The Arizona Academy of Leadership opened its doors two years ago and has grown to include extracurricular activities that set it apart from other local charter schools.
Tonya Strozier, the director of the Academy, and her husband Kelvin, the middle school principal, opened the school in August 2007 with 88 students at 5660 S. 12th Ave. Both had been teachers in the Sunnyside school district.
Strozier said the area really needed a school like the Arizona Academy of Leadership.
“We want to be an excelling school on the south side, which is hard. But when it happens, it won’t be on accident,” she said.
There are now about 300 students enrolled in the school. The average class size is 18 students.
Strozier said something that sets this school apart from most others is the teachers, principals and Strozier herself, make a point to get to know every child and their family.
“Every parent is the first teacher,” Strozier said.
The school opens its doors at 7:30 a.m. to serve breakfast to students; 85 percent of the students use the free or reduced-price lunch (and breakfast) program.
Both Strozier and Michele Ayon, the elementary principal at the south campus, stressed the academics at the school are data driven, meaning teachers collect data on all of their students; including what subjects each student excels in and what subjects they are struggling with. Strozier said she believes children cannot be taught effectively if the teachers don’t know their learning patterns.
The academy’s teachers keep track of the different ways they have tried to teach the material to students and what has been successful and what has not. Ayon said this is important because not every student learns in the same way, and the teachers need to try multiple ways of reaching a student.
Since 3-8 p.m. are the top crime hours, the school offers the KIDCO after school program for students up to sixth grade until 6 p.m. Seventh and eighth-grade students have a separate program that runs until 5:30 p.m. Both programs are free and offer homework help, arts and crafts, games and field trips.
By the beginning of December the school will also start a gifted program. This will allow students who are doing well in their classes to step up into classes that are a little more challenging. The school also has summer session, which serves free breakfast and lunch.
The academy also has sports teams that play in the Charter School League in Tucson. The school currently has flag football, boys’ basketball, softball, volleyball and soccer. Strozier pointed out that while public schools have to eliminate sports because of budget cuts, the academy is adding them.
There are also two large computer labs and one small lab. In these labs are 55 computers. There are 30 for the middle school children and 25 are for the elementary school children.
The school is currently building a library and when it is finished it will feature an additional computer lab. The computers are PCs and Macs, so the students are becoming efficient in both.
Every student gets time in the computer lab. Strozier said she would also love to get a computer in every child’s home and they are always trying to think of new ways to incorporate technology into their learning.
They just started Saturday school, which focuses on math, from 9 to 11 a.m. The students will use computer programs as a different approach to learning math. The school is working on getting each student an e-mail address through the school, as well as getting each child their own username, so all of the activity on the computers can be monitored.
All kids at the Arizona Academy of Leadership are taught music and Spanish. Music classes are taught twice per week, and band is also available after school, as well as free math and reading tutoring.
Strozier decided the academy should focus on leadership because she thought those skills were important for all students to learn. &nb
“Students need initiative, compassion and they need knowledge,” she said.
Students wear uniforms of khaki pants and red, blue or white shirts. Ayon said she thinks the uniforms are a great idea because they are simple, which Strozier said keeps kids from competing with each other.
Strozier’s son and daughter attend the school, as does Ayon’s daughter. They said they often get feedback from their kids. They also send home surveys to get feedback from all of the students and their families.
Leadership symposiums are helf for 5th through 8th grade students at the south campus. The first meeting was with the Tucson Police Department gang prevention unit because gangs often operate in nearby neighborhoods.
This year the school acquired two full-sized buses that they use to provide transportation for their students, they don’t rely on the public bus system.
The south campus will add ninth-grade next year. Strozier said the plan is to add an additional grade each year until it is a K-12 school.
Spaces are still available. To enroll in the Arizona Academy of Leadership call 807-9668, stop by the school or visit http://www.arizonaleader.com.
