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1. Phones Put Away During Instructional Hours

Parents and guardians, we respectfully ask for your support in encouraging students to put cell phones away during instructional hours or, when practical, keep personal phones at home during the school day. 

Our purpose is positive and educational. We want students to have every opportunity to focus on instruction, communicate with teachers, complete coursework, recover credits, and make progress toward graduation.

Instructional Time Is Learning Time.

When phones are appropriately stored, students have greater opportunities to focus on classroom instruction, communicate directly with teachers, complete coursework, participate actively in learning, recover credits, strengthen academic habits, and progress toward graduation.

2. Positive Attendance Every Day — Complete Diminishment of Tardies

Our second immediate goal is positive attendance every day and working together toward the complete diminishment of unnecessary tardies.

Every Day Matters. Every Class Matters. Every Minute Matters.

Parents and guardians can support this goal by helping students establish positive routines involving healthy sleep and adequate rest, morning preparation, transportation planning, daily school attendance, and on-time arrival.

When a challenge affects attendance or punctuality, please communicate with NAA so that we can work together to identify appropriate supports.

Positive Attendance → Engagement → Learning → Credit Completion → Graduation → Future Opportunities

3. Parent SITE Council Development

Our third immediate goal is the development of an active NAA Parent SITE Council.

We want parent and guardian voices represented in our school. The Parent SITE Council can provide families with meaningful opportunities to participate in school improvement, the NAA School Improvement Action Plan (SIAP), student achievement, attendance, PBIS, student wellness, family engagement, college and career readiness, community partnerships, and graduation planning.

Parents and Guardians Are Partners in School Improvement.

Your ideas, experiences, cultural knowledge, perspectives, and commitment to our students are important to NAA.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

10:00 AM–11:30 AM

Nizhoni Accelerated Academy

Students • Parents • Guardians • Families

Please join us for our Welcome Back Students & Families PBIS Barbeque.

This gathering provides an opportunity to reconnect as a school community, meet NAA staff, celebrate positive behavior and belonging, discuss our three immediate goals, learn about Parent SITE Council participation, and strengthen our shared commitment to attendance, academic progress, graduation, and future readiness.

PBIS—Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports—helps schools establish positive expectations, strengthen relationships, recognize positive student participation, and create learning environments in which students can succeed.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

1:00 PM–4:30 PM

5:30 PM–6:30 PM

Parents and guardians are encouraged to meet with teachers, review student progress, discuss attendance and coursework, identify academic needs, establish goals, and develop a plan for a successful school year.

Our goal is not simply to report how a student is doing. We want the conference to bring together:

Student + Family + School = Stronger Together

NAA: SUPPORTING THE WHOLE CHILD

As an alternative high school, NAA recognizes that academic achievement is central to our mission. Students are also better prepared to learn when their physical, social, emotional, nutritional, academic, and relational needs are supported.

Our goal is to create an environment characterized by:

Safety • Predictability • Respect • Belonging • Caring Relationships • Student Voice • Hope • High Expectations

This is part of our commitment to a whole-child and trauma-informed learning environment.

Trauma-informed education does not label students according to their experiences. Instead, it encourages schools to establish safe, predictable, respectful, relationship-centered environments while recognizing student strengths and maintaining high expectations.

Rather than defining students by previous attendance, behavior, academic setbacks, or credit deficiencies, we want to ask:

What strengths does this student possess? What support does this student need? What relationships can we strengthen? What future does this student envision? How can we help this student reach that future?

A CULTURE OF HOPE — KIDS AT HOPE

NAA's approach also connects with Rick Miller's Kids at Hope philosophy and its powerful belief:

All Children Are Capable of Success — No Exceptions.

Kids at Hope emphasizes adults who believe in young people, connect with them through meaningful relationships, and help them envision positive futures.

At NAA, we want every student to know:

We believe in you.

You belong here.

Your strengths matter.

Your education matters.

Your attendance matters.

Your dreams matter.

Your future matters.

Supporting the whole child also means recognizing when students or families may benefit from additional assistance.

NAA wants families to know about Cartwheel, a school-connected mental-health service working with participating schools and families. Cartwheel's Arizona program identifies services that can include individual therapy, parent guidance, family therapy, psychiatry and medication management, and care coordination.

These supports can complement NAA's educational, counseling, attendance, PBIS, and academic interventions.

Cartwheel identifies concerns such as stress, motivation, coping skills, school avoidance, sleep, technology use, trauma, and family relationships among areas its clinicians may help address.

For students, addressing these concerns may help remove barriers affecting:

Well-Being → Attendance → Concentration → Engagement → Coursework → Credit Completion → Graduation

Parents and guardians may also benefit from guidance and family supports designed to strengthen communication and provide practical strategies for helping their children.

Families can learn more here:

Cartwheel Arizona – Student And Family Support

Cartwheel Resources for Families

Family Note: Cartwheel is a separate school-connected mental-health provider. Availability, referral procedures, consent requirements, insurance coverage, and possible costs depend upon individual circumstances and applicable school/Cartwheel arrangements.

NAA also wants students to develop the habits, skills, confidence, and personal responsibility necessary for academic success.

Our Academic Success Coaching can focus on practical goals such as consistent attendance, punctuality, putting phones away during instruction, organizing assignments, setting weekly academic goals, monitoring course progress, requesting teacher assistance, establishing productive study habits, completing coursework, recovering credits, planning for graduation, and preparing for postsecondary opportunities.

Academic Success Coaching is an educational support. It can complement appropriate counseling and family services but does not replace licensed mental-health care.

Our coordinated pathway is:

Student Need

↓

Caring Adult & Family Partnership

↓

Academic Success Coaching

↓

Counseling & Family Support When Appropriate

↓

Positive Attendance & Engagement

↓

Academic Progress & Credit Completion

↓

Graduation & Future Readiness

Arizona Department of Education. Alterna(ve Schools. Guidance regarding Arizona alternative-school eligibility, educational programming, accountability, and related student-support services.

Arizona Department of Education. Comprehensive School Wellness Program. Resources supporting healthy students, nutrition, wellness, supportive learning environments, and academic achievement.

Arizona Department of Education. Family and Community Engagement. Resources supporting reciprocal partnerships among families, communities, and schools.

Arizona Department of Education, Health and Nutrition Services. Na(onal School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. Arizona guidance regarding school nutrition programs, after-school snacks, Smart Snacks, wellness policies, food safety, and Child Nutrition Program requirements.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. Framework identifying principles including safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment, voice, and choice; and consideration of cultural and historical factors.

National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). Trauma-Informed Schools for K–12. Resources addressing trauma-informed school systems and supportive environments for students, families, educators, administrators, and school communities.

Miller, Rick. Kids at Hope. TEDxHerndon. Presentation describing a strengths- and hope-oriented approach emphasizing belief in young people's capacity for success, caring adult relationships, and envisioning positive futures.

Video Resource (22 min. 25 sec.):

Rick Miller, Kids at Hope | TEDxHerndon

https://youtu.be/vIpDKHw1O_c?si=eTN6e8kb-yvUzACS

Pantano High School, Vail School District. About PHS. Pantano's guiding principles include supporting the whole child emotionally, socially, and academically; individualized graduation planning; preparation for life after high school; development of life and job skills; and parent/community involvement.

NAA — STRONGER TOGETHER

CLICK HERE to Download Letter From The Director August 28, 2026 (PDF)