I tried to acquire a property late last year for a pre-school. But the owners of the properties that would have worked really well did not wish to sell. So with time slipping by I proceeded with a plan for a new K-12 charter school in Lake Worth. The school is to be called the Lake Worth Classical Academy. It will offer a rigorous classical curriculum that uses intensive phonics to teach reading, the Singapore Math program to teach deep understanding of basic math and will introduce children to the best books written in the English language through a Great Books program. All subjects will be organized around an in-depth and chronological study of history from the Ancients to our Modern Era.
The school is inspired by, and will follow the same curriculum as the Great Hearts academies in Arizona, which seek not only high academic achievement, but to produce students with "great hearts" as well.
The school will open in August of 2015 with four grades: kindergarten, first, second and third.
One grade will be added every year until the school is a full, K-12 academy.
We are hoping to rent space in the downtown Lake Worth area to house the school, and are optimistic that we will be able to rent a suitable, convenient and attractive facility.
More on the Lake Worth Classical Academy's curriculum and operations:
- All students will begin studying French in Grade 1, with an emphasis on speaking -- conversation, poems, songs, stories, etc.
- All students will study Latin in Grades 4-6 and Ancient Greek in Grades 7 and 8 while continuing with French.
- All students will begin playing a strings instrument in Grade 4 and will form an orchestra in middle school.
- The upper grades (5-12) will follow a college-prep series of courses that will prepare them for work at the top colleges and universities in the country.
- Class sizes will be limited to 18 in each class.
- No electronics will be allowed in the classrooms.
- Parents will be asked to restrict their child's TV/computer time at home to 1 hour a day.
Students at all grades can be expected to perform at least 20 percent higher on state reading and math assessments, as do students of the Great Hearts academies, and in high school will have average SAT scores well above the national average of 1500. (The average SAT score of Great Hearts students in 2013 was 1830).
But the school will not overemphasize test scores. Rather, its principal, teachers and all staff will encourage students to embrace a love of learning for its own sake, to delve deeply into their studies of history and reading of great literature not for any prize to be earned at the end, but out of a love for what is true and good.
Status: I am submitting the charter application by the early deadline of May 1, and will re-submit it on August 1, the regular deadline. By September, we will find out whether we have been approved by the Palm Beach County School District. If approved, we will begin to accept applications in January of 2015.
(We, who is we? I have been working with a small group of local parents of young children on plans for the school. Once the school is approved, we will transition to become a Governing Board, along with two business professionals, one in Broward County and the other in St. Johns County, who believe in classical education and are dedicated to helping open our classical school here in Lake Worth.)
For more, see LakeWorthClassical.org.
Thank you,
Margaret Menge
founder, Lake Worth Classical Academy
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