From the Director

Dear Members of the AISL Community,
 
I hope that you are all faring well in these unprecedented times.
 
Across the last week, our teachers and principals have gone to great lengths to refine the details of our distance learning program to meet the varied needs of our community. Given our diverse community, you might be amazed at how many different perspectives we are trying to balance. Having said that, we are happy for the challenge since we firmly believe that our strength is in our diversity. You can learn more about our latest program refinements later in this newsletter.
 
Believe it or not, we are already busily planning for our next academic year. Although we do not yet know what the next few months will hold for us in terms of our campus closure, we are moving forward with plans to open school on campus in August. Planning for next year is difficult due to the uncertain situation. In order to plan and budget, we need a clear idea of how many students will be enrolled in August. Across the next week, Natasha or Chulu from Admissions will be contacting you to ask about your plans for the next academic year. We know that many people may still be uncertain, which is understandable, but we would love to have an indication of your plans.
 
I would also like to ask you a favor. If you have friends who are looking for a great school for their children, would you please refer them to us? As part of our new Refer-A-Friend Discount Program, you may be eligible for a tuition discount if your friends then enroll their children at AISL. You can learn more about this initiative later in this newsletter. We are so grateful for all of the word-of-mouth recommendations our community offers. This program is our way of saying “thank you.”
 
As you know, we want to offer as much enrichment to our students as possible. You will have noticed in recent Leopard’s Tales that we are re-starting library book borrowing, are releasing weekly training videos from our ASA coaches, and hosted a Middle School Virtual Coffee House via Flipgrid. A High School Virtual Coffee House will be announced shortly. We are also carrying on with our plans to hold our 9th Annual AISL-PTA Poetry and Short Story Competition. Language & Literature teacher Michael Ryan has shared the details with our middle and high school students. Feel free to contact him (mryan@aislusaka.org) you have any questions. We always enjoy reviewing dozens of excellent submissions from our secondary school students. We hope that this year will be no different.  
 
Finally, I just want to say thank you for your support. I am very aware of how challenging it is for families to juggle job responsibilities, distance learning, and all the uncertainties and logistical challenges of our COVID-19 world – I am working hard at all of it myself. Please know that we are eager to do as much as we can to support you. Please keep open lines of communication with our teachers, counselors, principals, and me. We want to help! We are all in this together!
 
Stay healthy and safe,
 
Russ
(rmenard@aislusaka.org)