The Smyrna Academy of Excellence, a newly planned charter school, has applied for a Georgia Department of Education Race To The Top Innovation Fund grant valued at $2.55 million and hopes to build the school at the site of the former Hickory Lakes apartment, at the intersection of Old Concord Road and Windy Hill Road, a parcel of land owned by the City of Smyrna.
Smyrna purchased the property in 2010 for approximately $9 million and is razing it at a cost of nearly $4 million.
The school will be home to 2,000 students, but initially plan on accommodating 680 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The future of the school includes expanding to 12th grade and anticipates its first graduating class in 2020. The initial opening for the year-round charter school is planned for the 2013-2014 school year.
The school will be driven by a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M.) curriculum. The project-based curriculum will integrate the STEM content areas with social studies and language arts. In this technologically advanced school, they will not rely on textbooks and technology will be the main vehicle to help students learn. It is designed for students who enjoy challenges and investigating the world around them.
Teachers will use an innovative, hands-on approach to involve the children in asking questions and finding answers to real world issues and work being done by the scientists, engineers, strategists, planners, innovators and entrepreneurs throughout our region and country.
The Smyrna Academy of Excellence will be holding an informational session at 4pm this Sunday at REV Coffee.
[where: 30080]