I would like to thank the Elizabeth Education Foundation for putting on the STARS (Students Taking Accountability and Responsibility Seriously) banquet again this year.  It was a tremendously successful event in recognition of many outstanding students.  Each year teachers nominate students from Legacy Academy that have had a positive impact on their school and community.  This year the EEF recognized Kelsey Page and Adlai White (5th Grade), Sarah Marks (6th Grade), Stetson Littlejohn (7th Grade) and Nathaniel Klein (8th Grade).

During the event it was brought up that the Elizabeth Education Foundation is looking for board members to serve next year. This is a really great organization and if you are looking for a role to play in the enhancement of the education opportunities for students in Elizabeth, this might be a great fit for you. If you are interested in working or supporting the EEF, please contact them at: info@elizabethef.org. They also hold regular meetings the 2nd Thursday of the month at 7:00 pm in the Elizabeth C-1 District Administration Board Room (634 South Elbert Street). 

Please be careful in the Tuesday weather and have a wonderful rest of your week.

Thanks,  

Jason Cross 

Legacy Academy has been experiencing some tremendous success and growth over the last couple years.  I wanted to take a moment to cover how this has impacted the budget, while also covering the impact that Senate Bill 13-213 could have on the bottom line of charters schools all over the state.

Charter Schools are funded with per pupil state funding.  District schools are funded with the same per pupil state funding with additional funding coming from local sources.  Local revenues (sales tax and mill levy) are not currently available to charter schools.  

 Despite these obstacles, Legacy Academy has been able to find some success with the budget.  We have been increasing our program offerings each year while balancing the budget.  This has not been by accident.  Legacy Academy families, School Board and staff have been running a tight ship.  We are excited to see that for the last two years, and for all foreseeable future years we have a positive cash flow to our cash reserve fund.  Last year we were able to introduce iSchool to our students, give teachers a small bonus and pay increase while still netting a positive $83,365.  We are currently projecting that through the end of this year, we will have another positive year of $60,620 after investing money in new classroom furniture, building repairs and staff positions. Simply put, Legacy Academy is becoming a better place to go to school and to work. We are in a better financial shape today then we have been in a good number of years.

 If we were able to balance our school budget in these tough times, imagine what the future could hold for schools like ours if we could close the gap on the financing inequality that exists between charters and districts. Senate Bill 13-213 provides additional revenue to all state schools, while changing the school funding formula. These changes could have a very positive net impact on our ability to fund and create more opportunities for all students.  No matter how you look at it, the future looks very bright for Legacy Academy, and I will do my best to continue to make sure that our school continues to run efficiently while providing more opportunities for students to become creative critical thinkers.  ~ Jason Cross

Authors, Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, sum it up best in the book Abundance when they wrote: “Moreover, our current system is built around fact-based learning, but the Internet makes almost every fact desirable instantly available. This means we’re training our children in skills they rarely need, while ignoring those they absolutely do. Teaching kids how to nourish their creativity and curiosity, while still providing a sound foundation in critical thinking, literacy and math, is the best way to prepare them for a future of increasingly rapid technological change”.   The image of eight years of technological progress demonstrates more than ever that we need to continue to move away from memorization and recall and into creative critical thinking.   

This has been our goal for the last year at Legacy Academy.  I am continually encouraged by students that amaze me, not by what they know, but by how they were able to understand and adapt to challenges that they have.  A second grade student this week explained in great detail how they wanted to install a plug-gin for the popular game Minecraft on their computer at home.  This plug-gin was additional software code that allows the game to have more features than it came with originally.  When I asked this eight year old how they accomplished this task, in a very matter of fact way, I was told that all you need to do is “look it up”.   When I asked Collin O’Malley, our IT director what is involved in installing one of these plugins, I was ensured that it was not as simple as this eight year old had made it out to be.  I am so excited for the future because I know this next generation is going to do amazing things.   

Sincerely, 

Jason Cross

Friday morning Legacy Academy had received several phone calls that were in an unrecognizable language.  The staff did exactly what they were trained to do, keep kids safe.   We called a temporary lock down drill and notified the authorities so they could investigate the origin and determine if there was a threat to Legacy.  I am very proud of how the school handled the situation and responded without delay.

We have left the investigation in the hands of the proper authorities as to where the sources of these strange phone calls originated.   At this time, we have been told there is no threat to Legacy Academy and that it was very likely one of the increasing number of phone fraud schemes in the world today.   These scams usually look to impersonate an organization for monetary gain.  Within minutes our phone provider had stopped the calls, added a layer of security to prevent them from happening in the future and had given all information to the proper authorities. 

I would like to thank everybody for handling the situation with such courage. Although we hope we will never have to call a lock down again, we are committed to keeping your children safe at school.

Thanks,

Jason Cross

Last week was a great week for many of our current and former students.  We received a letter from Valor Christian High School congratulating Levi Walter, ( 8th grade student from last year) on becoming part of the Cum Laude Society. This is a great achievement for Levi, and we are very proud of him.  

In addition, we had several students that were recognized for their efforts in the Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest.  Former student Molly Grebenc was awarded the building winner for 8th grade.  In addition, Heather McKee and Reilly Blakeslee won at the chapter level and their essays have been forwarded to the state competition. They will be awarded a medal and special certificate. We wish Heather and Reilly the very best as they move forward in the competition. 

Last Thursday we had three fine students, Lana Gore, Lukas Carveth, and Maddy Proctor, who qualified for the District Spelling Bee.   Lana Gore, a 5th grade student, had a strong performance and was able to place third against some very tough middle school talent.  

Legacy Academy provides all of its students the opportunity to do big things.  I am proud of all the students that take advantage of that opportunity and give so much effort to their work.  Great job Legacy Academy students, and keep up the good work!

Thanks,

Jason Cross 

This brings us to our next exciting opportunity for students and parents alike.  Mission to Mars is going to be an upcoming multi-week unit in which the

Our multi-week unit will be based on students getting an opportunity to provide solutions to the problems presented by space travel.  For example Kindergartners might be involved in helping us come up with a list of essential items they would require for their trip, while the 8th grade math group would spend time measuring and weighing those items to calculate the atmospheric escape velocity needed to get them on their way to the Red Planet.  These activities will culminate in a simulated rocket launch, where a team of students will use NASA KLASS software to simulate a live ground control operation.   We want this to be an exciting and inspirational activity that will encourage students to think about all of the possibilities that their education gives them. 

Thanks,

Jason Cross

Legacy Academy believes that your students should have the opportunity to be happy and healthy at school.   We believe that your students should be challenged to become thinkers and problem solvers.  We believe that inspiration is an important part of education and that students should be prepared to live and work in a modern world.   We thank all of our students for their hard work and hope that everybody has had a wonderful start to their new year. 

I have been receiving some emails about TCAP test scores and I wanted to take some time to address everybody as a whole about school performance.  Standardized testing is an interesting subject.  Statistics can be very deceiving and often can produce some skewed results.  In part, this confusion can be created by the way that the state works to push schools to achieve more.  This is a great philosophy, but does not take into account school growth and other issues that can have a tremendous impact on scores.   Simply put, it is very hard to compare schools and students. 

This second chart represents another local elementary school.  They performed at a rate of 60.27% proficient on TCAP reading compared to the

Comparatively speaking, Legacy Academy has more students scoring proficient or advanced in reading.   You might be surprised to learn that the second school scored higher on a non CDE website that offers up a “grade level” to schools.  In fact this particular school scored nearly 300 spots higher.   

The answer to this is found in the growth model.    In the third graphic you will see that Legacy Academy’s Median Growth Percentile dropped last year.   There are a number of factors for this, one being the increase in student population in various subgroups.  Legacy Academy being such a small school has a very small base line for its statistics.  As more students move into a school, the scores tend to mediate to the district average.  Again, this is something that we are addressing on a day by day basis and we are optimistic that now that Legacy Academy is at full capacity that we will be able to get some really strong data moving forward that will help us in determining which programs are good and successful and which ones need more resources.

As always, I continually encourage parents to do what is best for their students.   Speak with your teacher(s) about how things are going in the classroom.  Get involved in school and work to help make Legacy Academy a better place.  Our staff is here to work with you and genuinely cares about your students.  We are doing everything in our power to make sure that your students have a successful educational experience.   Please be sure to check out CDE’s Website at http://www.schoolview.org for more data and information.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Jason Cross