Volunteers are an important part of school life at ACS and we are blessed each year to see the servant hearts of our parents, guardians, grandparents, and friends in the community who are willing to give of their time and talents to make the school day experience at ACS the best it can be. As this school year gets underway, we are in need of volunteers to help in a variety of areas, which are described below. Please consider how you can be involved in the ACS Family by serving as a volunteer.
- Lunchroom Volunteers — Volunteers are needed to serve lunch and help with light clean-up. Volunteers can choose to serve daily, once a week, or once a month. The serving time is from 10 am to 1 pm. We can accommodate anyone’s schedule. To sign up, please contact Services Coordinator Anne Block at ablock@acseht.org or call 609-653-1199, ext. 381.
- Race for Education Volunteers — We need volunteers to help with the Race for Education on Race Day on Friday, October 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. outdoors at the ACS track. The volunteer duties include being a Race lap counter, serving at the water and popcorn stations, and being a Race photographer. To sign up, please contact Race Coordinator PJ Santos at psantos@acseht.org or call 609-653-1199, ext. 302.
- Servant’s Heart Club — Volunteers are needed to assist with the after-school Servant’s Heart Club. The Club meets the first Tuesday of every month from 3:15-4:00 p.m. and the first meeting will be on Tuesday, October 6. The club is for students in grades 2-5 and is focused on doing creative, hands-on service projects aimed at blessing people in our school and local community. Past service activities that the club has conducted include: making snack bags and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, wrapping Christmas boxes for Operation Christmas Child, planting trees on the ACS campus and promoting recycling on Earth Day, and making salvation friendship bracelets to be gifted to children in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Club Advisor Mrs. Jennifer DiMaio at 609-432-2030.
Impact your children’s lives and ACS through prayer. Be a part of the ACS Parents in Prayer Group that will meet throughout the school year on Tuesday mornings from 8:45-10:00 a.m. in the Extended Care trailer. The first prayer meeting is Tuesday, September 29 and all parents and guardians are welcome to attend.
Parent-Teacher Conferences for parents with students in K to 12th grade will be on Wednesday, October 7 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. To schedule an in-person conference with a teacher, please use our on-line scheduling tool using the links listed below. Parents of any student on remote learning are welcome to sign up for a time and you will be sent a Zoom link for your meeting.
Parents and guardians are encouraged to participate in our upcoming Back-to-School Nights to be held online via Zoom rather than in-person this month, in keeping with our desire to protect the health and safety of our school families and staff. The Elementary Back-to-School Night will be on Thursday, September 17 for families with students in Kindergarten to the 5th grade, and the Upper School Back-to-School Night will be on Thursday, September 24 for families with students in grades 6-12.
Are you interested in getting involved as a volunteer at ACS? Come out for the first monthly meeting of the Parent-Teacher Fellowship on Thursday, September 17 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. to find out how and in what ways you can get involved. The PTF will continue to meet the third Thursday of each month throughout the school year.
The ACS 2020-2021 Spiritual Development Theme is “Stand Firm,” based on 1 Corinthians 16:13, which says — “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” Chapel speakers during the first week of school focused on this theme and posters were displayed throughout the school building to encourage students to stand firm on God’s promises. Staff T-shirts worn on the first day of school also displayed the new theme.
Middle School Soccer tryouts for the boys’ and girls’ teams, which began today, will continue through next Tuesday, September 15. Try-outs are held after school from 3:15-5:00 p.m. Please come prepared with cleats and shin guards. The MS Boys’ coach is Brandon Stevens and the MS Girls’ coach is Casey Hopwood.
ACS has added a new high school elective called “Missions and Ministries” and faculty member Dave Genter, who will be teaching the course, is looking for help from ACS families, friends, and local churches to build a networking list of missionaries that the students can study and support.
Family Orientation will be held on Wednesday, September 2 to give all ACS families an opportunity to visit their children’s classrooms, meet their teachers, and become better acquainted with changes in student arrival and departure procedures and new health and safety protocols. A new video describing the many new health and safety measures will also be showing throughout the Orientation event, which will run from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Our 2019-2020 Annual Report is hot off the presses and was mailed in late August to ACS families, employees, and community supporters. The Annual Report uses narrative, with pictures and data, to provide a snapshot of school life for our students from preschool to the 12th grade and highlights the year’s academic and financial progress.
Excitement was in the air as ACS welcomed parents and preschoolers to our Early Education Center Open House on April 28. The Open House gave parents and their young children the opportunity to get better acquainted and acclimated to our teachers and aides and to explore our classrooms before the Center opened on Monday, August 31 for the fall.
The ACS campus was buzzing with activity for seven weeks this summer as boys and girls from the 1st through 7th grades attended our popular, award-winning summer Cougar Camp program, which concluded on August 21. Cougar Camp Director and ACS faculty member Eric Tardif put together a fun-filled schedule of activities, including daily Bible lessons and worship time.
ACS recently received several donations of items focused on protecting the health and safety of our students and staff as we look forward to opening with in-person instruction on September 8. ACS received a donation of 50 colorful cotton masks for use by ACS students and generous supplies of Melaleuca cleaning and personal hygiene products for use in the school building and in the School Nurse’s office.
Staff, volunteers, and contractors were busy in August preparing the school campus to welcome students back to school for in-person classes and a new Remote-Only option. In late August, teachers and staff from Early Education through the 12th grade gathered for in-service training. We’re ready for an exciting year of growing and learning.
During In-Service, teachers and staff enjoyed a time of worship and devotions and then delved into work sessions on school policies and procedures, including those dealing with COVID-19.
Chief School Administrator introduced the school’s annual spiritual development theme — “Stand Firm” — based on I Corinthians 16:13. “We must be men and women of courage, constant in prayer, and trusting God that He is on our side and will work in and through us,” Oblen said.
Voting is now underway for nominees for the Best of Press 2020 Awards! Please nominate ACS today for a Best of the Press 2020 Award — in the “Best Summer Camp” and “Best Child Daycare Center” categories under “Services.” The Nomination Period ends September 2 at one minute before midnight. Only the TOP 5 NOMINEES will advance to the final round of voting.
Enrollment is underway for the 2020-2021 school year and ACS is looking forward to welcoming students from 6 months to the 12th grade on Tuesday, September 8 for a five-day-per-week, on-campus schedule. ACS is also offering a new “remote-only” option for students in grades 4-12 who prefer to learn at home.
“In the midst of this pandemic, the future may seem unsure, but you graduates do not need to fear what the unknown future holds as long as you put your faith and trust in the Lord,” said Chief School Administrator Karen Oblen, who welcomed the parents, faculty, staff, and friends to the ceremony that was also live-streamed on the ACS YouTube channel.
Commencement keynote speaker Pastor Matt Mouliert urged the graduates to surrender to God and seek His purpose for their lives. “You have been given this precious life from Almighty God — spend it wisely because you can only spend it once,” Mouliert said. “If you keep God at the center of your life, then you will succeed, your life will matter.” Mouliert is Senior Pastor of Crossroads Fellowship in Pleasantville, has taught Bible classes at ACS for 9 years, and his two sons, Jake (’16) and Luke (’18), are ACS alumni.
Valedictorian Ashleigh Martin, 17, of Mays Landing, said she and her classmates were very thankful to able to come together for an in-person Commencement. “This year has been an emotional roller coaster for us all, but in all this fear and despair, we have a God who carried us through,” Martin said. “We may not have had our missions trips, prom, and senior celebrations, but we learned to trust in what God would do. We learned to persevere and finish the year strong.” Martin is receiving a full academic scholarship to attend Anderson University in the fall where she will major in musical theater. She was also one of 15 seniors in southern New Jersey to receive recently chosen by the Press of Atlantic City
Salutatorian Josephine D’Anna, 18, of Northfield, said one of the important lessons she has learned over the past four years of high school was to develop an attitude of humility by making God first in everything you do. “I encourage you, Class of 2020, as we go on to college, work, and into the world to look at every situation with humility and to realize that God’s work is more important than striving for success. Instead, always strive to do you best for Him.” D’Anna will be attending Thomas Jefferson University in the fall, where she will major in nursing. She received the Comcast Achievers Scholarship, the Sons of Italy Scholarship, the Special Forces Association scholarship, and a scholarship from the Northfield Mother’s League.
The 2020-2021 school year will mark the 50th anniversary of Atlantic Christian School, which first opened its doors in September 1971, and a 50th Anniversary Committee is forming to develop ways to celebrate this important milestone in our school’s history.
