Leman Academy of Excellence continues its expansion across Southern Arizona with the launch of an online charter school for grades K-8.
Leman Virtual Academy, which will begin enrolling students on June 1, was created with the home-school community in mind.
“The more comprehensive and well-planned the partnership between school and home, the higher the scholar’s achievement,” the the academy’s board wrote in the online school application. “Leman Academy of Excellence and Leman Virtual Academy believes in partnering with the home knowing the significant role parents play for their child to reach their full potential in life.”
The charter school opened its first brick-and-mortar campus in Marana in 2015, followed by a Sierra Vista location last year. An Oro Valley campus will open its doors in August and the first day of classes for the virtual academy is July 1.
Leman Academy follows the model of classical education, which teaches children in three phases rooted in the age of the Greeks. Joseph Higgins, CEO of the academy, said that many home-school parents were attracted to the model and wanted to be able to implement it at home.
Over the nine-month process of getting the online school approved, the board held focus groups with home-school parents and built the online program around what they learned.
The online curriculum will mirror what is taught in classrooms, but it will be up to parents to decide if their child will take advantage of resources, like computers and tutors, available on site.
“Some things we heard: some want a lot of autonomy, some want to plug in a lot to the campus and talk to the teacher to see how they’re doing, how their kid is doing,” Higgins said. “My vision is, as we build out a new campus, we take three or four classrooms and create a lecture area, a lab, some break rooms, and maybe like a Starbucks gathering area so the kids can be in tutoring, and the moms and dads can have their coffee, talking to each other, bonding and creating community.”
Higgins predicts that the online school will have between 35 to 50 students its inaugural year, although it is budgeting for 100. The idea is that in the future, each Leman Academy campus will have 100 additional online students, he said.
Teachers at the permanent campuses can supplement their incomes and teach an online class along with an in-person one. As the program grows, Higgins said he hopes to hire more teachers dedicated to online instruction.
So far, Leman Virtual Academy has a principal and two permanent staff members dedicated to building up the curriculum and creating the training that parents and their children will need to go through.
Higgins said that while the parents will be responsible for helping their child’s education, the staff will be responsible for tracking instructional minutes and for administering end-of-year tests. The staff will check in on students, providing support and enrichment when needed.
“We’re excited,” Higgins said. “It was a really complex process to get through, and that was because I think there’s been so many folks that have gone in and not had a good model. You’ve got to have results, so we’re very committed.”
