This Salt Lake School Goes Beyond Just Completing Credits
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FOR INFORMATION: Sonia Woodbury, sonia.woodbury@cityacademyslc.org
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – City Academy, one of Utah’s original eight tuition-free public charter schools, serving students in grades 7-12, just celebrated the opening of their 25th school year of providing robust, meaningful, personalized education in Salt Lake City. The August 20th, 2024 gathering of all students, parents, faculty, staff, board members, and community representatives in front of the school at 8:00 a.m. was a celebration of 25 years and a re-dedication to their mission and vision of inspiring, personalized, worthwhile education that will impact students as individuals and as citizens of our communities.
Sonia Woodbury, City Academy Executive Director, helped found the school in 2000 and said, “The school’s mission is to graduate responsible, informed, engaged citizens who have each achieved their best academic success. Our students are not merely completing credits, they are investigating, thinking, and learning in personally rigorous and preparatory ways in every class. We are preparing the types of knowledgeable, caring, community-involved people you would want to live next door to.
To accomplish this, learning through service and community engagement is an integral part of our curriculum from 7th-12th grades in all classes and through senior service learning internships
I look forward to serving the Salt Lake community as we educate our students for 25 more years.”
The August 20th celebratory gathering also included remarks from Royce Van Tassell, Executive Director of Utah Association of Public Charter Schools who noted, “Sonia was there in the beginning, 25 years ago, championing ideas about personalized learning for all students. In the last 25 years, the number of charter schools in Utah has grown to 145 state-wide, and now 12%-13% of all Utah students attend a charter school. I appreciate all the work Sonia and City Academy have done to further opportunities for students and parents to find the public education that is right for them.”
City Academy’s new Director Grant Stock acknowledged his appreciation for the strong foundation that has been laid at this school and then talked about new exciting plans for the future with growing the Gifted Music School partnership, Flex Monday scheduling for all students, and plans to open the elementary grades. More information about City Academy is available at https://cityacademyslc.org/.
https://education.utah.edu/engagement/blog/posts/math-symposium-2023.php
Friday, May 19 from 5:30-7:00 p.m.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – City Academy, a tuition-free public charter school serving students since 2000 in grades 7-12, will participate in their second invited math symposium for the University of Utah College of Education Friday May 19, 2023 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. Thirty-five to forty students will participate and discuss how they utilized math skills to describe things like music, stem cells, architecture, formula 1 racing, and more.
City Academy parents and the public are encouraged to come for the event and engage with middle and high school students during the symposium, which will be held at the Sorenson Arts and Education Complex (SAEC) Auditorium located at 1721 Campus Center Drive on the University of Utah campus. Tamales will be served for a light dinner at 5:30 p.m., and students will present their math projects from 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Please RSVP to City Academy at 801-596-8489. Free event parking will be available in the Central Parking Garage across from the David Eccles School of Business. More information about City Academy is available at https://cityacademyslc.org/.
Thursday, April 27, 2023 for both current and prospective families
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – City Academy, a tuition-free public charter school serving students since 2000 in grades 7-12, will host its annual open house event showcasing student Service Learning Internship Projects. On Thursday April 27th, from 4:00 until 6:00 p.m., seniors will showcase what was personally meaningful to them during their community-based service internship. The public is invited to attend this event. City Academy students have served and learned with over 160 different organizations to date. The school is located at 555 East 200 South in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The school’s mission is to help students achieve their best possible success and pay close attention to each student’s finest learning progress. City Academy focuses on a strong commitment to personalized, meaningful education, and has also prioritized learning opportunities in the arts within the school’s curriculum for over 20 years. The open house event will additionally highlight the creativity, dedication, ideas, and communication expressed through visual art, as well as vocal and guitar music performances, from the school’s 7th through 12th grade students.
Sonia Woodbury, City Academy Executive Director, said “We are excited to share information with current and future City Academy families about the various personalized possibilities available for prospective middle and high school students. City Academy has earned a reputation for truly helping our diverse student body transition from youth to adulthood. Our students are taught how to think, communicate, and problem solve in ways that aren’t found in most other schools’ curricula.”
More information about City Academy is available at https://cityacademyslc.org/.
City Academy’s Interact Service Committee lead the school this fall in the Warm Welcome Drive, a benefit for the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC in a nonprofit organization that responds to the world’s humanitarian crises, including the conflicts in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Locally, they help serve refugees who have recently moved to Utah survive, rebuild, and recover their lives while integrating into our community.
The IRC Warm Welcome Clothing Drive is designed to help provide necessary winter clothing to many refugees who relocate from climate environments much different from Utah. City Academy students and families collected vital winter clothing resources for donation. The school’s Rotary Interact Club committee members delivered donations and helped with both set-up and clean-up at the Warm Welcome Clothing Drive event which was held at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.
Executive Director Sonia Woodbury expressed that City Academy provides students opportunities throughout the school year to explore and learn about civic and current issues in our city. Partnering with the IRC in their warm winter clothing drive was even more important this year during the unforeseen challenging 2022/2023 winter season. The Interact service committee heard from a Ukrainian friend of one of our students who was in the Ukraine when war broke. The friend fled to Utah and arrived in need of warm clothing. City Academy greatly appreciates the on-going support and commitment from its students, faculty, and school community for helping those in need.
City Academy introduced Personal Education Plans (PEP) for their students at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. PEPs are designed to assist students in achieving individually-based objectives with positive results by personally documenting achievements and highlights, class progress, aspirational goals, and citizenship throughout the year. Objective actions are recorded by each student to track what they are working on towards their individual plan goals.
The ultimate goal is to have each student take personal responsibility and own their PEP, which includes updating all content and goals within their document. Each student also receives support for their PEP process from their Advisor who meets with them weekly. The PEP program provides students independence in creating academic paths and monitoring their success while working towards individual goals. Students will then present results to their parents throughout the school year and in conjunction with instructors during Parent-Teacher Conferences.
Sonia Woodbury, City Academy Executive Director, said that it is the school’s mission to help students achieve their best possible success and to pay close attention to each student’s personal progress. The PEP is an excellent tool to help students make goals, track their progress, and celebrate achievements with their parents and teachers throughout the school year. City Academy is focused on providing opportunities and new academic measures to help their students attain personal achievement goals and celebrate academic success.
City Academy, through the hard work of our computer science teacher Dennis Pedersen, is 1 of 2 schools in Utah and 1 of only 102 schools across the country that have been recognized by Code.org with the Computer Science Leaders award! This award comes with a prize of $10,000 to help the school enhance computer science education for their students.
Sonia Woodbury, PhD, and Executive Director comments “We are proud of Mr. Pedersen’s hard work and commitment that have earned him this very deserved award and we look forward to the educational opportunities in computer science that we will be able to offer our City Academy students”
City Academy is a public tuition-free charter school for grades 7 through 12. City Academy was founded in 2000 by a group of University of Utah educators who wanted to create a better type of school—a school that actually challenged students to think rather than just memorize facts.
Facts about City Academy – City Academy’s advanced placement program is unlike any AP or IB program in Utah. In fact, City Academy is the only school in the state offering the Cambridge University International Examinations program for Advanced Placement and pre-advanced classes. This program is recognized by every Ivy League school in the U.S. and several of the world’s most prestigious colleges and universities, as well as Utah colleges.
To learn more, visit cityacademyslc.org.
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