Frequently Asked Questions

Most schools in the area have staggered start times. Because we are a K-12 campus, we want to make it easier for families to make one stop when they drop off their kids. Our goal is to have one start time for all grades. We are currently exploring an 8 am-3 pm academic day. Families will be updated as soon as our bell schedule is complete. Parents will not be permitted to drop off students before 7:30 am and must pick up students by 3:30 pm (except those participating in sports, fine arts events, or tutoring).

We anticipate class sizes to be around 25 students. Some will be a bit larger (physical education, for example), and some will be smaller (for example, honors, GT, AP, and dual enrollment classes). Our youngest students in the lower school will have aides for class sizes larger than 25.

We are partnering with local colleges and universities to build our dual enrollment classes for next year. These classes will typically be associate degree-level courses one might take the first year or two in college. Examples include English 101, English 110, Math 110, Math 120, etc. We will have some, but not a full roster of dual enrollment classes our first year because our smallest grades as a new school will be our 11th and 12th graders. As the upper grades grow, so will our dual enrollment offerings.

We anticipate having band, orchestra, and choir classes for our 7-12 students as electives. We will also offer these classes to 5th and 6th graders in the lower school.

Yes, we will offer breakfast and lunch for students. Parents can place money in their student’s accounts through PowerSchool. Students are also permitted to bring their lunches. We will allow parents to visit lower school kids for lunch periodically and will have a separate table for them to eat lunch with their children. We are still assessing the need for free and reduced lunch. Also, we will serve lunch on early release days.

Our ALA dress code is integral to our goal to create a distraction-free learning environment and helps support our culture. All enrolled students must adhere to the dress code, and parents are expected to support this aspect of our culture. In the next few months, we will have a parent night to review the dress code in-depth.

You can find our dress code and grooming standards on our website here.

We aim to offer all the traditional sports for our 7-12 students. These include football, basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, wrestling, cheer, track & field, and cross country. We are exploring adding archery and lacrosse to this list. Our lower school students will have access to intramural sports throughout the year and PE as one of their “specials” classes.

As our 7-12 robotics and speech & debate classes grow, we anticipate making these classes competitive.

We will offer Spanish, German, French, and Mandarin. If there are demands for other language classes, such as Latin, we will explore those options as requests come in. Language classes at ALA are taught in grades 7-12. We are exploring the possibility of having foreign language as one of our specials options for the lower school.

Some of our electives and CTE classes have semester fees, typically around $25 per semester. Our complete list of class fees will be available in our course catalog. We are finalizing the courses we will offer at ALA Lexington and will let families know when the course catalog is available.

If your child has an IEP or 504, they will be entitled to the services outlined in those documents at ALA Lexington. Please be sure to provide that documentation as soon as you enroll so we can prepare accordingly. We will also offer speech and occupational therapy services as outlined in IEPs.

Comparable IEP services are provided, and parents are contacted within the first five school days to document comparable services that are similar or equivalent to those described in the IEP sent from the previous district. All 504 plans are compliant as demonstrated by regular review of 504 plans (transfer, annual, initial evaluation, and/or reevaluations).

Our Board of Directors must approve our Parent/Student Handbook for our SC schools before we publish it for families. We will update parents as soon as it is finalized and available. We will also host a parent night to review the handbook in the next few months. To see what our parent/student handbook may include, please feel free to take a look at one from our AZ or NC schools on our website:

Arizona K-6 Handbook
Arizona 7-12 Handbook
ALA Johnston K-5 (NC) Handbook
ALA Johnston 7-12 (NC) Handbook

We plan to offer bus services, but they will look slightly different from public school bus transportation. Once all families have enrolled and accepted their spots at ALA Lexington, we will look at where clusters of families live, so we can find park-and-ride areas for families to meet and buses to pick up and drop off kids. 

As a public school, we are not affiliated with any religious institution and welcome all people of all faiths.

We offer a rigorous academic curriculum that exceeds state standards and centers on a values-based education built on the foundation of our RAISE leadership program. Our Core Knowledge and Eureka Math curriculum strongly emphasizes patriotism and national history in grades K-6. Grades 7-12 will receive a full high-school experience, including entrepreneurship, leadership, financial literacy, and fine arts.

Learn more about our R.A.I.S.E. program here.

Yes. Once the school building is complete, we will begin hosting campus tours. Keep an eye out for emails this summer about those tours. We will also host more information sessions for families before the campus is complete. These sessions will be specific to curriculum, dress code, apparel, discipline, and car line.

Our goal is to keep families together. Your waitlisted student has a higher chance of earning a spot if the accepted sibling enrolls because waitlisted siblings of enrolled students receive priority. There is typically a lot of movement in the months leading up to the start of school, so your waitlisted child could be offered a spot before the beginning of the school year.

Our students will participate in all state testing throughout the school year. The state has not released testing dates for the 23/24 academic year, but the following link lists the tests required by the State of SC and roughly when they will be administered.

2022–23 Assessment Schedule Office of Assessment and Standards

We are hiring state-certified teachers who love kids and support the vision and mission of our school to support families and provide the best educational experience to as many students as possible in a moral and wholesome environment.

If you're interested in working at ALA Lexington, please visit the career page to apply. You can find the application process and job postings here

 We will open a full K-12 campus in our first year this fall! (2023)