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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.