Handcart Days Parade

Learning the Past, Creating the Future, our school motto worked great as a theme for the parade. Thank you to the secondary students who participated in decorating and representing LPA in the parade! Also, thanks to Mr. Eccles and Dr. Bruno for doing the driving!

A school it will be!

Latest pictures of the beautiful new secondary school building!




Student/Front Entrance










East Entrance
Look at the parking lot!

Front Stairwell

These shots were taken two weeks ago - time for some new shots! Check back soon!

Silver Eagle Invites LPA to Community Panel

Yesterday evening I attended the first Community Relations Committee meeting held by Silver Eagle Refinery management. Woods Cross City Mayor, City Administrator, Police Chief and the Metro Fire Chief were also in attendance along with various other local personnel. Silver Eagle has put this committee together to improve its emergency response procedures and help educate local residents about their business.
The discussions yesterday were primarily regarding the refinery fire in February and the safety measures Silver Eagle is working on and what else can be done in the community in case of future emergencies - from response from emergency personnel to communication to the citizens and parents of school children. I will be attending these meetings every other month and will keep you updated.
Silver Eagle has a keen interest in the safety and well-being of the students attending the new LPA campus and are very open to discussions and partnership with the school to ensure it remains safe for everyone. LPA has a committee that is currently working on an emergency response plan for the secondary school, when completed will be available for parents. The plan for the elementary is available at the school and will be posted on the website this month.

New Community Outreach Specialist!

Some unexpected changes have taken place with regards to The Community Outreach Specialist position. Nicki Claeys excitedly joined LPA as the new Community Outreach Specialist. She will serve as liason between the two schools in capacities that will include PR & communications, enrollment, volunteers, school events and fundraising. Nicki has spent the last six years working in non-traditional education, management and consulting for local museums and non-profits including The Utah Science Center, The Leonardo/BODY WORLDS 3, The Original Exhibition of Real human Bodies, and Discovery Gateway. She has also served on local PTA boards which included two terms as President. Prior to this, she enjoyed a 10 year career in massage therapy where her clientel included prominent business men and women in the Salt Lake area. Nicki‘s true passion is in working with youth to assist in the development of strong minds and independent thinkers through challenging, engaging, non-traditional educational opportunities. She happily married and is the mother of two beautiful daughters ages 15 and 6.

LPA!

2009-2010 Sports Offered

Representatives of state charter and private schools met last night and agreed to offer the following sports for the 2009-2010 school year:

Boys Volleyball - Season begins 9/14 and ends 10/26, with a final tournament 10/26 - 10/30
Girls Volleyball - Same as above
Boys Cross Country - Season begins 9/14 and ends 10/26
Girls Cross Country - Same as above
Boys Basketball - Season begins 12/14 and ends 2/22, with a final tournament beginning 2/23
Girls Basketball - Same as above
Co-ed Soccer - Season begins 3/29 and ends 5/7, with a final tournament 5/12 - 5/14

Boys Baseball, Girls slow pitch softball, and a multi-school olympic games are also being worked on but not yet finalized.

Construction Update

Construction is moving forward at a rapid pace!

Meet Dr. Bruno, Secondary School Director

Dr. Dennis Bruno comes to LPA armed with a plethora of experience and expertise as an educational leader. His professional background includes: Superintendent, Glendale School District, PA; Federal Grant Program Coordinator; Director of Curriculum and Instructional Technology; Teacher of the Gifted & Talented. He earned a BS in Elementary Education in 1972, a Master of Educational Administration in 1980, and received his Doctorate in Instructional Technology and Distance Education in 2003.
As an avid photographer Dr. Bruno earned the award for International Wedding Photographer of the Year in 1987. He has a home in Maryland where he plans to retire one day. He has a beautiful wife, Debbie and two children, David and Jenny.
We are thrilled to have Dr. Bruno join the LPA administrative team as Secondary School Director. We expect his enthusiasm, experience and effectiveness in his efforts will help to make LPA a school of excellence.

April 19th shots of the building progress

The building construction is on schedule and coming along quickly.

Hiring New Administrators and Faculty

The expansion committee has been working on finding new faculty and administration to accommodate the growth we are experiencing. It is an exciting time and we have a lot of applicants, some we are very excited about. We are currently interviewing like crazy and have classroom observations next week to assess teaching and management skills.

We have hired a Community Outreach Specialist which is a new administrative position at LPA. His name is Philip Gromm and he is currently finishing his Bachelor degree in Mass Communications in New York. He will be joining the administrative team the end of May. His responsibilities will include: public relations, fundraising, marketing, communications, and others. We are thrilled to have Phil for this much needed position.

A big focus for us right now is hiring a director for the secondary school (6th-12th grades). Mrs. Hatch will continue as director over the elementary school (K-5th grades). We are looking for someone with the experience, vision and energy to take LPA’s middle and high school to the next level in all aspects, e.g., academics, behavior, classes, teaching, clubs, electives, school culture, community, etc. We have some great applicants so we looking forward to a bright future for the LPA expansion.

Some shots of the groundbreaking at the new site. February 28, 2009.

Feb 19th Progress Report

The building pad was stripped of topsoil last week GSH visited for a inspection. Verifying that the pad was ready for fill. The pad has since been filled with structural fill, intermountain testing was the low bid on testing, they have been testing the compactions. Footing excavation started yesterday, GSH will verify the soils conditions today, rebar is being delivered today. We will make our first footing pour tomorrow if all goes well. Our construction sign will be made after we get the legacy logo file to the sign maker.

The Groundbreaking Ceremony is scheduled for Saturday February 28th at 10am!

Let's go!

We crossed some big hurdles the last couple of weeks and can finally announce that we have closed on the land! Things will really start moving now, whew!

It sounds like some of you may have some practical, actual suggestions to make this work well. We will be setting up committees and need people who have the ideas and will power to help move this in the direction that will prove successful. Please let us know if you’d like to contribute to the effort by contacting the expansion committee at expansion@legacyprep.org

Some Answers

We have been reading your comments and would like to answer some questions.

Regarding the size of the new school compared to planned attendance, the new school is a two story building so we have planned enough classrooms to accommodate the expansion.
Parking and drop off/pick up have been discussed in detail. The parking lot has already changed multiple times as we make adjustments with the architects. For example, we have talked about high school students having separate parking, which will minimize interference with drop off and pick up for the lower grades. We realize we need a lot of parking and have emphasized this point repeatedly. Safety is a primary concern as we talk about the entire set up.

Please note that the rendering below is not final. We posted it to give you an idea of what we are working on. This is still a work in progress and will change.

Concerning the location of the school: we have once again (we had a hard time finding land the first time around as some of you may remember) searched extensively for viable land options. Every potential land parcel that might have worked for us has been eliminated for one reason or another – the most common being financial (arm and a leg anyone?). We believe the property that has been chosen is the most advantageous of all options for the LPA Expansion. The board has a statement they will release soon that will cover why this is so.

Just a reminder that all board meetings for LPA are public and you are welcome to attend. Agendas are posted for these meetings beforehand so that you can know what topics are coming up. Meeting notices are posted at the school (look to the announcement wall by the front desk), as well as at the State of Utah Public Meeting Notice website at http://www.utah.gov/pmn/index.html (type “Legacy Preparatory Academy” into the “Entity” search box to get results).

Building Phases

The new high school will be only 1 of 3 phases planned for the new Legacy Preparatory Academy Campus. Click on the picture above to see a larger rendering.