Yes, there will be after school programs. We are working on quotes from outside vendors.
We believe there will be a few buses that will pick up and drop off at public places such as North Point Mall.
Carpool at any charter school isn't fun or perfect, certainly not at first, but we will find a safe easy to understand process that has the least possible impact to our parents and to the wider residential community around the school.
Renovations have started and are on schedule to be complete by the start of the school year.
All of what has been needed so far has been from the board's own pockets. For our facility we have a development company that is purchasing the building, renovating and will lease back to us. For other start up costs we will be getting a short term loan and working very hard on fundraising, naming rights to the innovation labs, etc.
Our facility development company is ACD, American Charter Development. We reviewed and vetted proposals by several such companies and ACD had:
1. The best financial deal.
2. Had worked with the most schools - 55 so far.
3. 33 of the 55 schools have already bought themselves out of their deals. Our goal is to accomplish this in 4-5 years.
We also have short term relationships with an attorney and a charter consultant. We have no other partnerships.
Because there is an overall teacher shortage we are focused on teachers at this time. Other positions will be posted in the future. Anyone interested in working at the school is welcome to send their interest area and resume to hr@fastk8.org
We are offering coding as a replacement for the time and money other schools spent on foreign language. There seems to be a movement to allow coding to count as foreign language (https://goo.gl/uT7iXT) but it hasn't happened yet. As we add grade levels, and more importantly, space, we may reconsider if there is significant demand. If there is sufficient interest we may also offer foreign language as an after school paid activity.
FAST may not have the same trips as Rock Eagle and Tybee, but we hope to have memorable trips. We will have to raise the money to do this and confirm what our school community wants. It's really a school built by the community for the community.
Tag in middle grades will look like accelerated leveled classes, so tag science, tag social studies, etc.
Right now they are music, PE, technology, coding and art.
Hopefully we will have a gym before mid year, until then it will be pushed into the lower grades or held outside.
Enrollment plan is 4 classes in each grade. K, 4th, 5th and 6th are all starting with 4 classes in each grade so there won't be expansion based openings in those grades as planned now.
There will be a uniform but we will make it easy and comfortable. The goal is to keep the focus on learning and off clothes, but we want our kids to be active.
High School is certainly a question that is out there for us. Once the K8 is running well we will be putting together a committee to explore high school. The key is we have to be able to do something more and different from what is in high school now. We also need to understand the plans for FCS and the old Milton High School building. It sounds like it may become a new STEM high school. So with all of that we need some time to see if it makes sense and what it will look like. We hope our parent community will be very involved in that process.
Monday: 7:40am - 3:20pm
Tuesday: 7:40am - 3:20pm
Wednesday: 7:40am - 3:20pm
Thursday: 7:40am - 2:20pm
Friday: 7:40am - 3:20pm
One of the exciting facets of FAST is our Innovation Lab. Students will receive an extra hour of instruction four days a week to participate in innovation activities. Innovation Lab is designed and driven by the tenets of problem solving and design thinking, and students in all grades will participate.
Meanwhile, one day per week will be regular dismissal for students so that teachers can participate in professional development opportunities. As we work through the logistics of creating a meaningful learning experience for students, the FAST staff has determined that the best day of the week for regular dismissal is THURSDAY.
This schedule is different from what was originally published on the school website.
We apologize in advance if this change causes any inconvenience to families, but this aligns with our ultimate goal to “Create and nurture the next generation of innovators, problem solvers, and leaders.” We believe we have come up with a program that will engage and enrich the lives of our students and are excited to start the new academic year.
We will have a large population that is accelerated by more than one year. It is probably the second most common question. They will be together in an accelerated class with a trained teacher. One of the major points for this school is individual continuous growth. We are absolutely committed to that.
The intention for FAST to be math and science focused does not mean that literacy is a secondary goal; it means that STEM concepts are integrated into the literacy equation for our students. Literacy encompasses three components for students; Reading Workshop, English Language Arts (ELA) and Writing. These subjects will be taught as a block, particularly in the early grades when students are progressing from learning to read, to reading to learn, so that students have more opportunities to link the concepts together.
We don't know the actual time but outdoor exercise is a big deal to us. Kids need to play. They need a break. We believe exercise makes time in class more effective.
19-21 with a teacher and parapro.
Extra curricular activities will depend on interest. We've heard people may want a language opportunity. We may not have extra curricular activities on day one other than after school programs, but will look into putting them together soon after school begins and we understand the true interests of our community.
There are no plans, at this time, for sports. It is our understanding, but will need to confirm with FCS, that children attending FAST are still allowed to play on their home zoned school teams.
Obviously there is always a risk, in truth any school building could have a disaster prior to school opening. Most construction delays are related to weather. All of our construction for year 1 is internal by design to reduce if not eliminate the risk of weather related delay. We are making contingency plans for space if there is a delay, but we do believe the risks are not great because it's all internal. Our facility construction partner has built nearly 60 schools, on time and on budget. We are confident we will be open on time.
Homework should be for practice if needed. Kids need to be kids and many have extra-curricular activities. The goal is for most work to be done in school. If a child is working to move up a level in acceleration, they may have additional catch up work, but that should be the exception.
We will be using an outside vendor to bring really healthy kid-food options into school on a daily pre-ordered basis.
Classes will be leveled so that children learning at similar levels are all in a classroom together.
Yes, as long as openings are available.
Yes, teachers will provide that list based on the needs for their classroom.