Posted 3:02 am Saturday, February 20, 2010
Cumberland Academy Breaks Ground On New All-Digital Campus
Students Will Learn Using MacBook Laptops
By EMILY GUEVARA
Staff Writer
The future of education might very well be making its Texas debut in Tyler.
Staff Writer
The future of education might very well be making its Texas debut in Tyler.
Cumberland Academy, a local charter school, will unveil a new campus this fall, but it's not the physical building alone that is making waves.
With the opening of the new campus, the charter school will go all digital. It is the first charter school in Texas and only the second in the United States to be designated an "iSchool," said Jeff Skousen, of Utah-based HighMark School Development. The company is working with school officials to build the new campus, which will include new technology and performing arts classes.
The technology component means that students will learn using a digital curriculum available on the school-issued MacBook laptops. Teachers will teach using interactive white boards during class.
And at the end of the day, each student will take home their school-issued iPod Touch with any required reading materials downloaded directly to their device.
Cumberland Academy has a groundbreaking for its new school on Shiloh Road and Chad Drive on Friday.
"It's neat because everybody is so enthusiastic about it," said Teresa Farish, a board member at the charter school. "We're leading the way. This is a (model) that I think will be taken in across the state."
School officials along with parents, students and local dignitaries were on hand Friday for the groundbreaking ceremony on property at the corner of Shiloh Road and Chad Drive where the new school will be located.
With gray skies overhead, all in attendance heard about the plans for the new campus and spoke enthusiastically about the future of the school.
"To me it's just really a wonderful investment (in) the future," said Tyler City Council member Charles W. Alworth.
He said the land had been vacant for years and several uses for it had been proposed including an apartment complex, but this new school will be a great addition to the neighborhood.
State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said the school was the finest charter school in the state, noting its recognized rating from the Texas Education Agency.
"There is a recession in the United States, but look around, does this look like a recession?" he said to the crowd of about 100 parents, teachers and students gathered for the event.
County Commissioner Bill McGinnis also was in attendance.
Founded in 1996 as a private school by Dr. James Cotton and his wife, Norma, the school opened as a charter school in 1998.
From a starting enrollment of 30 students, they now serve more than 200.
School Principal James Moyers said the new campus will be able to accommodate as many as 400 students.
School officials did not originally plan to go with the all-digital school model for the new campus, Moyers said, but after a presentation from the HighMark School Development group, the board was sold on the concept.
Steven Goodman, principal of the Utah-based Vista School -- the first all-digital HighMark campus, touted the program's ability to cater to students' interests, meet them at their educational level and engage them in a way traditional curriculum cannot.
"It takes all the pieces that we hope everyone has some day and integrates it from the first day," he said during a presentation at the groundbreaking.
Skousen, HighMark's director of school development, said work will begin on the property within the week. The $7 million campus is slated for completion this August.
Cotton, who is the school board's president, said the building will be funded with state dollars. Charter schools receive state funds based on the average daily attendance of students, just like independent school districts. However, they receive no funding from local tax revenue or state facilities allotments, according to the Texas Education Agency Web site.
The school currently occupies an old skating rink building on Broadway Avenue. The new campus will not only keep parents and students out of that traffic but also be better suited for the different activities offered at the campus.
The two-story building will have classrooms to house each grade level from kindergarten through sixth-grade along with classrooms for the specialized programs.
In addition to the technology component, students will have the option of participating in musical theater; piano, violin or voice lessons; and ballet.
"It's going to be a neat school," Cotton told the crowd. "It already is, and it is going to get better."
Cumberland Academy students Richard Sherwood and Wyatt Smith were pumped about the new technology component.
"It sounds really cool with all the electronics and everything," said Smith, 10, a Cumberland Academy fifth-grader.
Sherwood, also 10 and a fifth-grader, said he liked the fact that he will better be able to work at his own pace with the new technology. Differentiated instruction was one of the benefits touted with the program.
