Cove Charter Academy to hold fall extravaganza
Fri, 2016-11-04 05:00
News Staff
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
Cove Charter Academy has turned over a new leaf this school year, both literally and figuratively, and to celebrate, the school is hosting a fall extravaganza on Friday, Nov. 11 from noon until 5 p.m.
Campus director Michael Anderson hopes the community will come out after the Veterans Day parade to see what the 200-student, grade K-12 school has been up to since the beginning of the school year.
The afternoon will feature carnival games, food, bounce houses, musical performances by the Early Childhood students. Anderson said the Copperas Cove Fire Department has been invited to come out as well.
The school will also show off its horticulture programs which includes an organic garden grown by the students and the school’s rainwater harvesting system, water from which is used for the plants on campus. The students have also started a composting bin and are learning how to make organic fertilizer.
Anderson said the garden is one example of the school’s change from a fact-based to a skills-based curriculum, just some of the changes that have occurred with him at the helm of the school.
New to the campus and new to Copperas Cove, Anderson said this first part of the school year has been a time of transition for him as well as the school’s teachers and students.
“We are a totally new school, philosophically, in regard to our curriculum, our overall concept and approach. It’s all new. So it’s a challenging year because of that and it’s unfamiliar to everybody except for me. The teachers are learning, the students are trying to deal with the new rigor, parents are trying to adjust to what we’re doing, so it’s all very new.”
The self-paced curriculum is a thing in the past, with Anderson stating the drawback to that approach of learning being that students can end up with gaps in their learning that can affect them later on down the road.
“We’re not in competition with Cove ISD,” Anderson said. “In fact, we want to consider them a sister school. The idea is for kids who learn different kinds of ways, maybe in smaller classes.”
The charter school has certified teachers and like other schools, operates under contract with the Texas Commissioner of Education.
Cove Charter Academy is located at 2205 F.M. 3046. It is a branch of Priority Charter Schools, which also has campuses in Temple, Killeen, Georgetown and Leander.