To make progress towards our vision, we’ll start by focusing on the next three years across Early Education, Elementary, and High School.
To kick off planning, we start with the end in mind. What do we want our school to look like in 3 years?
Early Education
This is where it all starts. Three years from now, we have:
- 6 classrooms, spanning Pre-Kindergarten through Kindergarten with a combination of a half days and full days, totaling around 80 students.
- We have a waiting list of more than 50 students, eager to get in as soon as we have spots.
- We’ve remodeled the old school building, which is now fully occupied by Early Education.
- Our program is fantastic. Kids love school and they’re looking forward to it each day and we’re planting the seeds and preparing them for the Elementary experience, where a whole new range of opportunities open up for them.
- Our staff is paid competitively, stable, and loving their work.
- The Early Education program generates approximately $400k a year in revenue, returning $80k/year (20% of gross profit) to the school and sending more than 75% of kindergarten students on to first grade in our Elementary Program.
Elementary
This is the “heart” of our magic at LCA and where our strengths as a community build on the incredible work of our Early Education program to create an experience unlike anything else North Idaho has to offer. Three years from now, we have:
- 8 grade based “home rooms” with an average of 20 students per classroom, totaling around 160.
- We have a waiting list of more than 50 students.
- Grades 1-6 are at home in the bottom floor of our new building with 7-8 on the top, also making good use of other parts of campus.
- Our program is experience driven. During the second half of each school year, we’re planning and preparing for the next year’s experiences and students are beginning to choose the experiences that they want for next year. They develop their wish list and then during the “application” period they apply for the experiences they want to get in. Students love this and it’s become a favorite part of school. They also love how we’ve nailed our standards based learning because all the essential stuff they’re learning is being put to use in the experiences and helping it all make sense.
- Our community is thoroughly integrated into our experiences, with volunteers doing the majority of the heavy lifting and local organizations and businesses loving each and every time we’re getting involved.
- Our experiences are receiving local and national coverage, and because of our “open source” approach to what we do, other schools are drawing direct inspiration and beginning to explore ways to apply what we’re doing in their local communities.
- Our homeschool community begins their integration at the Elementary level, signing up for and participating in the various experiences we offer, alongside our students.
High School
This is our future and the “bridge” between our school experience and the beginnings of adult life. This is where the magic of LCA and the foundation we’ve laid in our Early Education and built in Elementary pays off where the majority of learning here is experience based and career oriented. Three years from now we have:
- 4 “home rooms” for each of the upper grades with 20 kids per class, totaling around 80 high schoolers.
- Our partnership with UCA is flourishing. We have 4+ UCA teachers on our campus throughout the week, occupying the upper level of the new building.
- We have a dedicated career coach working with each of our students, helping them explore possibilities and choose experiences catered to their interest.
- At this point, the curriculum is much more “Self guided”. We have standards and checklists to be completed for each kid. They’re great at it, though. They’ve learned the habits and practices in the lower grades and they’re “on it”. They’re completing their “requirements” quickly and the rest of the time is focused on their interests and experience based learning.
- This is where our community integrations especially shine. Our high schoolers are able to participate in immersive experiences of many sorts, letting them experiment and learn and stretch themselves.
- Our high schoolers are integrated tightly in our local churches, working with churches to explore their interests and flex and develop their skills.
- Homeschoolers are tightly integrated at this point, participating in experiences and often enrolling directly, when we have space.
The plan is a work in progress and this page will continue to be updated throughout the 2021 / 2022 school year as we get further into the details. The immediate next step is our 2021-2022 Focus.
Is there something you’d like to see added or changed? Email schoolboard@lakecityacademy.org.