SAGE Academy opens Sept. 8

By Josh Chase, Correspondent

SAGE Academy, the future educational home for the most academically advanced students in Prior Lake-Savage Area elementary schools, will help students find “an area of passion,” Coordinator Pam Winfield said Monday.

In-depth study will be a hallmark of the school – which will be housed at WestWood Elementary School, where Winfield also serves as principal – because the students who will attend won’t require repetitive lesson plans, the coordinator said.

“We’re not spending as much time teaching the students skills and strategies for reading and math,” Winfield said. “We’re teaching them how to use those skills and strategies to be critical thinkers and learners – to look at the world and evaluate what’s happening.”

All staff positions have been filled, and only a few seats remain unfilled at SAGE – which stands for School for the Advancement of Gifted Education. It will be attended by 75 to 80 “high-end learners” who make up the district’s top 2 to 3 percent of elementary school students, the coordinator said.

To become eligible for enrollment, students were given a variety of tests, including the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT), the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices and the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test in reading and math. Students who scored 132 on the OLSAT test and placed in the mid 90th percentiles for the MAP assessments were considered. In-district students were given priority placement, although out-of-district students were eligible as well.

“These are the kids that think deeply and have high ethical standards,” Winfield explained. “These are the kinds of kids that have the ability to channel energy and make a difference in their immediate world and then in our world as adults.”

When the school opens Sept. 8, there will be one class each of third through fifth grades. According to the most recent enrollment figures, there are four available seats in the third-grade class – in which 21 students are currently enrolled – and two available seats in the fifth-grade class, which has 25 students. Enrollment for the fourth-grade class, which lists 27 students, is closed.

The school will employ three classroom teachers and a lead teacher. Although two of the teachers are new to the district, Winfield said, all the positions would have existed whether the school opened or not, since the students would have filled up classrooms elsewhere in the district.

“We’re trying to keep class sizes at SAGE comparable to the same age [and] grade in the rest of the district,” the coordinator added. “The people that we’ve hired to fill the positions are very in tuned to the needs of gifted kids and to what a quality gifted program is going to look like."

One of those teachers, Dana Niemann, said she’s excited to begin working with the students, who she feels will challenge her as a teacher.

“Working with any student population is rewarding, but with gifted students, the questions they ask and the interesting comments they make always keep me on my toes,” she said. “In their areas of interest and passion, gifted students will often know more details and information than I do.”

Helping students discover new ways to explore those areas of interest “energizes me as a teacher,” added Niemann, one of the district’s new teachers.

Brandie Ahlstrand, who already teaches in District 719, said she’ll be able to better educate students as a result of the new school.

“Every student has a passion within them and my job as an educator is to discover what those passions are and to promote, strengthen and encourage them,” she said. “Being a teacher in SAGE Academy will allow me the creative vehicle to help students set high standards for themselves and our learning community, and reach them through hard work and dedication.”

Students, too, are excited about the new opportunities associated with the academy.

Quinn Sturm of Prior Lake, a former Grainwood Elementary School student who will attend SAGE for his fifth-grade year, said it took some convincing from his mother, but now that he’s enrolled he looks forward to the new school.

Originally, Sturm was hesitant to leave Grainwood “because I have a lot of friends there and now I’m going to a new school.” But the student, who enjoys studying math and science, is excited that students will be expected “to work at a faster pace.”

Fourth grade-bound Megan Perera also looks forward to the accelerated learning offered at SAGE. Having already skipped a grade, Perera will benefit from advanced math work while studying other subjects at the same pace as her peers.

“I’m excited about staying at WestWood and getting educationally challenged,” she said. “It’s a gifted program and it’s supposed to be harder and that might mean more homework, but it just means more fun.”

Planning for the academy began in January, when the School Board assembled an 18-member task force to research the feasibility of opening such a school.

The board approved the plans – which called for the school to be paid for by a redistribution of both Synergy and student services funds – in March. During the early stages of the project’s development, some parents voiced opposition, saying the academy would drain the resources of Synergy, which serves some of the same students SAGE seeks to educate.

But district officials said the programs could coexist since they serve similar but distinct segments of the District 719 student population.

Superintendent Sue Ann Gruver told parents and board members in January that Synergy would continue to serve students who have shown exceptional educational talents but who still function well in traditional classroom settings. The gifted academy, on the other hand, would be for students who – in some cases – might repress their talents to feel more like their classmates.

“[Gifted students] learn best in settings where they can explore and take their learning to new and higher levels,” said Gruver.

According to Winfield, Synergy staff actually served as catalysts for the new school.

“The Synergy teachers have put in an incredible amount of work to make the SAGE Academy a reality,” the coordinator explained. “The amount of time that they devoted to this program was just incredible.”

Contrary to earlier worries expressed by community members, SAGE likely will help the Synergy program to meet its ultimate goal of giving advanced students the challenges and motivation needed to maintain a healthy desire for learning, said Synergy teacher Michele Tindal.

“If they can stick with it, the challenges of the academy will help them to develop the attitudes and behaviors that will allow them to seek out challenges and develop passion about their education,” Tindal explained. “There has to be more than one approach to meeting the needs of gifted students, and with the addition of the academy, there is another programmatic tool in how we approach this population.”

For more information about SAGE Academy, go to www.priorlake-savage.k12.mn.us and click on “Services” or contact Winfield at (952) 226-0400.

Josh Chase can be reached at (952) 345-6375 or jchase@swpub.com.