Western Academy Celebrates 8 years of A’s

Source: Sun Sentinel

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For the eighth year in a row Western Academy Charter School in Royal Palm Beach received an A grade, making it one of only five charter schools to receive the rating from the state.

“Just a handful of charter schools get this grade,” Principal Linda Terranova said. “I am very proud of my staff members and students. We have worked hard and it’s harder and harder each year to maintain the A grade with state changes.”

The year the charter school, which has kindergarten to eighth-graders, earned 710 points. They were the highest scoring charter school in the district.

“This has defiantly been a morale booster,” she said. “It keeps up wanting to keep up the great work.”

According to Terranova the school receives points in various cells including math, reading and writing. She explained that the state also looks how students in the lowest 25 percentile show improvement. The school’s scores are based on the middle school scores.

“Just because we have scored well in categories like math, there is always room for improvement,” she said. “We will look at our scores from last year as we plan for this year to see where we can always improve.”

This year Western Academy Charter will see its largest expansion since opening its doors in 2003 with the addition of its STEAM Middle School Academy, which will focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

In years past they would only add a couple students each year, Terranova said.

“We would add a class as needed,” she said. “This year we will be adding two classes at each grade level in the middle school,” which means there will be an additional 120 students this school year.

But Terranova noted that “we want to be centered on keeping our school small and personal,” she said. “We know we don’t want to grow too fast.”

Call 561-792-4123 or visit WesternAcademyCharter.com.