Phoenix Academy will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 13,800 square foot expansion and renovation project on Thursday, October 6, 2016 at 10 a.m.
The $2.4 million building expansion project added five additional classrooms and a lower-level multi-purpose room for lunches, indoor recess and large group gatherings. In addition, the renovation has provided space for a library, art room, music room, occupational and speech therapy room, and much-needed storage space. The middle school wing is named “Tiffany’s Wing,” in honor of Tiffany Robbins, a young local woman and an animal lover who passed away in 2013 after a courageous battle against cancer. The new wing also features a tribute to the late Charles M. “Mike” Harper, a dedicated supporter of the school.
Among the guests attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony will be Nebraska State Sen. Burke Harr and Dianne Seeman Lozier, Board President. The ribbon-cutting will also include students and their families, teachers, staff, board members and donors.
Phoenix Academy is a non-profit K-8th grade private school that helps students with learning challenges get back on track. It is an intervention school where students transfer from schools across Iowa and Nebraska — both public and private — to benefit from intensive reading and math classes, small class sizes and a supportive learning environment. After students reach their optimal level of improvement, they return to their original educational setting.
Phoenix Academy opened in 1991 in a single bay of a local shopping center, with just one student. As it grew, it took over an additional bay and then a small facility nearby. In 2011, with over 40 students, the school had outgrown its space and moved to the former Omaha Hearing School Facility. Now, with over 100 students for the 2016/2017 school year, the expansion allows the school to help even more students in need, while staying true to its mission of small class sizes to maintain the intensity of the curriculum.
The expansion project now enables the building to accommodate 150 students and added approximately 10,800 square feet and remodeled approximately 3,000 square feet.
Wish we could be there for this exciting event! Congratulations!!!!!
So exciting!! Wish I could be there, but I’ll visit soon! 🙂
I got involved with Phoenix Academy in 2015, because a mother in a local school district had a child who was promoted to the third grade and couldn’t read! After sitting in classes with this student; attending IEP meetings with the parent; after working with the teacher, principal and appearing at a School Board meeting after seeing no improvement and no program to teach this child to read I was getting ready to request a meeting in Lincoln when a retired administrator called me. We discussed the Board of Education meeting, the experience I had with the “pull out” sessions with the student, the administrator told me that Phoenix Academy would be the answer for this child. I called the next day, took a tour and after testing and meetings with the parent, the child was enrolled. The student who had been at a South Omaha school for three years and couldn’t read was enrolled at Phoenix Academy in January, 2016. This young lady was reading after three months at Phoenix Academy! Three months -vs- 3 years! She wasn’t reading at grade level but she could read basic words. It has been a long journey but she is almost there!
The phrase, “reading is fundamental,” has been a slogan but as far as I am concerned, the ability to read which allows a student to be successful in all other subjects and areas of their lives is a matter of “life and death!” If a child is not successful in school that child eventually becomes a drop out. In some cases, that child isn’t productive (can’t apply for a job because they can’t read; can’t read danger signs so they are a danger to themselves and others; can’t earn a legitimate wage. This child “may” become a danger to society! Why not teach the children to read!?!
I couldn’t attend this luncheon because on Thursday I volunteer at an OPS school but my thoughts were with the staff and school because of what I was able to witness in the life of “one” child. The mission of Phoenix Academy has renewed my faith in “dedicated” and “committed” teachers, staff and leadership at Phoenix Academy.
I pray that you will always have funding to continue to do the life changing work that you do Phoenix Academy!