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Principal's Message

Welcome to TMSA Triangle High School. I am Principal Adam Alden.

A truly transformative high school education awaits you — and I use the word transformative with intention. It reflects the pledge I hold myself and our school accountable to: Happy Students, Happy Teachers, Happy Parents.

Let me explain why this matters so deeply.

For nearly 30 years, I have served as a math teacher, school leader, and educator across the world. I have taught thousands of students, guided many to international math olympiad success, and supported teachers as they grew in their craft. In the early 2000s, I even stepped away from my Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence to help open schools in underserved communities — a decision that reshaped my life and eventually led to the founding of dozens of schools across the country.

By the time I joined TMSA Triangle High School four years ago, I believed I had seen nearly everything in education — what works, what doesn’t, and what should. Yet what I found here exceeded every expectation.

I found a team whose dedication, talent, and integrity were unlike anything I had encountered before. Together, we strengthened not only our STEM programs but also our Arts and Athletics. In our first year of shared work, our school performance score rose from 85 to 91, and soon after, to 93. Today, we are the highest-performing K–12 public charter school in North Carolina.

However, when I describe our high school education as transformative, I am referring to something far deeper than performance metrics. I am referring to a quality we can cross-check against our educational philosophy of Science, Wisdom, and Peace. I mean a measure of whether these principles truly come alive in our daily work. In other words, when I say Happy Students, Happy Teachers, Happy Parents, I mean:

  • Students who grow academically, socially, emotionally, and ethically,

  • Teachers whose wellbeing, workload, and compensation allow them to thrive,

  • Parents who feel informed, supported, and increasingly confident in their trust in us.

You may wonder how I recognize or measure happiness or what signs I look for if not performance data.

After three decades in education, I have learned that happiness — or true transformation — reveals itself in a unique and unmistakable way: through a sparkle in the eyes. That light appears only when students feel supported, teachers feel valued, and parents feel secure.

I am fortunate to witness that sparkle every single day at TMSA Triangle High School. It is a true testament to our ideals of Science, Wisdom, and Peace truly coming alive as promised. This is the greatest reward an educator could ask for.

Although maintaining something as ephemeral as “happiness” is not easy, there are times when we must redo it, rebuild it, or nurture it again from the ground up. But that is the work we commit to here, day by day.

If you would like to learn more about our commitment to the ways we nurture that “sparkle,” I invite you to explore The TMSA Triangle Difference or Principal's Quarterly.

Now, as you join our big family, know that you are in good hands and that a truly transformative high school education awaits you.

Welcome once again.

Adam Alden
Principal