Youth
www.GilbertSunNews.com
July 2015
31
Sierra Preparatory Academy enrolling students in grades 6 through 9 BY ALISON STANTON
Sierra Preparatory Academy, a tuition-free, public charter school that features an enhanced liberal arts and sciences curriculum, will open for the first day of the 2015 to 2016 school year on Aug. 12. Edward Denny, co-founder and headmaster, said the school is enrolling students who are in grades six through nine. Over the course of the next few years, Denny said Sierra Preparatory Academy will expand its enrollment through grade 12. “We will build our enrollment year over year and we offer a progressive curriculum,” he said. Sierra Preparatory Academy will feature class sizes of 22 students or fewer. The school will feature programs like a state-of-the-art Maker Space, natural philosophy classes, Arabic and Russian language programs and the Great Books curriculum, which Denny said features a variety of literary and scientific canons. “The idea of Great Books is that students read the original material, not filtered ideas or textbooks. That way, in combination with their peers and
teachers, they can discuss the ideas of the books on their own terms,” Denny said. The school will also offer an advanced four-year writing program, integrated fine arts classes, and a focus on discovery learning and the Socratic Method, Denny said. Denny said the decision to open Sierra Preparatory Academy was a “lengthy evolu- Edward Denny and his wife, Yuliya Yatsyshina, are the co-founders of tion” that started Sierra Preparatory Academy in Mesa. Submitted photo during his time teaching at Tempe Preparatory Acad- Denny said. emy. About six years ago, Denny and other “I knew all of the students and fami- teachers spoke about their desire to lies, but as the school grew larger some- somehow and someday recapture the thing got lost. The quality of education community feel of a smaller school. was still wonderful but the community More recently, Denny was talking atmosphere got lost to a great degree,” with his wife, Yuliya Yatsyshina, whom
he met during a trip to Kazakhstan, about what he should do when they returned to the states. When he told Yatsyshina that he had thought about starting his own school, Denny said she offered her full support and the two of them co-founded the school. “Sierra Preparatory Academy will be by the teachers for the teachers. Here, the teachers are the administrators, and there is no way we could do this if the school wasn’t small,” Denny said. “I don’t have visions of an empire. Ultimately, I just want to know all of the students’ names and parents’ names.” Denny said that the school is hosting regular open houses for interested parents and students. Anyone who cannot make a scheduled open house is welcome to contact him to set up an appointment, he said. Denny said enrollment is going very well so far, and that he and the rest of the staff are looking forward to the first day of school with great anticipation. Sierra Preparatory Academy is located at 7464 E. Main St. in Mesa. For more information, call (480) 440-0238 or visit sierraprepaz.org.
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