south boston heights academy is five years old by sam blumenfeld
TRANSCRIPT
8/20/2019 South Boston Heights Academy is Five Years Old by Sam Blumenfeld
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HEIGHTS
C DEMY
IS FIVE YE RS
OLD
With the graduation of the class of
1980
l a s t
month
South
Boston Heights Academy
successful ly
completed i t s f i r s t
f ive
years
of
operat ion.
I t s been a busy
wonderful
and somewhat miraculous
five
years and everyone connected with the school expects the next
five
years
to
be as
excit ing.
Not many
believed
that such an enterprise could get
s ta r ted
in South Boston l e t alone l a s t f ive years. But now
that the
Academy
has sunk i t s roots deep in
the
community that gave t
bir th ,
the
skept ics have begun
to
change the i r minds. They real ize now that
the
Academy has become a
permanent
part of th is
very
special
community.
nd they ought
to
be
proud
of i t .
s
most Southie
res idents remember the Academy opened i t s doors
in October 1975 in rented
quarters
on Broadway.
Parents and
organizers
had
spent almost a year preparing th is
complex
and d i f f i cu l t undertaking.
Space
had to
be
leased and made into cla
ss
rooms walls had
to
be
bui l t
and painted
furni ture bought
teachers hired textbooks purchased
a curriculum and schedule organized students
enrol led
and tested
dress and
discipl ine
codes decided on.
I t had been
agreed
by
the founders
that
the
new
private
school
should re f lec t
the wishes of the parents who
wanted
more than jus t a
refuge
from
forced busing. They wanted a school
s tructured along
t radi t ional l ines , a school that
taught the
basic academic sk i l l s and
maintained a
safe
non-disruptive
environment.
nd that is
what
the
school endeavored
to
give i t s patrons.
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HEIGHTS C DEMY
2
The
f i r s t
two
years were
spent
learning
to
run
a school. A
lo t
of mistakes were made, but
.
also
a
lo t of progress. In July 1977 the
Academy purchased
the old
Choate-Burnham School
on
East Third
Stree t
which
the
c i ty had decided to
se l l .
This
gave the Academy a
permanent
home in a very f ine building of i t s own. The cost
of purchase
was
60,000. Another 40,000 was spent bringing the old building up to
modern standards. New
bathrooms
were ins ta l led
a new
alarm system
put in
new l ight ing,
and
many
other improvements made. Thus,
when
the
new
school year
began
in
September 1977,
the
students
entered
a
building completely renovated
and
restored to
new
l i f e .
During the l a s t
three
years
the school
has exerted great
ef for t
to maintain and improve i t s academic standards e x x m ¥ x x K e x f m K K ~ e x s
and to keep tu i t ion
costs
as
low
as possible
in
the
face of
ever-r is ing
operating
costs .
To
do th i s the
Academy
embarked on an
energy
saving
drive
and
a
var ie ty
of fund-raising
ac t iv i t i e s .
These
included
bazaars,
rummage
sales, ra f f les candy and
bake
sales, dinners,
car
washes,
etc .
In
December 1979
the
Academy was issued
i t s
l icence to conduct bingo
games and other
such fund-raising a c t i v ~ t i e s
The
direc tors
decided
to
conduct weekly blackjack nights and
monthly
Las Vegas nights. These
ac t iv i t ies have a t t rac ted · excel lent attendance and are now providing
the school with
much-needed
funds
to
help
overcome
i t s
present operat ing
def ic i t .
The help of
parents and
faculty has been crucial
to
the
Academy's
fund-raising
ac t iv i t i e s .
Out
of
th i s has developed
a
family
sp i r i t
within the
school
among
parents, students,
teachers
and
di rec tors .
Everyone i s working
together
to provide quali ty
pr iva te
education
a t
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HEIGHTS ACADEMY 3
as
Iowa
tu i t ion ra te as
possible for
the people
of South
Boston.
The advantages of private education are many: small classes,
individual
at tent ion,
close
supervision, and a
safe
environment
where
chi ldren can learn. The student- teacher ra t io a t the Academy
only
i s
about
15 to
1, which
i s
found/in the best
private
schools that
charge five times as much. This means that the student gets far
more
individual at tent ion in his work than he
would
in a public or
parochial
school. In
addit ion, each
student s
program i s
t a i lored
to f i t his or
her
goal . The Academy s
upper
school
provides
three
basic
programs: college
preparatory, business-commercial,
and technical-
vocational.
In the elementary grades the Academy s t resses the development
of the
three basic sk i l l s :
reading,
writ ing
and
ari thmetic .
Special
emphasis i s placed
on
developing
good
readers. One of the
board
members
i s Samuel
Blumenfeld,
the
author of The
New
I l l i t e ra tes
How
to Tutor and numerous
ar t ic les
on the reading problem. Mr. Blumenfeld,
who has l ived in
w H ~ x k R S x H H R x a x x e a i a e R x x a f
South Boston since 1970, monitors the reading
progress of
the
Academy s
primary students to
make
sure that each pupil
achieves
his or
her highest
level of ;eading abi l i ty .
This f a l l the Academy wil l l a u ~ c h a
kindergarten
program in the
afternoons a t a
cost
of 7 per week. The prograM
wil l be
geared
to
f i r s t -grade
preparat ion
rather than
to the baby-si t t ing
concept
prevalent
in
most
kindergartens.
Heights Academy is part icular ly proud of the
excellent
and
dedicated faculty t has put together in the
course
of i t s f i r s t f ive
years. I t is also
proud
of
i t s
extra-curr icular program which has
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HEIGHTS
C DEMY
- 4
included an educational t r ip
to France
for
seventeen
students during
the
spring vacation, ski t r ips to New Hampshire, outings to the
thea ter
v i s i t s
to
museums,
ro l le r -ska t ing par t ies
and
a
host of
other
social ac t iv i t i e s .
From every standpoint t would seem impossible for a good
private school to
succeed
in
an urban
community
such
as
South Boston.
But
not
only
has the
Academy succeeded, i t s success has at t racted
nat ional at tent ion. Visi tors from a l l parts of the country have
come
to
see
the
Academy
for
themselves
and
learn th
e secrets
of
i t s
success.
The
secrets
are dedicat ion to
the
cause
of
good private
education a t
moderate costs ,
parents who
care about
the i r chi ldren,
a
support ive
community,
and
a
determination
to overcome
obstacles.
There
are
many who have not wanted the Academy
to
succeed - - for
obvious
reasons.
But
the
Academy has indeed succeeded, proving tha t
low-cost
qual i ty private
education
i s
a
viable
a l te rna t ive
to
the
expensive,
wasteful
mess
of today 's public education.
For
parents
who
want
to enrol l the i r chi ldren, the Academy i s
( - u . . . \ . , - ~ ~
ct l.o..L..
open ATuesdays through Friday
from
10
a:m.
to 1 p.m.
For
information
ca l l 269-44B2. For the
best
educational value
in Boston,
th is is i t .