Anderson Preparatory Academy

🍫 Chocolate Sale! 🍫 The secondary band classes are selling chocolate bars! The bars are World's Famous Chocolate (yes those!!) and selling fast! They've increased in size and are now $2 but worth every penny of deliciousness. Find a band member today to support our band programming! #PrepareToLaunch #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Congratulations to APA Jets Cross Country team!! We had 4 make All-County and the boys came in 3rd over all!! Congratulations to Coach Stephenson and his team!! Go Jets!! #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

This week in CAP classes, we are working on building trust with our wingman to aim for excellence, stay safe, and have fun. Put simply, the Cadet Wingman Course is a carefully designed learning experience that takes brand new cadets and equips them with some fundamental information and skills concerning the imperative to stay safe so they can achieve their goals and “accomplish the mission.” #PrepareToLaunch #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Thank you so much to our seniors and families for supporting APA Athletics and APA Soccer! We honored thirteen seniors tonight for their participation in this year's season. You are what makes APA's dreams take flight. #PrepareToLaunch #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

We had a great decades day today! See you tomorrow for pajama day! Happy homecoming! #MakeayourDreamsTakeFlight

Come and help the Junior class fundraise for this year's prom by coming out to Promfire! It is $10.00 per person at the gate for admissions. All high school cadets (in-person and virtual) are welcome to attend. Outside guest are welcome, but must have a permission slip filled out ahead of time, which can be acquired at our front office. All attendees must be in school appropriate attire. No outside food or beverage is allowed, since there will be food and drinks included with the price of admissions. We hope to see you there by the campfire! For any questions please contact Lt. Och at aoch@goapa.org #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

K-5 APA ON-LINE cadets enjoy time to work and create together in-person with our giant Lego collection during a break in NWEA testing. Thanks Capt. Hayden for helping facilitate this! APA Online can be done anywhere, at any time. We're so grateful to provide this option for schooling if a traditional 7:50-3:05 school day doesn't work for your family. Questions about APA Online? Email Capt. Morrison at zmorrison@goapa.org. #PrepareToLaunch #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Congratulations to Capt. Stottlemyer and Lt. Barker for participating in the 2024 Community Chefs fundraising event. Big shout out to Youth Leadership Academy and junior, Clara Fulton, for helping out tonight. #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

A Message from Commandant Barker: 9/18/2024 Dear APA Family, I am writing to you today to update you on two situations that were reported to us late last evening (Report #1) and this morning during arrival (Report #2). Both relate to 29th St. In collaboration with our internal critical response team, we have been working with APD as well as other local schools to investigate statements made. We are all very thankful that the reports received today were not credible threats to APA and for the support that has been provided by our local law enforcement agencies. We will remain vigilant to ensure that our school environment can remain safe and secure, and we appreciate your help in continuing to report any concerns you may have. In the interest of transparency and making sure our families have all of the information they can, I have broken the two reports down below as well as the actions that were taken in order to investigate and ensure all cadets and staff members were safe. I have also included ways that you can help us continue to provide a safe environment for our entire APA family. Scenario #1 It was reported to us late last night that a cadet had overheard or been told that another cadet’s significant other was talking about bringing a weapon to school. This actually stemmed from a report on Monday, and no credible threat was identified at that time. Appropriate disciplinary protocols were followed, and the behaviors were addressed. Cadets involved in the discussion immediately alerted a staff member on Monday. This was investigated by our safety and discipline teams and immediate action was taken on Monday. The context of this conversation and perspective of cadets involved was presented as “joking” or “not what we really” meant. These attitudes and reactions to situations like this are something that schools across the country are facing, and it is extremely disheartening to know how numb or apathetic people are becoming to such troubling statements. As a school leader, this is one of my biggest fears that school safety, comments of this nature, and other similar actions will turn into the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” and that people will be lulled into a false sense of security or apathy. This CANNOT happen, and APA remains extremely vigilant and dedicated to taking anything of this nature seriously. Our critical response team has been on high alert and additional safety protocols were put in place to ensure that we can maintain a safe environment for all cadets and staff. APD has been involved in these actions, and we are confident to the extent possible that this was not a credible threat to our school. Given all of the situations that schools throughout our state and country are facing, we will continue to maintain this heightened high alert status until further notice. Scenario #2 We received a phone call during our arrival time period from a concerned family regarding information that was shared by a student that attends another local school regarding a possibility of a safety threat at APA. The student was concerned about our cadet’s safety and wanted the family to be aware of a potential threat. Due to already being under heightened safety protocols, we were able to quickly collaborate with APD as well as the other student’s school to evaluate the information provided and investigate. At this time, it has been determined that there is no credible threat to APA and that this information is related to a string of reports occurring at another school district that is currently being investigated by law enforcement. We will continue to monitor this situation and work with all agencies and schools involved to collaborate and ensure that all necessary supports and safety measures are in place. Supports Needed While there is no perfect plan or playbook in place to combat all issues that our cadets are facing, the best approach to help them and help maintain a safe environment at our schools is for all of us to work together to help them navigate these big challenges and understand the severity of these situations. Please help re-enforce the impact that word choice has on all of those around them. Specifically, joking about things like suicide, violence, school shootings, etc. is NOT okay or something that should be taken lightly. We have to take their words at face value because we cannot afford to brush it off or just say, “That’s just kids being kids.” Recognize that when a cadet is using humor to discuss pretty heavy topics like school violence, this is their way of processing some pretty big emotions. Talk to them about how they’re feeling with everything going on and being talked about on social media, in the news, etc. If you don’t feel equipped to navigate that conversation, that is absolutely ok! We have resources available to help our cadets and families work through this together. Please reach out to us, and we can help work through this. Please watch for changes in your cadet’s behavior, habits, preferences (like music, movies, etc.), and friend groups. If you notice concerning changes, please discuss this with your cadet and/or contact us so that we can help with that conversation. We all know that our cadets are trying to figure out who they are in this world and will go through different versions of that as they become more certain on who they actually are, what they believe, etc. We can help support your family and these conversations and also help identify any patterns or changes that may be areas of concern that should be referred to mental health services. If your cadet reports a concern to you about something that happened at school, they heard at school, saw on social media, etc., please contact us ASAP. No matter how small it may seem, it could be an indicator of something else that’s going on. We do take this information very seriously and work with multiple agencies as well as our internal critical response team to assess, track patterns, and proactively identify concerning behavior in order to mitigate risks. We are very thankful for our APA family and the responsiveness of APD and our own critical response team as we all work together to continue to keep our APA family safe. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to us so that we can do our best to support you and your cadet. Sincerely, Jill M. Barker, Superintendent

Yesterday was Constitution Day! Cadets in Lt. Schaaf's US History class pretended they were Hoosiers when Indiana was the 14th colony and they were the representatives that signed the Constitution. They all signed their names to the "constitution." #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Mr. Moore's Honors World History class demonstrated their knowledge of ancient Egypt by mummifying the dead, creating a sarcophagus out of clay, and helping to escort them through the Egyptian afterlife. Anybody that wasn't prepared for their journey would be eaten (or at least the cookie representation of them would be). #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

The cadets in Lt. Moore's Honors World History class are working on ancient Greece! They wore togas while eating Greek food to celebrate the making of their own vases with paintings of ancient Greek mythology. #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

We are so happy to feature kindergartener, Torin Arnold, on one of our Fall 2024 billboards. How special that he and his family stopped by tonight to snap a photo! The billboard is right, on average with less than 20 cadets in a class, our students are able to receive individualized attention and build meaningful connections with their teachers and peers. We can't wait to see how Torin makes his dreams take flight here at APA. #PrepareToLaunch #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Hey Jet Nation! There is still time to help your APA Cheerleaders to reach their goal. We are trying to buy new uniforms this season. Also, we want to use funds to be able to do a few more competitions. If you’re unable to donate that’s okay. Please share to your family and friends. Always remember…GO JETS! 💙 https://raise.snap.app/donate/anderson-prep-academy-cheer-2024 #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Anderson Preparatory Academy is hosting a blood drive on Monday, September 23rd. Please consider stopping by from 8:30-2:30 in the small gym to help save a life. Cadets can donate as young as 16 with parent/guardian consent! We will offer two hours of community service per donation for cadets and/or an adult donation in their name. Sign up to donate here: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=andprep #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Join The Artificers Chapter of the Widows Sons in a charity ride that will donate proceeds back to APA on October 19th. The ride will directly benefit APA's 7th and 8th graders as they are in the final stages of prepping for their trip to Walt Disney World and Disney's Imagination Campus. Please reach out to ltinkel@goapa.org with questions. #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Congrats to APA Soccer on a big 1-0 win over Liberty last night! #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Congratulations to our Cross Country teams! We are the Boys CC City Champions and Boy and Girl MS Champion Individuals; Emilee Highsmith and Taj Smith! #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight

Tonight's entrance for the Pre-Academy Volleyball match against Daleville will be the small gym entrance/ S5 door by the big garage door due to a change in construction schedule. This is on the west side of the back our 29th St school. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Homecoming 2024 is coming! We will celebrate September 23-28 with plenty of activities during the school day and after! #PrepareToLaunch #MakeYourDreamsTakeFlight