The West Valley’s Arizona Charter Academy is one of five recipients of a grant from the A for Arizona Expansion Fund. The school will put the money toward expanding and renovating its facilities.��

The A for Arizona is designed to accelerate the growth of Arizona’s best public schools – district, magnet and charter schools – especially those in low income communities. It provides targeted grants to ‘A’-rated schools.

The Arizona Charter Academy (ACA) stood out to A for Arizona for its dedication to a high-minority student population and its A-rated academic performance.����

“We’re a mission-driven school. And, really our passion is to defy the odds. We have a lot of high poverty minority students that we believe every student is entitled quality education regardless of their zip code and every student can learn,” said Melissa Holdaway, ACA CEO.��

Founded in 2001, ACA is located in Surprise and serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade.��

ACA plans to provide more students with a high-quality education thanks in part to support from the Expansion Fund.��

“Our plans for expansion include a two-story 12-classroom building, which will help us accommodate 200 more students. Along with, we’re going to re-do our playground to make a more usable play space, so our students have more access to that,” Holdaway said.

“And, we’ve also done some tenant improvements where we’ve created larger classrooms or classrooms that were smaller to become more effective for students,” she added.����

ACA is located in the Surprise Original Town Site, which is a high-poverty area. More children in the economically disadvantaged area will have access to the ACA’s high-quality education when the school expands.����

“I think it’s critical that we look at high quality schools and we fund those schools in order to continue to give excellence to all students. Arizona, we have our work cut out for us and I believe it’s so critical that we find excellence, we replicate that excellence and we give students what they deserve,” said Heather Henderson, ACA chief academic officer.��

“There just continues to be a need for a school like ours that really focuses on students and excellence and providing not only that quality education, but kind of all those extracurricular activities, and leadership development and training, and community involvement- all those things I think are a part of who we are,” Holdaway said.

ACA works with the business community and nonprofit community to receive funding and resources that benefit students.��

“We value the community and it’s not us against them or ‘What do we do by ourselves?’” Henderson said. “It’s ‘What do we do together to create an amazing place?’”

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The Academy of Math & Science is one of five recipients of a grant from the A for Arizona.��

The Academy of Math & Science (AMS) stood out to A for Arizona for its knack for delivering high-quality STEM-focused education in high-poverty communities. The AMS network put its money toward launching a new campus in Glendale.

“We found that the schools around [Glendale] were lower-performing and we wanted to be able to offer students and families another option,” AMS Glendale Principal Ashley Kane said. “We applied [for the grant] because we know that what we’re doing is right for kids and we needed support with that… We wanted to work with [A for Arizona] in order to really be able to bring a quality education to Glendale.”��

The Expansion Fund is designed to accelerate the growth of Arizona’s best public school —district, magnet and charter schools — by providing targeted grants to ‘A’-rated schools.

According to AMS, it used the $75,000 it received to provide staff salaries to the teachers needed at the Glendale campus, especially for those who worked over the summer to help prepare for the campus’ opening, and community outreach programs to recruit students and additional teachers.

Founded in 2000 with only 30 students, AMS has grown into one of the highest-ranked charter schools in Arizona. Now, with the opening of the Glendale campus, the AMS network will operate seven campuses in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas.

The new campus is the largest opening of a charter school in Arizona with more than 1,100 students, but what makes the school unique is its STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) program and an extended schedule that allows teachers to better meet the needs of all students.

“We actually have an extended day,” Kane said. “That really gives us the opportunity to fill some of the gaps that our kids are coming in with and just gives us an opportunity to expose them to more learning opportunities.”

The school offers two foreign languages, Russian and Mandarin, as well gives students the opportunity to learn guitar or piano. The school also offers extracurriculars and sports for all age groups.��

“We have an amazingly dedicated staff… The teachers are amazing. They really have an awesome heart for kids and are here for the right reasons,” Kane said.

The campus started classes on July 25, 2019, and Kane has high hopes for the future of the school.��

“I hope that AMS Glendale really makes a name for itself and makes a name for the community of Glendale,” she said. “I want to make sure that what we’re doing best serves our community and really…work together with families and not just for them, but I want to work with them to be able to do what we really need to accomplish for our area.”

AMS is currently ranked No. 1 by 5-star parent reviews on GreatSchools.org and was named the Arizona Charter School of the Year by the Arizona Charter Schools Association in 2016.

For more information on AMS Glendale, click. For a full list of Expansion fund winners, click.

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Nogales is home to a variety of district, charter and private school options that contribute to an educational landscape almost as diverse as the community itself. Angel Canto, Assistant Superintendent of Nogales Unified School District #1 (NUSD), describes it as a “microcosm” of larger communities like Tucson or Phoenix, offering a range of options for families.

But while its selection of schools bears similarities to larger Arizona cities, Nogales is also home to a unique district-charter partnership that local education leaders say is creating a new model for cooperation in education: the partnership between NUSD and Mexicayotl Academy.��

“Historically, and certainly in our state… the relationship between a district and charter are not close and warm,” Canto said. “You might be competing for students, competing for teachers. For us, that’s not really the case.”

Many of the students who attend Mexicayotl Academy, a tuition-free public K-8 charter school in Nogales, feed directly into NUSD’s high school upon completion of eighth grade. Because of that, it’s in the best interest of the two entities to work together, said Baltazar Garcia, Director of Mexicayotl Academy.

“There’s always this link, because they know our commitment to this community and to our students,” Garcia said.

In the past, the partnership has included elements like hosting shared professional development opportunities for faculty and sending NUSD counselors to talk with Mexicayotl students about high school.

Now, thanks to a $70,000 Expansion Fund grant awarded by A for Arizona, that partnership is expanding even further with the hiring of a new faculty member who will work with both organizations to develop a modern environmental science curriculum.

“The idea of STEM, of being able to provide an educational component that is linked to what we consider intercultural education… that has always been a part of who we are,” Garcia said. “So, we said, now let’s build on that.”

The faculty member the two educational organizations hired is Constantinos Manoli. Manoli, who has a Master’s degree and a PhD in education, has taught earth education at the university level for years. Most recently, Manoli taught at the University of Arizona Cooper Center for Environmental Learning, where he became Associate Director in 2014.

Manoli said he’s worked with students from Mexicayotl for years through the Cooper Center’s youth programs and has long wanted to work more closely with Nogales’s younger generations.��

“It was always—without exaggerating, I would say—a dream of mine to be here, with this school and these students,” he said.

Canto said that this year, Manoli will work to develop content units for third, fourth and fifth grade students at Mexicayotl and NUSD elementary schools. Additionally, Manoli will help create new professional development opportunities for faculty at both Mexicayotl and NUSD specifically related to the state’s new science standards.��

“By having utilized the Expansion Funds to focus on Mr. Manoli, it really is highlighting what we both have shared in common, which is an interest in STEM. We really want to further what we’re able to do for our students in that area,” Canto said.����

An interest in STEM isn’t all that Mexicayotl and NUSD share in common; they also share similar demographics among their student populations. The vast majority of their students are Hispanic, and almost all of them are eligible for free and reduced lunch programs due to their families’ economic backgrounds.��

Garcia said hiring Mr. Manoli will have huge benefits for these students and shows that there’s more to the NUSD/Mexicayotl relationship than just words.��

“We have established a commitment at the teaching level to the students in this community that has now expanded,” Garcia said. “It’s not just unique. It’s got substance.”

Canto said she believes this expanded partnership between NUSD and Mexicayotl is “just the beginning of a formal relationship” that could grow even further in the future.

“I hope that this is something that can become a model for what others can do,” she said.

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Leadership. Service. Small classes. College prep.��

These are the guiding principles of a new charter school in Goodyear that is Arizona’s first campus of the international Somerset Academy chain that is succeeding with low-income populations.��

“It’s a family-like atmosphere with a private-school feel with uniforms and high expectations,” said Jennifer Carmichael, the founding principal of the newly-opened Somerset Academy . “We are not traditional in any sense. It’s more about how can we get kids to do something we know is inside them and bring that leadership forth whether its music, arts, sports or academics.”

Somerset schools serve mostly low-income and minority communities.��

The international chain’s philosophy revolves around providing a small, tight-knit community focused on individualized attention. Many of its schools have earned high rankings on national score cards like the annual U.S. News & World Report’s best schools edition.����

Somerset awarded “best of class” funding����

Somerset Academy Skyway Campus is one of five schools selected to receive a grant through a new privately-funded program designed to help high quality district, magnet and charter schools expand, especially those serving low-income students.

The program, the inaugural A for Arizona Expansion Fund, awarded $300,000 this year to the five schools. The first-of-its-kind, statewide grant program is an initiative of the non-profit Arizona �鶹��ýӳ�� Foundation in partnership with the Arizona �鶹��ýӳ�� of Commerce & Industry. The campaign was jump started by a grant from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation.

Somerset received a $40,000 grant from the initiative for technology. Principal Carmichael used the money to buy 50 chromebooks, 50 ipads and storage wheel carts for the computers.����

“This put us on target for our technical needs,” Carmichael said about the grant. “It’s going to get us off to a great start.”

Reaching out to families��

A longtime educator, Carmichael spent more than four months visiting nearby coffee shops, movie theaters, restaurants, outdoor events and going door to door to introduce herself to families and tell them about the school and its philosophy.��

The message appealed to families. A total 104 students showed up the first week. Carmichael’s goal is to enroll 325 students this year.��

Currently, the school is operating as a K-5. Eventually, it will be a K-12 school with a Cambridge International or International Baccalaureate program, Carmichael said. Once fully built out, it will serve 800 students.��

About 50 percent of the current students are on free and reduced lunch programs. More than 50 percent are Latino students.��

“Contrary to the stereotype of charter schools, Somerset does not take just the “cream of the cream,” she said. “We’re going to take any child who comes in the door, wherever they come from.”��

Personalized, collaborative approach������

One of the reasons the Somerset model succeeds is class size, Carmichael said. Kindergarten and first grade are limited to 22 students and all other grades to 25.��

Another is the collaborative model in which students, teachers, parents and staff “establish, achieve and celebrate” individual goals for each child. Partnerships with colleges and other organizations are part of the recipe.��

Started in a two room school in Miramar, Florida, in 1997, Somerset Academy operates 71 schools today in Florida, Nevada, Texas and Spain. The schools are supported by Academica, one of the nation’s longest-serving education service providers for public charter schools. Academica is considered one of the most successful providers with dozens of its schools receiving high rankings on annual report cards.

This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Somerset’s International Studies Charter High School in Miami as the fourth top charter school in the nation. The AP participation rate is 100 percent. Minority enrollment is 76 percent and 96 percent of students are economically disadvantaged.

The school was formed by the Spanish, Italian, and French Embassies in association with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Academic-minded students who attend the school learn in English, Spanish, Italian and French.��

First A for Arizona Expansion Fund Grantees

The inaugural A for Arizona grant program provided expansion funding for 2,000 additional students at five schools and districts:��

• Arizona Charter Academy, Surprise��
• Academy of Math & Science, Glendale��
• Mexicayotl Academy and Nogales Unified School District, Nogales
• Somerset Academy Skyway Campus, Goodyear��
• Vail School District, Vail

To read more about the schools and how they are using their expansion funds, go to

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