Reading program set

Hope Academy Lincoln Park in Cleveland is holding a program on Friday where fifth-graders read books they've written to second-graders.

The event ends several weeks of studies where fifth and second-graders at the school read to one another.

During classes, fifth-graders were asked to pick a theme second-graders should learn. Themes included respect, honesty and not being judgmental.

Students also picked characters for their stories and also learned how to write for a second-grade audience.

Middle school teacher Brad Adamczyk said the studies encourages unity and students to think about others instead of just themselves.

"Fifth-graders get to reflect on what they've learned since second grade and reflect on their experience," he said.

At the end of the presentation, second-graders will choose their favorite story.

Adamczyk talks about the program in this interview

School collecting change for "HOPE Counts"

The students at HOPE Academy Canton have been collecting spare
change for "HOPE Counts."

HOPE Counts is a program that the school put together to help an area
needy family for the holidays.

Teachers at the school say they expect over $500 to be raised for the
program.

"Students are giving money they could spend on themselves to others,"
Hope Academy Family Advocate Hope Fondriest said. "They're excited to
give and be part of helping."

Presents will be delivered to the chosen family by Dec. 20.

Students at the school are also working on a food drive.

All the proceeds will go to the Akron-Canton Food Bank.

Last year, the students collected 1,340 non-perishable food items; the
school's goal is to increase that amount by at least 25 percent.

Students will also be making holiday cards, which will be given to
patients in area hospitals and nursing homes.

The school has students throughout Stark County, including Canton,
Massillon and Louisville.

Students helped by program

Akron Beacon Journal story mentions that more than 100 students at Hope Academy in East Akron were given bags of food as part of the Backpacks for Kids, which is a program jointly run by the Salvation Army and Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.

Read story here

United Way deadline extended

Due to technical difficulties with the United Way Web site, Life Skills Centers, DELAs and Hope Academies are extending the 2007 United Way Campaign through Dec. 7.

For those of you wanting to participate, please contact Crystal Malone at Crystal.Malone@mydela.com, she will be happy to assist you or provide you with a paper pledge form.

Cathedral school hosts high school fair

Cleveland area private and public school guidance counselors took part in Hope Academy Cathedral’s annual seventh and eighth grade high school fair.

Benedictine High School, Cleveland Central Catholic, John Hay Health Careers, Regina High School, Saint Martin de Porres, and St. Peter Chanel took part in the event.

Students received information about admission requirements, application deadlines, athletic eligibility requirements, entrance exam dates, scholarship opportunities, tuition and financial information and prospective student shadowing opportunities.

United Way drive kicks off

Life Skills Centers, Hope Academies and DELAs will hold their United Way drive Nov. 19-30.

A kickoff party was held Nov. 16 at Main Place.

"We work with community agencies, volunteers and donors so that we can help improve lives right here in our own community," said Laura J. Brelin, Resource Development Director for the United Way of Summit County. "We also help people achieve financial stability so they can improve their own lives."

The schools raised over $19,000 last year for the United Way and has a $20,000 goal for this year.

Raffles will be held with prizes including Ohio State mens basketball tickets, loge tickets to a January Cleveland Cavaliers game and tickets to the Palace Theatre production of "Avenue Q."

Here is a video of Brelin talking about the event.

Video from Hope Academy West veterans celebration

Moses Garrett, a Marine veteran who served during 1961-1966, thanks Hope Academy West students for their recent veterans celebration.



Hope Academy West principal Sharon Durant talks about a veterans event recently held at the school.



Korean War veteran Frank Kowalski thanks students at Hope Academy West for recent veterans event held at the school.

Veterans event update

Five veterans are slated to attend Friday's veterans program at Hope Academy West.

Lewis profiled

Elyria Chronicle-Telegram article mentions Seann Lewis. (second blurb in the story).

Cleveland school to host Veterans Day program

WHAT: The school will invite veterans from local VFWs as well as possibly veteran relatives of students at the school to talk to sixth, seventh and eighth graders there.

A continental breakfast will be served in the school cafeteria, which will be decorated with patriotic themes from the primary grades starting at 9 a.m.

This event will be a visual and audio experience for the students and will enhance their knowledge of history and the roles of veterans in protecting our liberties. Token gifts of appreciation made by the students beforehand will be given to the veterans at this time.

WHERE: Hope Academy West, 12913 Bennington Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, 44135

WHEN: Friday, November 9, 2007 at 9 a.m.

Lewis wins Office Max award, shares prizes with students

Published October 17, 2007

By Beth Mlady
North Ridgeville Press

North Ridgeville resident Seann Lewis devoted several years of his life to the Army and fought in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. When he left the military in 1995, he knew he wanted to give something back to the community. As a fourth-grade teacher at Hope Academy East in Cleveland, he’s doing just that.

Office Max recently recognized his commitment to kids by awarding its Adopt a Classroom prize–$1,500 in classroom school supplies, a banner and a framed certificate–to Lewis. All teachers at Hope Academy East received $25 gift cards to the store as well. The school’s principal, Leon Rallings, submitted Lewis’ name for the award.

Office Max officials recognized teachers like Lewis who “work hard and typically spend money out of their own pockets to pay for supplies and provide the many resources that children need to learn.” And Lewis, 37, is sharing the wealth with his students at Hope Academy East.

“I’m using all of the supplies in my classroom,” Lewis said. “Office Max gave me copy paper, colored papers, a digital camera, a new office chair, a library card and a three-hole punch. My old office chair is being used by the Student of the Week during the whole week that he or she is being recognized. That way, I’m sharing (the award) with the class in a fun way as well.”

Lewis is married to his wife, Angela (a North Ridgeville High School graduate from the class of 1993), and they have a 20-month-old daughter. He is proud, he said, to be a member of VFW Post 9871 in North Ridgeville. He graduated from Ashland University in May 2006, through Lorain County Community College’s partnership program with Ashland. He began teaching at Hope Academy East earlier this year.

His job is not without its challenges though. Many of his students are from low-income, inner-city areas of Cleveland, and some have serious issues and situations with which to endure outside of the classroom.

“My biggest challenge is dealing with the different backgrounds of the children and all the different lives that they lead,” he said.

But do those circumstances ever deter him from his mission? He made it clear that they do not.

“I honestly and truly love my job,” he said. “I love being with my kids in the classroom. I always had a desire to serve my country, and the next best way (to do that) is to help raise our country’s future leaders. The best part of my job is the kids.”

New Hope Academy Northcoast principal named

Gretchen (Joy) Beasley has been named the principal of Hope Academy Northcoast.

She recently served as Home/School Liaison of the school.

Beasley replaces Muata Niamke, who was recently named Operations Manager for Hope Academies.

Report: One in every ten U.S. schools are dropout factories

Read story here

New Operations Manager named

Muata Niamke has accepted and been promoted to the position of Operations Manager for the Hope Academies.

He has served previously as a Family Advocate, Assistant Principal and most recently the principal of Hope Academy Northcoast.

Advocates back charter schools in newspaper article

Terry Ryan is vice president for Ohio programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Emmy L. Partin is a researcher for the institute. The institute's sister organization, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, supports charter schools and sponsors four charter schools in Dayton. They wrote the following piece in Sunday's Dayton Daily News.

Read story here

Ohio has six of top 10 cities in nation for charter school enrollment

Read story here

Hope Academy teacher wins Adopt A Classroom Office Max contest

In September, Office Max emailed information about the Adopt A Classroom contest to recognize teachers that work hard and typically spend money out of their own pocket to pay for supplies and provide the many resources that children need to learn.

At Hope Academy East, Principal Leon Rallings nominated fourth grade teacher Seann Lewis for the Adopt A Classroom Teacher Award.

On Oct. 2, Lewis won the award. He received a framed certificate, a banner and $1,500 worth of school supplies for his classroom.

All teachers at the school received $25 gift cards to the store.

Here is a slide show from the presentation.

Bishop is winner in newsletter name contest

Hats Off to Adrian Stovall from Platinum Technologies for helping us choose our newsletter name of Hats Off.

This entry was a popular choice for many of you!

Stovall was the first to submit this name and he will receive the $50 gift certificate for submitting the name of our newsletter.

We also have a second place winner for our tagline "The voice of school choice." Kenan Bishop from Hope Academies will receive a $25 gift certificate for his winning entry.

Thanks to everyone for their great submissions!

Esperanza pics

Slide show and interview with Trudy from Esperanza program over the summer at Hope Academy Lincoln Park in Cleveland.



Larger slide show

Hope Academies take part in JDRF walk

About 50 students, staff and families from Life Skills Centers, the Ohio & Distance Learning Academy and Hope Academies took part in the JDRF Walk Sept. 8 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Museum in Canton.

Various fund-raisers were held, including raffles, weekly bingo games and a silent auction.

The auction featured tickets to the Ohio State-Kent State football games, a gift basket and a loge at a Lake Erie Monsters game.

DELA Division President Jay Brennan also donated $25 per walker.

All together, the schools raised about $1,300 to help fight diabetes.

Here is a video from the event.



Here is a video from a silent auction held before the walk.

Open house planned

Hope Academy Riverside, 3280 River Road, Cincinnati will hold an open house 5-7 p.m. Sept. 20 at the school. The event is open to the community.

A look back

Interviews with students and staff from Hope Academy Lincoln Park's Esperanza program, which was held this summer.


Interview with Esperanza Inc. worker

Interview with student Allan Velez

Two students, Michael and Jasmin, talk about the program

Teacher Sakinah Patton talks about the program

Interview with teacher Sami Roman about the program

Diabetes fight kicks off

Life Skills Centers, Hope Academies and the Ohio Distance and Electronic Learning Academy are teaming up to help fight diabetes.

A kickoff event was held Aug. 8 in the third floor of the Main Place in Akron to launch a drive to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Fruit smoothies and cookies were served and glucose screenings were offered.

Online bingo, raffles and a poker game are planned to raise funds for the walk, which will be held Sept. 8 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Museum in Canton.

Participants can register for the walk at www.jdrf.org.



White Hat Management Founder David Brennan spoke at the event about his struggle with diabetes.

You can see his speech here.

Looking to make a difference

Photo by CHRIS PUGH/White Hat PR Counsel

Hope Academy West teacher Sami Roman writes on the chalkboard during a class at the summer Esperanza program at Hope Academy Lincoln Park in Cleveland.

Teacher aims to lift students up

By GLENN WOJCIAK
White Hat Marketing/Publications

Teachers can lead the way to a brighter future.

That’s the belief of Sami Roman, a teacher at Hope Academy West in Cleveland.

Roman looks at the teaching profession from a unique perspective. He was a middle and high school teacher in his native Egypt for six years before immigrating to Cleveland 11 years ago.

His inspiration to become a teacher springs from his experience as a student of foreign cultures. Besides English, he speaks Arabic, Coptic, and a little French and Spanish.

He’s seen education lift people up.

“I believe teaching is one of the most important and critical jobs,” Roman said. “A teacher is a person who can help a nation to a brighter future.”

His observation is that many other countries are doing a better job of educating children than is done in the United States.

Roman believes a more rigorous curriculum in Egypt and other countries enables students there to learn more than their American counterparts, especially in social studies, math and science.

“What middle school students learn overseas is what is required from high school students in the USA. We must improve our curriculum to enable USA students more educated than others,” he said.

However, Roman enjoys teaching at Hope Academy West where he believes there is an effective plan to maintain discipline, security and teacher aides as well as the hardware and software needed to give students an effective learning experience.

School marks end of Esperanza program with celebration

Above, an Esperanza student celebrates winning the musical chair contest during the finale of the program held at Hope Academy Lincoln Park in Cleveland.

Program helps Spanish-speaking families

Hope Academy and Esperanza Inc. staffers marked the end of a five-week 2007 Prime Time for Reading Summer Camp and Hope Academy's H.E.L.P. program at Hope Academy Lincoln Park in Cleveland with a celebration.

The program reached out to about 25 students a day between kindergarten and seventh-grade.

The program was designed to give intensive summer training to children of Spanish-speaking families in Cleveland.

In addition, Spanish culture was taught during the program.

Xenaunjriyah Piskac, 7, of Cleveland, left, won a first-place HELP achievement award for best attendance and most improvement, while Elimar Velez, 6, of Cleveland, won second place.

Allan Velez, 9, of Cleveland, stands with Jazmin Ruiz, 9 of Cleveland. The two were honored at the Esperanza program held at Hope Academy Lincoln Park. Allan won for academic achievement and Jazmin won for best behavior.

Students laugh while playing "Hot Potato" during the program.

A teacher smiles while answering a student's question.

Hope Academy teacher Sami Roman makes a point during a class.

Hope Academy podcast is on iTunes

A new podcast has been created on iTunes called "Hope Academy."

The podcast will feature radio interviews and news about Hope Academies.

You can access the podcast two ways.

Link to iTunes podcast (iTunes must be installed on your computer)

Podcastpeople.com site

Fundraiser planned for family

A Massillon church will hold a fundraiser Sunday for the family of a Hope Academy of Canton student who died in a Canton house fire July 14.

Read story in The Independent

Vigil remembers Hope Academy student

Hope Academy in Canton held a vigil Friday night in memory of student Michael Crislip, 13, who died in a house fire on July 14.

Crislip just finished sixth grade at the school.

"This is not the last time we will do this," school principal Tony Townsend told a reporter. "He was a beautiful person. We love Mike. He was a wonderful kid. He will be truly missed."

The vigil was led by Chris Cicero, a seminarian at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Canton.

"I know I'm going to miss him terribly," said sixth-grade teacher Kelly Tucci.

"Mike was dedicated to his education," Townsend said. "It's unfortunate to lose a young life to such a tragic thing."

About 75 people attended the event.

Read story from The Repository

Here was coverage on Channel 3



Here was coverage on Channel 19

School to hold vigil for student killed in fire

WHAT: Hope Academy staff and students will hold a vigil in memory of Mke Crislip, 13, a student at the school who died July 14 in a Canton fire.

WHERE: Hope Academy, 1379 Garfield Ave S.W., Canton

WHEN: 5 p.m. Friday, July 20, 2007

Crislip just finished sixth grade at the school.

"We're a small school," Principal Tony Townsend said. "We're like a family over here."

Townsend said many students have signed an online remembrance book for Crislip.

"(Mike) was an ideal student," he said.

Goddard named to state council

Ohio Distance and Electronic Learning Academy administrator Mary Ann Schneider and Hope Academies vice president Dr. Pearl Marie Goddard were named to the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education Advisory Council.

"Community schools only represent 3 ½ percent of the K-12 public students in Ohio and as such, we are rarely included or consulted in the development of new education policy," said Ohio Coalition for Quality Education President Ron Adler. "OCQE will present the Education Policy Advisory Council as an assembly of hands-on educational leaders. Each (council member), on a daily basis, are saving kids that have ‘fallen through the cracks’ or have simply been underserved by traditional institutions of public education.

"Our mission is to be available to counsel members of the House/Senate Education Committees….the Department of Education, members of the State Board of Education and…..even share best practices with traditional district schools."

Read Repository story here

In memory

Hope Academies across Ohio offer their condolences to the family of Mike Crislip, a 13-year-old Canton resident who was believed to have died in a fire Saturday.

Read story from July 15, 2007 edition of The Repository

HOPE Academies keeping busy

HOPE Academies have been busy during the spring and summer months.

Each building has held promotion ceremonies for sixth or eighth graders.

Many children have been accepted into impressive high school programs. For example, HOPE University has students who will be attending Akron St. Vincent/St. Mary High School and Akron Firestone High School's International Business program.

Each building has a summer offering of HELP (Hope's Extended Learning Program.

Families are attending schools daily to work on their studies. Our records indicate that children who attend summer HELP improve their test scores.
Lastly, our staff members are continuing with their own professional growth this summer by attending college/university courses.

Television commercial

"Perfect elementary school" commercial

"Hey Mom" commercial

Students help Hammers and Nails

Students from HOPE Academy Canton participated in a fundraiser called “Pennies for Paint.”

The students collected a total of $402.20.

The money was donated to Hammers and Nails, a nonprofit agency that helps disadvantaged Stark County homeowners with home repairs.

Award ceremony slated

Hope Academy Chapelside Campus, the School of Excellence will hold its Award Ceremony for grades 1-7 on June 4.

Hope Academy West students look at plant seeds, not litter

Mrs. Zelek’s fifth grade class at Hope Academy West recently participated in a countywide program sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District.
Plant Pride, Not Litter is an annual cleanup and beautification event where students plant trees and flowers and pick up litter.
Assisted by Dan Reagan, the class transplanted tree seedlings and bulbs. Due to weather, we weren’t able to pick up litter, but it is certainly in our plans before the school year ends.
The staff is looking forward to watching our garden develop into a scenic area for all to enjoy.

Broadway campus holds African-American Career Day

The Hope Academy Broadway Campus held its First African-American Career
Day in celebration of Black History Month.
The theme was “The Importance of Education.”
Speakers who visited the campus included a surgical nurse, a fireman, policeman, NASA worker, Director of Student-Multi-Cultural Affairs, a social worker and a librarian.
“Career Day was a resounding success,” said Heather Jakubowski. “We have had nothing
but positive feedback from parents, students, teachers and speakers.”

Cleveland rally backs school choice

Life Skills Center of Elyria graduate Amanda Renish represented Life Skills Centers at a school choice rally Thursday in Cleveland.

"My family and I are lifelong supporters of Life Skills Center and I will continue to be an advocate for school choice because it is what saved my life," she said.

Renish said she wanted to drop out of school before learning about Life Skills Center of Elyria.

Other speakers at the event included Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, Ohio Rep. Josh Mandel (R-Lyndhurst) and other students, parents and administrators.



"We shouldn't restrict the opportunity - we should expand the opportunity," Husted said. "I want every state senator to hear from you."



Here is a link to Amanda's speech.



Life Skills Centers of Lake Erie, Cleveland, Northeast, Elyria and Canton were represented as well as Hope Academy and Ohio Distance and Electronic Learning Academy.