8th to 9th Transition

Information is beginning to come in regarding the registration process for the 2024/2025 school year. Below, you will find information about this year's transition process. All 8th graders have two potential options for next year. Almost all students will continue on to Albemarle High School for 9th grade. The one school in the county that is open to rising 9th grade is the Community Lab School. Below, you will find dates for both schools.

AHS Registration Dates to be aware of:

December 1st, 2023: Lab School lottery opens
December 5th, 2023: Portal opens for student course registration
December 5th, 2023 from 6 - 7 PM: Family meeting for 8th grade transition
December 6th and 7th: Classroom lessons with 8th grade on the transition process.
December 14th, 2023: Curriculum showcase at AHS from 6 - 7 PM
January 2nd, 2024: ParentPortal Registration closes for AHS.
January 4th to February 24th: Individual family meetings at LMS to discuss 9th grade classes/transition to high school.
January 26th, 2024: AVID application due
January 26th, 2024: Deadline for Lab School Lottery
February 26th - March 8th, 2024: 8th grade teachers review student course selections and enter comments on ParentPortal.
Late March: Summer School registration usually begins (applies to those interested in Summer health and PE).
March 29th, 2024: Last day for class changes.

Community Lab School Dates and Lottery Information:

For those students interested in attending CLS next year, the school admission process is based on interest as well as a lottery system. There are three informational session being held throughout the Winter months. To register for a session, you must fill out this interest form.

CLS Information 2023/2024 Session Dates:

November: Thursday, November 16: 5:30 - 6:30 PM
December: Tuesday, December 12: 2:00 - 3:00 PM
January: Wednesday, January 17: 9:45 - 10:45 AM

Lottery Information:

The Community Lab School is small, and thus can only take a handful of students each year. Their system of enrollment is based on both interest and a lottery. If your child is interested in attending CLS, you should fill out the lottery interest form located here. The admission deadline is January 26th, 2024. Students should receive a lottery update on enrollment by February 2nd, 2024.

AHS Summer School Information: Not yet updated

Information for this school year has not yet been posted, so here is the information from LAST year: Albemarle High School will be offering the below classes virtually for first time credit (not for repeating the course):

Health 9 - .5 credit
PE 9- .5 credit
Personal Finance- 1 credit

The cost of summer school last year was $100 per 1 credit or $50 per half credit. Students are only eligible to take up to one full credit over summer school. All fees collected will be non-refundable, so please make sure your student can commit to the full 6 weeks before registering them. Students cannot take 2 PE classes. All initial credit courses that are offered over the summer are virtual and will run for 6 weeks.

Helpful Documents:

Program of Studies
Student Presentation Slides
AHS 9th grade elective choices
AHS Slides from Family Meeting
Choosing your 9th grade classes worksheet
4-Year Planning Document
How to Register for Courses on ParentPortal
AHS AVID Information

Parent Portal Access:

Parent Portal will open for students and parents on December 4th, 2023 and will remain open until January 2nd, 2024. Students and families will have one month to register for all classes. All students will select their courses, as well as alternative electives, at this time.

How to Register for Courses on ParentPortal

Starting in January, counselors will meet with all 8th grade students and families to review the courses selected for AHS and answer questions about high school. A sign-up genius will be sent out for meeting dates.

Courses will be finalized in February. Students will not be able to make changes to their course requests for 9th grade after the end of March. At the end of the year, any questions regarding 9th grade courses should be directed to the AHS Counseling Office.

Selecting Classes:

9th graders at all high schools will take 7 classes. Freshman Seminar is a required course and will be auto-populated by the high school. Students will select six classes for their freshman year: English, Math, History, Science, Health and PE I, and an elective or World Language.

Because students may have at most two electives, we ask that students select a few alternates on ParentPortal during the registration window. Many freshmen do not receive their first choice electives, so it is important to review the Program of Studies to select a few back-up choices.

To learn more about classes, please look at The Program Of Studies.

Family/Student/Counselor Meetings:
We all know this is overwhelming, so we invite all of our families in for individual meetings to sit down and talk about 9th grade and answer questions. These 30 minute meetings will be offered throughout January and February. We do this through Sign-up Genius (found below). We do need students at the meeting, so if you sign up to come for a meeting, make sure your child is in school that day. Because there are so many 8th graders and we only have six weeks, all three counselors will host meetings.

Denial of Credit Letters: At the end of the current school year, any student who took a high school credit class will receive a Denial of Credit letter. These letters will list all high school credits received in middle school (Spanish I, Algebra I, and/or Geometry) and the grades received for each class. Before entering high school, rising 9th graders can opt to deny the credit if the family was not satisfied with the grade. If a credit is denied, the grade will not show up on a high school transcript. Generally students who choose to deny a credit either repeat the course the following year or opt to take a different course in its place.

Potential 9th Grade Specialized Programs

The Pathways:

Albemarle High School has designed an academic pathway for our students: the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math Pathway. These "Pathways" will permit students to choose among fifteen areas of concentration, and in addition to course study, students will participate in internships, community service, and a capstone project related to their chosen discipline. Students wanting to complete a Pathway must complete a Declaration of Intent form and may enter the Pathway in either 9th or 10th grade.

Community Lab School:

Our school provides Albemarle families a small, liberal arts middle and high school option for students who wish to maximize intellectual curiosity and creative potential. It is a school that emphasizes rigorous academic standards in disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge with the arts integrated throughout the curriculum.

Community Lab School is also an International Baccalaureate World School offering the IB Diploma Programme.

AVID:

Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a course taught at AHS dedicated to closing the achievement gap by preparing all students for college and other post-secondary opportunities. In the AVID class, students receive daily instruction and support to prepare them for college from a trained AVID elective teacher. AVID impacts students school wide as academic strategies like writing to learn, inquiry, collaboration, organizational skills, and critical reading are taught in all classes by teachers who have been trained to use AVID strategies in their specific content areas. The deadline is January (TBD).