faculty are excited to see the creativity of the videos that the students are submitting for their Blade Maintenance Plans.  The videos are to be 3 to 5 minutes and explain the specifics of the student's growth as a disciple of Christ and as a gentleman scholar.  Students will meet with tribes to discuss the video requirements.  To submit the video, you can upload it directly from your phone's camera roll to YouTube (sign into your YouTube account) and choose the setting of UNLISTED so that the video can be shared by emailing the link to it but will not be visible to the public on YouTube.  Alternatively you can submit the video on a flash drive. The links to the videos or flash drives are to be emailed/given to Mr. Meredith at smeredith@ironacademy.org.  There is a tab above for information about the Blade Plans.     

Tuesday May 17:  Teacher/Staff Appreciation Day
To thank our teachers and staff who are also such dedicated mentors to our sons, we will celebrate them with a Teacher/Staff Appreciation Luncheon!  A SignUpGenius will go out next week for food items to bring in on the 17th and we will gladly accept monetary gifts to buy gift cards.  Many thanks to parents Nancy Hector and Paula Brewington for organizing this event.

Thursday May 19:  IPF General Meeting for Parents
Please plan to attend this important meeting at 6:30 in an IA classroom in which we will:

• Have an update on the IPF budget
• Briefly discuss plans for next year's IPF activities
• Elect a slate of officers for 2016-2017:  Anne York (Chair); Morgan Wood (Vice Chair of Fundraising); Lisa Wald and Wendy Collier (Co-Vice Chairs of Family and Social Activities); Heather Mauzy (Treasurer); Denise Lake (Secretary)
• Hear updates from Mr. Hahn on the new student leadership initiative and plans to expand it next year; bus transportation plan; honors courses and implementation of innovation curriculum; administrative structure; accreditation update; and all current faculty are returning next year and we will learn about the additional new faculty

Every Friday Morning:  Parent Prayer Meeting

Please come whenever you are available to the Parent Prayer Meeting at 7:50 am.  It is a refreshing time of praise and talking to God about the needs of our students, families, faculty, and school.  God does answer prayer!  A very hearty thanks goes to Natalie Taylor and Paula Brewington for their dedicated service to seeking out our young men each week to pray for their specific needs and sending each one a card to let him know he was prayed over.  

Friday May 27:  Lunch Cookout, Field Day, and Classroom Cleanup

Last day of school!  Please do remember to bring in any IA materials, textbooks, and library books that your son has at home by the last school day.  We'll celebrate with a family cookout for lunch, field day fun for the students, and take some time to clean up our classrooms before they close down for the summer.  A SignUpGenius will go out near the end of May for contributions.    

2016-2017 School Year Update 
August 8-12:  9th grade Forging Camp at Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School
August 15-18: Crucible Camp at Camp Rockmont for all new students and returning students who came to IA after the start of the school year (students only go to Crucible Camp one time unless invited to return as a Squire or Leader)  
Monday August 22: First Day of Classes

Reminders: Yearbook and BoxTops
Remember to view the tab above for "Yearbook" to find out how to place your yearbook order.  We will also collect BoxTops through the end of May so we can send in a batch before any of them potentially expire.  Our next BoxTops collection will be in October.