Alternative Community School

Vital Statistics

Total Enrollment: 263 Total Staff: n/a Teachers: n/a Administrative Staff: n/a Pupil-Teacher Ratio: n/a

Grades: 6-12 Free/reduced price lunch: 11.4% Calendar Year: September-June Hours: 8 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Feeds From: All ICSD schools

Mission Statement

What's ACS itself all about? What makes the school different? For a simple short answer, look at our name. Alternative - we are an alternative to traditional schools, in our curricular and school governance philosophies. Community - we believe in being both a community within our school and being part of the larger Ithaca community. School - well, we do learn here. ACS is a school devoted to preparing its students for a successful life.

Point of Pride

ACS's educational philosophy is based on the premise that students have the right to make decisions about their own education. Another part of this idea is that students should not try to cover a great deal of material in their education, touching only briefly on each subject, but should rather try to go in-depth on a few subjects and really learn them. To make this happen, historically ACS staff have attempted to design a schedule and curriculum that gives students opportunities to study subjects of particular interest to them. Historically, middle school curriculum tends to try to be a little broader in topics covered (science, social studies, English classes change from semester to semester, Intro classes to foreign languages). Our high school tends to focus in-depth on more specialized topics of interest.