High Point Academy is a free public charter school serving students in preschool through eighth grade. Our educational approach is rigorous, and our focus is always on achieving the highest academic standards. We believe in a family-centered learning environment that challenges children to reach their full potential. Our students have a love of learning and are well on their way to becoming responsible, respectful, and well-rounded citizens.
News
High Point Academy Partners with Teach For America
High Point Academy has joined forces with Teach For America, a national non-profit organization that recruits, trains, and supports outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders for educational excellence and equity. Several of High Point Academy’s new hires for the 2012 – 2013 school year will be Teach For America teachers.
“Teach For America has a proven track record of success in bringing outstanding teachers to schools. This partnership will help us to strengthen our school and advance our mission of creating a strong foundation of academic excellence,” said Dr. Terry Croy Lewis, High Point Academy’s Executive Director.
Ryan Frazier, a founding High Point Academy board member, played an integral role in developing the partnership with Teach For America. “Recruiting the best and brightest to teach our kids at High Point is important to their success. Our Teach For America partnership will provide us with an additional pipeline of dedicated, high-performing teachers that will help take our school to the next level,” he said.
Teach For America, whose teachers are also known as corps members, has been a member of the Colorado education community since 2007. This year, 340 corps members are serving some 24,000 students at 100 high-need schools in the state. In addition, more than 550 Teach For America alumni call Colorado home and work from all sectors to expand educational opportunity.
“We’re thrilled to join the High Point Academy community this year as a new source of teaching talent,” said Sean VanBerschot, executive director of Teach For America. “Our corps members will have an outstanding opportunity to learn from the High Point faculty and administration as they work together to give their students an excellent education.”
HPA Families Compete, Iron-Chef Style
On February 9, High Point Academy families got a taste of what it takes to be on the popular cooking show Iron Chef. With the school’s cafeteria serving as a makeshift Kitchen Stadium, two families competed to create the best-tasting hummus recipe. “Family Wellness Night: Iron Chef – Family Edition” was a continuation of a series of Family Wellness Nights that HPA has done over the years with the goal of promoting healthy living amongst its families.
The event, co-sponsored by HPA and its healthy-school-meals partner, Revolution Foods, was attended by about 40 people. At the beginning of the night, two randomly selected families were given a batch of unflavored hummus. They earned the right to add ingredients by correctly answering health-and-food-related trivia questions. The audience played along, using SMART response “clickers” to respond to the questions. At the end of the evening, everyone sampled the two hummus recipes, and the winner was chosen by popular vote.
‘Team Spice,’ the winning team, took home new aprons and a stainless steel water bottle. ‘Team The Dannies,’ the second-place team, also received aprons. Additional prizes, including healthy snacks, books, and lunchboxes, were raffled off to audience members.
Fourth grade student Amanda Richardson said that “Battle Hummus” inspired her family to try making hummus from scratch.
“As soon as we get the chance, we’re going to buy all of the ingredients and see if we can make it at home,” she shared.
HPA’s wellness teacher, Ms. Stacey May, said that it was gratifying to watch families get so excited about healthy food.
“I was inspired by watching the families cooperate to come up with their perfect hummus recipe. It also felt great to send every family home with a prize by the end of the night,” she said.
