Charter status granted to 4 more Hall Co. schools

GAINESVILLE - There are now four more charter schools in the Hall County School System.

According to Hall County Schools spokesman Gordon Higgins, Chestatee Middle School, Martin Elementary School, McEver Elementary School and Wauka Mountain Elementary School were granted charter status by the State Board of Education Thursday.

These charter schools join three existing charter schools in the Hall County School System: World Language Academy at Chestnut Mountain, Lanier Charter Career Academy and Sardis Enrichment School.

Charter schools are given more flexibility than traditional schools and are exempt from most educational mandates, such as class size.

Information about the new charter schools is listed below:

Chestatee Academy of Inquiry and Talent Development (CAITD) builds on the Renzulli Triad Model. Structuring experiences for middle grades learners, CAITD develops interest clusters for students in which the regular curriculum comes alive through authentic engagement. Project SOAR (Seeking Out Authentic Relationships) clusters students into multi-age groups that are pursuing a common area of interest. Learning academies are formed around these clusters and students produce evidence of curricular learning via projects based on their interest clusters.

Martin Technology Academy of Math and Science will open as a K-5 charter school in partnership with the Dell Corporation. In development for two years, the school will open the world of high technology to students using a wireless cloud environment. Student engagement will be enhanced by personal responders, smart boards, and slates enhancing a curriculum that emphasizes the areas of mathematics, science, and engineering. Using the inquiry approach, students will utilize notebook computers to plan science experiments, collect data, write reports, and conceptualize products of learning. The inquiry process will be guided by the 5E approach: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The deep design of the school is to propel students into a 21st Century learning environment.

McEver Arts Academy is an arts integration model built on the concept of Artful Learning developed by the Leonard Bernstein family subsequent to his death. This model develops studentsâ