March 16, 2005
GT Academy earns Glasser award
Grand Traverse Academy designated a Glasser Quality School; one of only 18 schools nationwide
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
They've come a long way, baby!
Since opening in 2000, shoehorning a new K-6 charter school into an unfinished facility being built over their heads, the Grand Traverse Academy has more than doubled enrollment and added a grade a year. Now teaching 675 students in preschool through tenth grade, the school recently was designated a Glasser Quality School.
One of only 18 schools nationwide to receive this distinguished award, for two days last week, staff, students and parents at the Grand Traverse Academy celebrated.
They welcomed Dr. William Glasser of the Glasser Institute to their school, sharing how his Choice Theory principles have been applied at all levels of the school. Choice Theory asserts that people choose their behaviors, driven by the fundamental need to satisfy needs for survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun. The most important need is the one for love and belonging, Dr. Glasser states.
Kaye Mentley, founder of the school and current principal, launched the school on a foundation of Choice Theory, based on her previous work at another Glasser Quality School in Wyoming, Michigan.
The criteria for a Glasser Quality School include a school-wide atmosphere of trust and respect, elimination of discipline problems, schooling replaced by useful education with students achieving beyond competence and students and staff using and applying Choice Theory at home and in school. Other components of the designation include parents studying Choice Theory, students excelling at standardized tests and a general joyful environment at the school.
"I don't thing the kids are different, they are normal kids, but the environment here is different and the adults are different," said Allyson Apsey, assistant principal at the Grand Traverse Academy. "The focus on relationships and the absence of rewards and punishments and teaching Choice Theory to our students and meaningful real life learning. Those things, along with Spanish and lots of things that are going on, make GTA what it is."
Friday morning, school staff plus junior high and senior high students and parents welcomed Glasser and other noted guests.
Before a PowerPoint presentation created by these older students, Mentley noted their importance to success and atmosphere of the academy - how they are an asset not a potential problem there. In fact, that was one of Mentley's main motivations for coming to Traverse City and starting a new school: creating a K-12 school based on Dr. Glasser's principles for success.
While most charter schools stop at sixth grade, avoiding expensive textbooks, elective courses and science laboratories plus perceived discipline problems, she said that the Grand Traverse Academy embraces upper grades. The school has added one grade per year since it began and is building an addition to house the secondary program, scheduled to be completed by the fall.
"We consider older students to be the lifeblood of the school," said Mentley, outlining their contributions in sports, extra-curricular activities and the arts. "Our older students are the first people we go to when we need help around here, they help every single day at the school."
As for the students, they know they are in a different environment and six of the older ones articulated it for the assembly. They discussed everything from the much-welcomed uniform policy, Spanish program, academic standards and the close-knit feeling in the school.
"I love our classes, the teachers and the way they teach," said Ian Wolf, a ninth grade student at the school. "I love going to class, I really do."
Wolf began at the Academy in 2000 when it opened. He left last year to attend a public junior high school, but returned this year in part because he missed the "wonderful" social atmosphere.
"I'm friends with all the high school students, all the teachers and administrators and even some of the parents," he noted.