Happy 2012! Welcome to the American River Charter website, If this is your first visit, take a look around to find out about our two programs, a K-8 site- based and a K-12 Home School program. Check out how and when to enroll for 2012-13.

If you are part of our charter family, let me encourage you to read on and take some time in this New Year to think about why you chose American River Charter School. Our school was conceived by the thoughts and dreams of parents and educators in this community. Parental involvement is the backbone of most successful schools. Research shows that children have better attendance, are more successful academically and are emotionally more stable when their parents are more closely connected to their school life. Parents who attend school functions, who volunteer in the classroom, who drive or participate on field trips are parents who know their child’s friends, communicate often with their child’s teachers and are involved in their child’s lives. Charter schools usually have more participation and involvement by parents because they have more say or more of a voice in the management of the school. We are so lucky to have so many involved parents at American River Charter. Some days we have 4-6 parents on our Garden Valley site working in classrooms or helping in the office. However, other days, or in the older student’s classes, a week might pass and no parents are here to help.

Another positive characteristic of a family’s involvement in their children’s school is the improved relationship between the parents and the child. Parents can often see their child’s learning styles and the teacher’s curriculum expectations which help them better understand their child’s challenges or successes. So now you might ask why is she ranting on and on about this. Well, at the American River Charter, we as staff are only here, because you as families are here.

“Our mission at American River Charter School is to provide a rigorous, challenging, and adventurous education. Our varied programs, responsive to student and family needs, will be interesting and complex. Satisfying, high-quality student performance will be the result of powerful instruction and diligent, persistent student effort. The atmosphere will be joyful, trusting and respectful. Students will become skillful, curious, life-long learners, creative problem solvers and caring global citizens.”

As for our Home School families, we need your help and you need each other’s help. Please remember we are one school, with one mission statement. We have some homeschool parents with many creative talents and business skills who could share those talents and skills with other homeschool families. We know you like to get together for social and academic encouragement. Many of our homeschool families are professional teachers who have 10-20 years of homeschool experience. And we have other families who are just getting their feet wet and trying homeschooling for the first time. Parental involvement in your child’s homeschool program might look a bit different for homeschool families, but it accomplishes the same goals. Children have different learning styles and can learn different things from different adults. This is why co-ops are so popular. We can build a stronger base for the American River Charter School if we give and share our strengths with other families, learning and growing together. We hope to have more Garden Valley School and Home School events and opportunities for the children in 2012.

To accomplish these goals successfully we need every parent, grandparent and caregiver of every child in the school to be involved, not just caring about your own child, but in every child in our community. We need staff that are willing to give their time and energy beyond the 7.5 hours per day(most of our staff works 9-10 hours a day). We need students who are willing to help their peers and become responsible caring citizens in our school community. We need parents to step up in whatever way they can, as a mentor, as a tutor, as a listener, as that extra pair of eyes on the playground or at the park. Parents can organize field trips, celebrations and fundraisers to help create “the atmosphere that will be joyful, trusting, and respectful”. It’s been said before and I’ll say it again,“It takes a village!!” Thanks for all the parent volunteers for their time and commitment in so many ways in 2011.

Looking forward to a joyful, exciting and involved New Year!

With love to all, Susan