New sports-centric school opens in Springfield with 60 students
A new sports-centric charter school in Springfield opened its doors and welcomed 60 students to its building for the first time.
The Springfield Sports Academy opened Wednesday for students in grades K-5 and early kindergarten, with plans to add grades each year, at 501 S. Wittenberg Ave., formerly J. Warren Keifer Junior High. It’s owned and operated by ACCEL School Network, a company that operates charter schools across the country, including 78 in Ohio.
Principal Travonna Hunter and Chad Carr, executive vice president of ACCEL School Network, spoke with the Springfield News-Sun on Wednesday about the new school that will offer competitive sports and physical conditioning along with academics.
“We are really excited about partnering with the parents and really giving the community an opportunity for a different experience in education,” Hunter said. “(To) provide the intervention or the enrichment that students need to really prepare them to run their own race and make sure all of our friends hit the finish line strong and ready for the next grade level.”
Hunter said they are under an academic plan called the Blitz model where kids get “maximized academics” as well as the opportunity of team sports, electives, and recess. She said the curriculum and schedule allow students to get an hour of whole group instruction, reading and math, and an hour of small group instruction.
“We’re putting students first, we’re going to train kids so that they can be resilient, respectful, and on the road to continuous improvement. We talk about our data with students, with teachers, and we make sure that we reflect on where we are so that as we move forward, we strive to make greater steps and get better every day,” she said.
Carr said the goal of the academy is to provide kids with the chance to develop themselves academically and athletically without sacrificing all of their afternoons and evenings to practice.
Students get an hour of teams sports, but each grade level is different, Carr said. For example, grades K–2 will have a different sport each week to learn, as well seasonal sports such as soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter.
