Welcome back, Chargers!

We’ve had a superb start to the 2024-2025 school year, beginning with our Handshake Ceremony on the Stadium Track Wednesday. What a wonderful tradition, seeing our entire learning community come together, face-to-face … offering smiles, fist bumps, and hugs to start the year. Afterwards, thanks to the generous support of our PTAA, everybody gathered in the Quad for popsicles and social time, catching up with one another and sharing stories of summer adventures. 

For those of you caught in our drop-off and pick-up lines Wednesday, even that has already seemed to settle into a smoother rhythm by this morning! A big thank you to everybody who navigates these daily school rituals, and an extra thanks for your grace and patience for your fellow drivers! Please continue to keep an eye out for our Chargers walking across parking lots and respect our security staff who are there to help keep things running smoothly.  

Keep an eye peeled in the CA Weekly as we publicize several opportunities for our Charger families to experience our special community this year, both socially as well as programmatically – as we are in a once-every-five-years Strategic Planning cycle. 

As many of you will know by now, the current Strategic Vision statement for Cary Academy is: 

Cary Academy will create personalized learning opportunities that are flexible and relevant in an environment that supports student wellbeing.  We will cultivate self-directed and bold life-long learners who make meaningful contributions to the world.

This vision statement has guided us to countless updates and improvements to our schedule and program over the last cycle, some of which we will highlight as we go through this school year. Launching into a new plan does invalidate those important goals, but hopefully guides us as we continue to move this school forward to the benefit of the current and next generation of Chargers. 

For those who like to pencil things in ahead of time, here are just a few big dates you might want to note. There will be reminders and more information coming throughout the fall. 

• Upper School Meet the Teacher Night on August 22.
• Middle School Meet the Teacher Night on September 5.
• Parent Dialogue sessions on September 11, sponsored by student leaders through the CCE. 
• All-School PTAA Parent Social, starting at 6:30pm on September 12 (adults only).
• Homecoming games (with super spirit and food trucks), the afternoon and evening of September 20. 
• All-School PTAA Parent Coffee the morning of September 30, where I will present the theme for the year and provide some strategic updates to the community (will be filmed for those who miss). 
• Strategic Planning “Think Tanks” on October 22. There will be a morning and early evening session for parents to join in the early brainstorming sessions for our next Strategic Plan. 
• Friday Night Lights on October 25, a not-to-be missed family fun fest on the Stadium Field. 
• Strategic Plan “Community Design Day” on Saturday, February 1, an all-day event for all members of our community to dive-deep into the shaping the emerging direction of the next Strategic Plan. 

I look forward to seeing many of you at these and other events this school year!