Weekly Update from the Secondary School

Dear parents, 

Around the world, one of the most concerning developments in recent years is the erosion of democratic institutions. As a school, our mission, that “AISL is a compassionate community of innovative and courageous learners preparing for the challenges of the future” means that we also have to prepare students to understand the importance of democratic institutions. To this end, I am extremely proud of our Secondary students this past week as we went through a new structure for selecting the officers for our High School and Middle School Student Councils. 

We went through a process by which individuals were nominated for positions by their peers, then a first round of voting provided us with two candidates per position, and finally the candidates were given one week to do some “old school” campaigning. By this I mean, posters and conversations. We capped off the process with an event Wednesday where the candidates for all the contested races were allowed a chance to make a 2-3 minute speech. If you would like to see these speeches, please navigate HERE. As I mentioned in the assembly, I think that all the candidates were fantastic kids, and that any way the vote came down, there was no “wrong” selection. 

After all of that, the student body voted for their representatives. And by the end of the day, we had our officers. I am pleased to announce the Student Council officers for 2021-2022. 
 
HS President: 
Bernice Sheenan
 
HS Vice President:
Joy Hamwajala
 
HS Treasurer:
Christopher Kalenga
 
MS President:
Leopold Fleury de Roffignac
 
MS Vice President:
Anay Mathur
 
MS Treasurer:
Eleanor Missbach

These student leaders will serve as the representatives of their classmates to the administration, as well as having responsibilities for developing and executing student events, and student initiatives. I have no doubt that they will serve their constituents well and comport themselves honorably. 

A few logistical items:
 
 

1. Campus is still restricted. If you need to come to campus during school hours, please contact whomever you are meeting so that they can let the guards know to allow you in with a visitor’s badge. 
   
2. Please do not drop off lunch at the gate. It pulls the guards away from their duty to manage student lunches. 
   
3. If your child needs to move from Path 1 to Path 3, and it is not simply a temporary sick day or the like, that information needs to come from a parent. If you wish for your child to change learning paths, please send that request to attendance@aislusaka.org. After we receive a parent request, the Leadership Team will review each case and communicate with parents and their children. 
   
4. In a related note, excused absences: If your child needs to miss school for any reason, please notify us at attendance@aislusaka.org , as well as all your child’s teachers. Also, please let us know the reason for the absence. This way we can identify the absence as excused. Examples of excused absences include (but are not necessarily limited to): personal illness, family emergencies or religious observances.  
   
5. In another related note: remember that Path 3 is available for students who are in special circumstances which preclude them from joining us on campus. Path 3 is NOT available to students to facilitate a vacation/trip during school days. 
   

 
For further clarification please refer to the attendance policy in the Secondary Handbook. 
 
 
Thanks to you all. AISL wouldn’t be the same without you. Have a great weekend!
Dr. Rick Odum​