South Boston Heights Academy is Five Years Old by Sam Blumenfeld

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.



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



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



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 .

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South Boston Heights Academy is Five Years Old by Sam Blumenfeld