IACS Celebrates its 2nd Annual Fall Relay Fundraising Event and Debuts New Building (Oct. 19, 2013)
Tyngsboro, MA -- Surrounded by a state-of-the-art track and soccer field complex, a new middle school building, and the “Hawk Walk” entrance to the Soccer and Track complex, hundreds of students, faculty and parents gathered on October 19th to celebrate the Ribbon Cutting and Open House of Innovation Academy Charter School’s new Landberg Hall.
“Landberg Hall is a tribute to the legacy of vision, growth and innovation Walter Landberg contributed to Innovation Academy these past thirteen years. His leadership was paramount in making our school one of the most innovation and successful charter schools in the nation”, said Rick Bourque, Chair of the school’s Board of Trustees. Over the past two school years, the school has built new middle school science classrooms, upgraded the high school science labs, a new turf soccer field, along with a second natural grass soccer field, a state-of-the-art track with javelin and shot-put, as well as Landberg Hall, a new 5th and 6th grade 15-classroom building dedicated to middle school academics and specialty services.
The IACS community has rallied to support these efforts financially, since charter schools do not receive state funding for facilities the way most public schools do. Charter schools are indeed public schools, but are under constraints to use funding differently from traditional public schools, and therefore are not eligible for the additional state funding that other public schools have access to for growth and expansion. Over the past two years, upwards of $250,000 has been raised by the community through campaigns, events and personal giving. This community support has inspired larger corporate gifts such as the $100,000 given by Century Bank last year. “Two years ago those soccer fields were merely ruddy expanses, we were renting track and field time from other schools, and inside the school we struggled with space yet, somehow we still managed to send teams to the national track event and sent 100% of our graduating seniors to college,” said Chad Graves, Chief Operating Officer at IACS.
The day’s festivities extended beyond the Ribbon Cutting with the Second Annual Relay Fundraising event, where 15 teams had worked beforehand to raise donations in their local communities to support the school’s expansion. . “The creativity in fundraising by the students, and their hard work both independently and as teams is a testament to the caliber of student and commitment we have on our campus,” said Carol Passarelli, Co-Chair of the inaugural and Second Annual event. More than $20,000 was raised for this event through the students, parents, faculty and staff from over ten towns in the school’s district.
This year’s title sponsor was the Tae Kwon Do Karate Club, which collaborates with the school to offer student martial arts training as part of the high school challenge curriculum, and offers classes for the public at the Innovation campus. Highly trained martial arts experts led demonstrations and gave performances involving the crowd at the event. There was also music by DJ Stacy, on-site barbequed food, and scrimmage matches by the school’s middle school and high school boys’ and girls’ soccer teams.
With the opening of Landberg Hall, the school has completed 3 of the 4 phases of its Expansion Initiative. The final phase, yet to be funded, is to build a gymnasium to host home games for the IACS Red-Tailed Hawks sports teams, offer robust physical education classes, and give the campus a large gathering space to house it’s ultimate student capacity of 800 students. All enjoyed a fantastic celebration and fundraising accomplishment and planning is already underway for next year’s Relay event!
"The Innovation Academy community committed itself a long time ago to offering the very best that public schools have to offer in the Merrimack Valley in truly preparing students for the 21st Century. The completion of our wonderful new track and field complex, newly renovated and additional classrooms demonstrate what can be accomplished when you fully engage and challenge a community to work as a team,” noted Greg Orpen, Interim IACS Executive Director.
The Mission of the Innovation Academy Charter School is to provide students with a challenging, interdisciplinary education that will prepare them for the 21st century through an emphasis on holistic learning, higher order and critical thinking skills and practical application and integration of curriculum areas.
Tyngsboro, MA -- Surrounded by a state-of-the-art track and soccer field complex, a new middle school building, and the “Hawk Walk” entrance to the Soccer and Track complex, hundreds of students, faculty and parents gathered on October 19th to celebrate the Ribbon Cutting and Open House of Innovation Academy Charter School’s new Landberg Hall.
“Landberg Hall is a tribute to the legacy of vision, growth and innovation Walter Landberg contributed to Innovation Academy these past thirteen years. His leadership was paramount in making our school one of the most innovation and successful charter schools in the nation”, said Rick Bourque, Chair of the school’s Board of Trustees. Over the past two school years, the school has built new middle school science classrooms, upgraded the high school science labs, a new turf soccer field, along with a second natural grass soccer field, a state-of-the-art track with javelin and shot-put, as well as Landberg Hall, a new 5th and 6th grade 15-classroom building dedicated to middle school academics and specialty services.
The IACS community has rallied to support these efforts financially, since charter schools do not receive state funding for facilities the way most public schools do. Charter schools are indeed public schools, but are under constraints to use funding differently from traditional public schools, and therefore are not eligible for the additional state funding that other public schools have access to for growth and expansion. Over the past two years, upwards of $250,000 has been raised by the community through campaigns, events and personal giving. This community support has inspired larger corporate gifts such as the $100,000 given by Century Bank last year. “Two years ago those soccer fields were merely ruddy expanses, we were renting track and field time from other schools, and inside the school we struggled with space yet, somehow we still managed to send teams to the national track event and sent 100% of our graduating seniors to college,” said Chad Graves, Chief Operating Officer at IACS.
The day’s festivities extended beyond the Ribbon Cutting with the Second Annual Relay Fundraising event, where 15 teams had worked beforehand to raise donations in their local communities to support the school’s expansion. . “The creativity in fundraising by the students, and their hard work both independently and as teams is a testament to the caliber of student and commitment we have on our campus,” said Carol Passarelli, Co-Chair of the inaugural and Second Annual event. More than $20,000 was raised for this event through the students, parents, faculty and staff from over ten towns in the school’s district.
This year’s title sponsor was the Tae Kwon Do Karate Club, which collaborates with the school to offer student martial arts training as part of the high school challenge curriculum, and offers classes for the public at the Innovation campus. Highly trained martial arts experts led demonstrations and gave performances involving the crowd at the event. There was also music by DJ Stacy, on-site barbequed food, and scrimmage matches by the school’s middle school and high school boys’ and girls’ soccer teams.
With the opening of Landberg Hall, the school has completed 3 of the 4 phases of its Expansion Initiative. The final phase, yet to be funded, is to build a gymnasium to host home games for the IACS Red-Tailed Hawks sports teams, offer robust physical education classes, and give the campus a large gathering space to house it’s ultimate student capacity of 800 students. All enjoyed a fantastic celebration and fundraising accomplishment and planning is already underway for next year’s Relay event!
"The Innovation Academy community committed itself a long time ago to offering the very best that public schools have to offer in the Merrimack Valley in truly preparing students for the 21st Century. The completion of our wonderful new track and field complex, newly renovated and additional classrooms demonstrate what can be accomplished when you fully engage and challenge a community to work as a team,” noted Greg Orpen, Interim IACS Executive Director.
The Mission of the Innovation Academy Charter School is to provide students with a challenging, interdisciplinary education that will prepare them for the 21st century through an emphasis on holistic learning, higher order and critical thinking skills and practical application and integration of curriculum areas.