Location of Smyrna Charter school released
The International Academy of Smyrna informational meeting was held Wednesday, November 1, 2006 at the Smyrna Community Center. On hand were several of the founding board members and a room packed with parents eager to learn more about the school. The presentation provided a lot of information and generated even more questions. Some of the key aspects covered were:
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Location: The charter school will be building a new school at the corner of Church Road and South Cobb Drive, which is currently occupied by a local church. The size of the lot will allow Imagine to move forward with the buildout of the school without demolition of the church, which will continue in operation for approximately another 18 months. The lot is also adjacent to the old Kmart shopping center at the corner of Concord Road and South Cobb Drive. The building of the school will likely spur the redevelopment of the four shopping centers located on the four corners of Concord and South Cobb. Look for mixed residential/commercial developments on these corners in the future. Local architect J W Robinson will be designing the building.
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Principal: They are actively searching for the principal and hope to have the position filled by January 1. The principal will then be responsible for hiring the other staff and faculty.
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School year: The school year will be a balanced 188 day school year, with six weeks off in the summer and 10-15 days off for fall, winter and spring breaks. The school is planned to open in August of 2007.
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Enrollment: Applications are currently being accepted through January 15, 2007 and student status notifications will be sent out by February 15, 2007.
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Uniforms: Uniforms will be required.
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Curriculum: The intention is for both the Smyrna and Mableton charter schools to teach an international based curriculum. The curriculum will be more advanced than the standard Georgia curriculum. The intention will also be to test the students using the Georgia CRCTs as well as the Stanford or Iowa standardized tests.
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Language: Spanish will be taught from K-8 at the new school, with a minimum of one hour dedicated to Spanish per day. In the future, they may look to make the middle school a true dual language school.
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School size: The charter provides for a maximum of 1,000 students, but they project to start with 500-600 students.
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Pre-K: The school will be offering a tuition-based Pre-K program.
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Parental involvement: One the big drivers behind the school is parental involvement. Parents will be required to be involved in the school. Single-parent families will be required to volunteer 15 hours durin the year and two-parent families will be required to volunteer 30 hours per year.
If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to check out the school’s wesite at www.iasmyrna.org and read through the school’s charter at http://www.iasmyrna.org/data/documents/IAS%20Charter%20Approved.htm .
The meeting was well-received by the parents and a lot of questions were answered. While the location of the Mableton charter was not divulged, a location has apparently been put under contract and the location will be announced shortly.
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