July 12, 2023

Dear Immanuel Family,

I hope you are enjoying this hot summer and looking forward to the start of school, where things are always cool! This promises to be a special year at Immanuel as we celebrate our 100th year of providing Christian education in Albuquerque. God continues to shower His blessings upon His people at Immanuel. Please set aside the weekend of September 22-24 for a number of celebratory events.

Naturally, our theme for the year is “100 Years of Sharing God’s Love.” The theme is based on Jesus’ words found in John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.’

Now onto some news. Free lunches will now be available to all students this year. If past practice holds, Canteen will provide a lunch menu semester-by-semester. Additionally, a grab-and-go breakfast will be available to all students. When we have more details, we will pass them along.

School will start at 8:20 am for all K-8 students this year. School will end at 3:05. Before school care begins at 7:00 am and runs until 8:00. After school care begins at 3:30 and ends promptly at 5:30 pm.

We are pleased to welcome Jennifer Vola as our new second-grade teacher. She comes to us with fifteen years of teaching experience in public and parochial schools. We will have a new Title I teacher and a new part-time Spanish teacher—details to follow.

Thanks to the generosity of our auction participants, the ancient lab computers and monitors will be replaced before school. The Purposeful Design science curriculum has been extended to fourth grade. We continue to invest in improving the tools we use to provide an excellent education for our students.

Our recent parent poll revealed no consensus on when evening events should start. Our revised calendar will show that most of our evening events will now begin at 6:15 pm.

Our annual Back-to-School workday is scheduled for July 29 from 8:00 until noon, with lunch to follow. This is a great opportunity to invest some time to spruce up our facilities. Immanuel continues to face some enrollment challenges. Our School Board and other congregational leaders have met over the summer and continue looking for causes and solutions to move Immanuel into our next century successfully. One truth remains: word-of-mouth advertising remains our most important source of new students and families. If you need help with materials or ideas to share the Immanuel story with your friends and neighbors, please contact Kerri Baum at (505) 720-4144.

We are doing some things to reduce the deficit the school operation generates. We will reduce our Spanish teacher to part-time. I will also reduce my time in the office to three days whenever possible. We will work with the faculty to fill in the gaps when I am away from the office. We will let you know what that looks like before school starts.

Finally, I am pleased to unveil this year’s theme poster:

Thanks to Brody Dillon for his design work.

I can’t wait to hear the laughter of our students, the prayers they offer, and the kindness they demonstrate every day. See you August 9th!

In His Service,

Kevin M. Dunning

Principal

      Theme for 2023/2024 School Year