June 2025: A Year in Review and Updates

2024-25 Highlights

Summer Headmaster Zooms, Wednesdays 9:30 am (details below)

Updates for the 2025-26 School Year

Dear Cicero Families, 

Community: The end of the school year brought many celebrations for our community from curricular and grade level events, academic and athletic awards, 5th grade matriculation, 8th grade promotion, senior march, and commencement. We are thankful to all of our parents who have made this year possible and more full of joy by creating special memories for our community from kicking off the year with our largest homecoming kick off to date, bringing horses to campus for the 6th grade cowboy breakfast, teacher appreciation throughout the year, and running the lunch program to name a few. 

Athletics: A Year of Achievements

A huge congratulations to our outstanding athletic teams, their dedicated coaches, and the supportive parents who make these successes possible. We are proud of all our student-athletes and their hard work throughout the year. Here’s a recap of some of our remarkable achievements:

HS Girls Volleyball: Congratulations on securing their 3rd State Championship title, marking their 2nd consecutive victory! 

College Signings: Three senior girls signed to play college volleyball (beach and indoor). Samantha Atwood, Mirabella Medina, and Jaclyn Stone.

MS Swim (Boys): Second-place finish in the league championship.

HS Girls Tennis: A historic run in the state playoffs, competing against 3A teams and making it to the semifinals. Congratulations to Bianca Carbone and Bryn Hermenau, our top doubles team, for taking second in state. 

HS Golf: Golf Team qualified for State Tournament. Congratulations to Kieran Walsh for winning the prestigious Great Hearts Tournament of Cup Champions.

HS Boys Volleyball: First Great Hearts school to have a men’s volleyball team and achieving a spot in the 3A state tournament.

MS Girls Volleyball: Second-place finish in the Great Hearts middle school league.

HS Girls Basketball: Making history with their first-ever appearance in the state tournament.

HS Girls Soccer: Competing in the state tournament for the first time ever, marking a major milestone in the program’s history.

HS Track: Multiple podium finishes and PRs.

Iron Centurion Award: Congratulations to Nica Caggiano for being recognized as the outstanding athlete of the year. Playing three-sports while maintaining one of the highest GPAs. 

It has been an incredible year for Cicero Athletics, and we are so excited to see our athletes continue to compete and achieve greatness in the seasons to come. Let’s keep up the hard work! For the latest follow us on Instagram @centurions_athletics

Faculty: Thank you to our faculty who brought to life the curriculum and invested in our students and one another each day. Congratulations to our faculty that completed master degree programs this year and we are excited to celebrate a new Phd this coming year. Our Lead Teachers and Master Teachers are the backbone to our academy and are the key to our strong faculty culture. Thank you for your investment in Cicero.

Academics: Congratulations to our 5 seniors who passed their senior thesis defenses with the highest merit: Pass with Distinction and the 10 seniors who received the next highest honor: Pass with Merit. Their thesis papers will be bound in a commemorative book on display in the Upperclassman Commons. Congratulations to our Valedictorian, Adam Myers and our Salutatorian Avi Bejarano and thank you for your contributions to Cicero over the years. 

There are too many accomplishments to mention in a short summary but I hope you have had the opportunity to celebrate as family and as friends the special landmarks in your children’s lives this year whether academic, personal, athletic, in the arts, extra-curricular, or in volunteerism. 

Summer Headmaster Zooms: Please join me this summer on Zoom. Summer Headmaster Zooms help to keep us connected and allow me to share out updates for the K-12 model. Hear more about all aspects of the academy from student life, academics, enrichment and student support programs, as well as the vision and mission. The summer zooms are a great way to stay connected and check in on any questions you might have. 

Wednesdays, 9:30 am -10:00 am 

June 11

June 18

July 9

July 16

July 23

Meeting URL:

https://greathearts.zoom.us/j/8029769749?pwd=eVErQUpkelMrZkltTkd4SmNxUHo1QT09&omn=98096806213&from=addon

Meeting ID: 802 976 9749

Passcode Cicero

Spread the Word: Our school community thrives when families invite their neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family to join the community and enroll their child at Cicero. Please join us on instagram for highlights from the year and share your story with friends and family. @archwaycicero @ciceroprep

Growth for the Academy and Growth for Students: On a more personal note, I want to say that I have been greatly encouraged in the last few weeks with all the support for Cicero and how our community has responded with excitement to unifying as a K-12 leadership team and campus. As I enter my 10th year here at Cicero, I continue to reflect on the impact this academy has on hundreds of students and families. This year we will welcome more students and families with the growing demands for our high school program. We will be adding a section in both 10th and 11th grade. As many of you know we are also partnering with Great Hearts to offer a Young Hearts preschool program as well. It is a privilege to see this academy grow and serve more children and their families without losing the sense of community. Cicero is a place where your students can grow up among friends, free from pop-culture and devices, and where they are nurtured socially, intellectually, morally, emotionally, and physically. As an honors academy we strive to provide a space for your children to grow into fine young men and women who have a strong moral sense that will serve them well in their adult life as well as a strong sense of purpose connected to their studies across disciplines. Cicero is a great place to grow up and develop as a young person. With that, I will pause here and I hope to continue great conversations with many of you who are able to join the Summer Headmaster Zooms. May you all have a wonderful summer. See below for a list of updates!

All My Best,

Headmaster Reichert

2025-26 Updates:

• Young Hearts Preschool Opening August 2025

• Additional Sections Added for 10th and 11th Grade 

• Zero Hour Weight Training for High School

• MS/HS 7th Hour Enrichment Course Registration Open (first come, first serve)

• New Position: Dean of New Faculty - Hiring Manager and New Teacher Coach, Mr. Smith

• Mr. MacIsaac, former Cicero Assistant Headmaster, returning to Cicero as Director of Upperclassmen Studies and Formation and Master Teacher of Humane Letters

• Coach Wahl expanding his teaching schedule to include 6th and 7th grade PE

• Advisory Council will reconvene for the 2025-26 school year

• School Counselors: Mrs. Ambrose moving to the Archway building to serve K-5. Mrs. Hunt, who has been partnering with Prep the last two years, will join Prep as the new school counselor.  

• Registrar: Mrs. Lisa Buchanan will transfer to the Archway office to serve as the K-5 registrar.

• More updates to come!

Quarter One: Open Grade Books

We are pleased to announce that Grade Books are NOW OPEN for viewing and will remain open throughout the grading period.

• Headmaster Update: Open Grade Books

• What to Expect: Logging In and Navigating the Grade Portal

Greetings Cicero Families, 

Open Grade Book Initiative: As many of you are aware Cicero Prep has chosen to pilot Open Gradebooks this school year. We are excited about this initiative as it has the potential to strengthen the partnership between students, parents, and faculty and ultimately serve your scholars’ growth and success. Throughout the year we will be evaluating the process, procedures, and communications related to this initiative to continue to develop best practices and metrics to enhance how our academies serve our families. 

Parents as Primary Educators: Great Hearts Academies, being founded by parents themselves, have long held to the principle that parents are the primary educators of their children and as such built this network of academies to fulfill this vision. We are confident that opening grade books is in keeping with this vision and partnership. To begin with, our first desire is to keep parents better informed in how their scholars are developing in foundational habits such as homework and participation, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We hope this means parents will be able to engage early on when needed or celebrate growth and success along the way. It is evident that these foundational habits are critical in the development of learners to advance in their studies and personal responsibility, increasing their overall confidence and happiness at school.

Classical Liberal Arts: Life-long Learning: Our academies continue to maintain a classical and liberal approach to education in that a scholar is not only given quantifiable feedback and assessment, but also qualitative. This has always set our faculty, learning community, and therefore our academies apart. As such the aim of the academy is to invite and develop scholars into life-long learners, whose ability to continue to grow academically, intellectually, and morally extends beyond the confines of what is captured in a grade book. If done well, opening grade books can have a profound impact in supporting scholars in building strong habits and a growth mindset that will serve them well at school and in life. We hope that will be your experience as well. 

Academic Engagement: What many of us agree on is that at its best, increased visibility of grades will become a powerful tool through which we can gauge and encourage a student’s overall growth; it can direct students and parents to understand their scholars’ strengths and areas of need. Grade transparency has the potential to enhance parent partnership and student academic engagement. Children benefit from seeing concrete results of hard work and the consequences of not putting forth their best effort. Children also benefit from expectations that cannot be so easily captured by number or a grade, such as an active sense of wonder and a sincere depth of inquiry. 

Athletic Eligibility: We hope that Open Grade Books will be a tool for parents and scholar-athletes to avoid athletic ineligibility. As a reminder: scholar-athletes are responsible for maintaining athletic eligibility and will be placed on academic probation. If students are on probation, they will not be eligible for games, but can participate in practice if their daily eligibility sheet has been completed. Please check your scholar’s gradebook each Friday to support them in maintaining their eligibility. Athletes must be passing all courses and have no more than one D. Contact the Athletic Director for eligibility support and probation protocol. 

Ultimate Goods: Use & Misuse: We believe in the Aristotelian idea that human happiness is dependent on virtue. And that virtue is developed as one’s actions are aligned to ultimate goods and that virtues remain undeveloped when tied to utilitarian ends. We recognize that a robust partnership between parents and the school is the best way to guard against the utilitarian misuse of number crunching grades. What we want to avoid is the harm that access to real-time grades can do to our educational principles. It is all too easy to focus on grade performance, losing sight of the overall goals of a Great-Hearted education. We urge parents and students to use this access in service of the broader goals, and higher goods, which education is designed to serve. 

Education as Relational: Our conversations with parents and students will continue to be largely centered around the development of a child’s humanity, sense of wonder, habits, and virtue rather than numerical scores. Even with access to student grades, we must acknowledge the limitations of the accrual of points earned through homework, tests, quizzes, etc. on a student’s grade and development.  The academy holds to the idea that education is about human flourishing which is more fully realized when one is in rightly ordered relationships with one’s peers and faculty.

Gratitude: I am grateful to our faculty who are committed to providing families with timely quantitative and qualitative feedback while preserving the first principles of a classical liberal education. We are blessed at Cicero with a faculty who are remarkably earnest and want the best for your scholars and aim to honor your student with both quantitative and qualitative feedback as they grow and mature. The highest end of our education is human flourishing, which asks much more of teachers and students beyond quantifiable gradebook categories. We ask for your patience and understanding as we improve our service to you and your scholars through this new initiative. 

In Partnership,

Headmaster Reichert

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What to Expect: Logging in and Navigating the Grade Portal

What to Expect:

• Grade Books: Open Two Weeks into each Quarter

• Updated every Friday, not daily.

• Assignments and Participation Updated Weekly

• Weekly Quizzes or Retrievals Updated within 3 days, or by Friday

• Larger Assessments/Essays/Projects Graded after 5 days, in Grade Book by Friday the Week Grading was Completed.

Summary: Assignments will be posted in the grade book and viewable to parents to assist students in building strong academic habits by turning in homework on time, completing homework with effort and care, being a constructive contributor in class (participation), and by actively seeking to grow in an understanding of the material through assessments. Grade Books will be viewable following the second week of the quarter.  

Note: The grade book does not necessarily include the overall summative grade for the course, as that is determined at the end of an evaluation period by the teacher. The summative grade will include an overall assessment of the students' growth in habits of inquiry, habits of discussion, and growth according to the course rubric. See Family Handbook for Philosophy of Grading. Contact teachers if you have questions about how your student is doing overall. 

Logging into Parent Portal: 

Log into the Grade book Portal to view your scholar’s grades. 

For RETURNING FAMILIES, use the same login credentials as before. If you have forgotten your username and password, please see attached instructions.

For NEW FAMILIES: Please set up your access by reviewing the instructions attached to this email. 

When going into the grade book, you can expect to see your students' first two weeks of progress in relation to participation and homework.  Some of our teachers have put in their first assessments as well.  The teachers will be updating the gradebooks every week to ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the students’ progress.  Please use this information to help support us as we continue to improve our educational model.  

Having trouble logging in with the instructions given? Please contact Faith Jones, Office Manager, for assistance. If you have questions regarding grades, please reach out to your scholars’ teacher.  

Thank you for your support as we continue to provide students with the best possible educational experience.

Cicero Prep Admin Team

2024-25 Updates

The 2024-25 School year is Cicero Prep's 10 year anniversary and we are excited for the growth for our campus and the growing vision of our community to continue to provide a family-centered educational community that preserves the great ideas that have shaped the best things that Western Civilization has contributed to economics, the sciences, civics, leadership, and human flourishing. We believe this kind of education should be available to any family and student who desires it and believe that a classical liberal education is one that serves students well in whatever post-secondary pursuits one desires whether that is in a trade, STEM, business, or leadership. 

In Partnership, 

Headmaster Reichert