Dear Parents of upcoming 7th-10th grade students,

This Thursday evening, March 28th at 7:00pm we will be holding a parent meeting for all upcoming parents of 7th-10th grade students in the school library.

We are planning to create the five member council that evening and need parents there to do that and to discuss the activities that will be part of the new school during next year.

Please attend! Many hands make light work and this is the founding council for the future.

We will have the results of student elections by that time as well.  If you have any questions, please contact the front office at:  801-437-3100 or jgarlock@pfa.cc/llafleur@pfa.cc

SUMMARY: Please see below for three key updates and a meeting:

• A high school lease agreement has been reached and purchase of property and further development is imminent!
• New, exciting opportunities have become available for our 7-8 grade Junior High students through an expanded vision of the new school’s purpose with separate 7-8 as well as 9-12 students. This also brings benefits to our K-6 grades!
• In our fall Governing Board election, there will also be an election to ratify changes to our charter to reflect our new K-12 scho ol model.
• To facilitate communication of this, a “working session” Governing Board meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 9th at 6pm to openly discuss all these new, exciting changes and gather feedback.

IMPORTANT DATES:

• Tuesday, October 9th at 6pm: Governing Board Meeting/Working Session (at the school)
• November 12-15th: Governing Board Elections and Charter vote

Dear Freedom Preparatory Academy Parents,

We are very pleased to announce that the Governing Board has approved a lease agreement with Provo School Development, LLC (super majority vote of 6-1) to build our new high school to open its doors for the 2013-2014 school year!

Current suggested architectural drawings are for a beautiful, two story high school located at the corner of 820 North and Independence Ave in Provo (South East of the roundabout). Come to the open meeting on October 9th to see elevations and site plans!

Also, in order to leverage some of the benefits of the new school and our existing school, the Governing Board and the A dministration is recommending a plan to move the 7-8 grades to the new school and organize the new school into a 7-12 program.

Some of the benefits to moving the junior high to the new location may include:

• Additional elective opportunities available to the 7-8 grade students.
• A more flexible schedule for the junior-high students allowing free movement among classes without interrupting the elementary school grades.
• A custom-built school designed especially for the needs of secondary students, including a CTE room with a fully equipped kitchen and a state of the art science lab, an auditorium & large cafeteria.
• Additional financial economies of scale for the students at the high school, ensuring continued expansion, not limitation of programs for all students throughout our K-12 school.
• Perpetually feeding the population of students in the K-12 model.

In the Elementary school, resulting changes could potentially apply:

• Avoiding scheduling conflicts with the 7-8 grade students and allowing for a true elementary school schedule.
• Because scheduling conflicts with 7-8 grade are mitigated, there is greater flexibility and options in scheduling specialty classes for the K-6 grade students.
• Class sizes will continue to be capped at 25 (as we have always done).
• Because there will be additional space available in the elementary school, we are pleased that there will be additional opportunities to bring in new families from our long wait lists.
• We are considering maintaining the current enrollment of the current 1st grade into the second grade, and not eliminating a class for next year’s first grade, but making it permanent.
• We are considering adding one additional class of students and appropriate teaching staff in the 2013-2014 school year for third grade, giving the 1st-3rd grades 4 classes of 25 students next year.
• Over the next 4 years as students advance we will grow each grade level to 4 classes of no more than 25 students each.
• This plan is supported by the demographics in our area and will allow us to educate more elementary students from our communities, while ensuring that we have enough students to feed into our college prep secondary school.

We have also discussed changes to the charter to align with our by-laws and the K-12 model approved by the S tate. Parents will vote on these changes during the Governing Board elections this fall.

The Governing Board and the Administration are primarily interested in the continued success of every student and continuing the great mission of Freedom Preparatory Academy. While the Administration is currently authorized to alter the makeup and location of classes, the Governing Board and the Administration are interested in receiving feedback from parents on the current go-forward plan.

Parent input is vital to the success of our plans. To facilitate this, we invite all parents to attend a Governing Board meeting and “Working Session” where the Administration and Governing Board will be able to present building plans, location and financial information, pending charter changes, and details about the potential 7th- 8th grade move.

We are holding this meeting in a special working format to allow continual communication and discussion between the parents and the board. If you have any questions, please contact the front office.

Thank you,

Freedom Preparatory Academy Governing Board & Administration

Summary: The board is planning on voting on a contract to lease a high school building with an option to buy the high school. Grade configurations potentially could be effected. The location of the proposed property is on the SE corner of 820 North and Independence Avenue in Provo. Please attend.

Announcement (sent Tues at 3:55pm)

Dear Parents,

There is a Governing Board Meeting on Thursday, September 27th at 6:00 PM. The Freedom Preparatory Governing Board will be finalizing decisions regarding the construction of our new high school bui

Dear Parents of Freedom Academy,

Thank you for your emails/petitions/letters.   We know that there are strong positions on both sides of this issue and we want to consider them.   At the last meeting the board decided to move forward and expand on the current location provided that we are able to:

• negotiate an acceptable  contract with our builder;
• with a delivery date that allows school to start at a reasonable time;
• a safety plan that adequately addresses safety concerns; and,
• a traffic plan that adequately addresses any traffic concerns;

The Board acts as a group and not as individuals.  We have your emails and will consider your input.  The Board will meet again to approve any contract in the near future and we will post notice of that meeting as soon as it is set at pfa.cc.  Until then, no further decisions can be made.

Thank you,

FreedomAcademyGoverning Board