The end of the school year is always a special moment of recognition, the culmination of weeks of hard work, the actualization of goals attained, and the acknowledgment of successes achieved. I personally congratulate everyone for enduring the flight path that we shared together this school year.
I began this school year as your new principal. I’m honored to work with the TMSA community, not only as your principal but as a long-standing TMSA parent having two children matriculate through the halls of our school.
We have encountered some turbulence this school year, but we pressed forward, pivoted when necessary and forged ahead with more resiliency. We have experienced exceptional moments, magical moments and created memories that will be fondly remembered in the years ahead.
Allow me to address the obstacles first:
- Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, TMSA students gained instruction virtually/hybrid for nearly 1.5 years. We were pleased for all TMSA scholars to return back to campus for full face-to-face instruction this past January. TMSA’s administrators and clinicians did our best to ensure the health and wellness of our student body, such as implementing classroom virtual instruction when positive outbreaks occurred. Our goal was to reduce the percentage of learning loss in core areas.
- Last fall, TMSA experienced a waterflood that damaged several areas throughout our school. During this timeframe, mold was discovered in certain areas of the school and treated. This happening largely impacted our fourth graders who were temporarily relocated offsite for face-to-face instruction during the extended repair period.
But through these obstacles, as well as several others in the normal, daily operation of a school, we also experienced many exceptional moments:
- Implementing WriteScore, a writing diagnostic assessment, twice this year to ascertain our scholars’ writing skills.
- Administering iReady, a diagnostic assessment, three times this year which allowed teachers to develop more intentional lessons targeting students’ specific needs.
- Deploying three academic competitions for scholars to complete. The competitions included a Spelling Bee, a Writing Competition, and a Math Competition. The competitions also help TMSA’s pursuit of becoming a STEM-certified school.
- As we disaggregate our end of year data, we hope to reach our school’s academic goals including advancing students two grade levels from where they began at the beginning of the year
- While all afterschool enrichment programs did not return this school year. Students participated in extracurriculars including cheerleading, flag football, volleyball, basketball, drumline, and band (afterschool) afterschool activities. TMSA’s drumline participated in the City of College Park holiday program. Both the middle school girls’ and boys’ volleyball teams had an undefeated season. The TMSA JETS 6U flag football team is the 2021 East Point Flag Football Division Champions. And the middle school boys’ basketball team is the Premier Sportz Group Middle School Division Champions!
- Schoolwide Project-Based Learning (PBL), led by Dr. Adrienne Walton of Bridge to Student Success, was instituted at TMSA. Dr. Walton trained the entire teaching and support staff yearlong and assisted in the development of the projects that every student at every grade level participated in. This initiative will also help TMSA’s path to becoming a STEM certified school
- Finally, TMSA development of 10,000 square feet of additional learning space was completed this spring. This fall TMSA scholars will take STEAM classes in the new educational space. This initiative will propel TMSA further inside project-based learning and design thinking, thus creating world-class learning opportunities for our scholars. We are especially thankful to our Executive Director, Virginia Smith, for her leadership in overseeing this project for our school community.
I would also like to thank TMSA’s leadership team, faculty members, administrative office personnel, cafeteria workers, and maintenance staff for making this a successful school year!
In spite of the challenges, the TMSA community faced this school year. We grew and learned together as a school collective school community. I am immensely proud of our scholars’ success! I look forward to continuing our journey to foster world-class TMSA scholars.
Lastly, congratulations to TMSA’s Class of 2022! Always remember, that your TMSA community is always here for you.
Who leads the way? TMSA!
Sincerely,
Mr. Ishmael Abdul-Salaam
Principal
The Main Street Academy