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Downtown Atlanta's
first private elementary school opened its doors to 30 students Sept.
5 in the Healey Building on Forsyth Street. For school CEO Cole Walker,
opening day was the realization of an idea that has compelled him
for more than four years. A product of Walker's participation in a
grant proposal with a group from his hometown of Huntsville, Ala.,
the Atlanta New Century School is a prototype for learning in an age
of communications and information, he says. "I just fell in love with
the idea of creating a new American school," explains Walker, 29,
who also is pursuing a master's degree in education from Georgia State
University.
Walker and Daniel Kinnaman, a former public
school teacher and technology consultant who has invested in the school,
launched the New Century School with a $600,000 investment. Walker
runs the school from an office constructed as a set for the television
pilot based on the novel "The Client." Making use of what's available
in any given environment is part of the New Century School's teaching
philosophy, so it seemed to make sense for its administrative quarters,
too. The school's founders searched the Atlanta area for a suitable
location before settling on downtown's Fairlie-Poplar district. They
were attracted to the site by the availability of nearby cultural
resources, including the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library, CNN
Center and the renovated Rialto Theater, which is slated to become
Georgia State's fine arts center. The New Century School also is tapping
a potentially significant market. Although the downtown area includes
five preschools, there were no elementary schools for children of
parents working or living in the central city. "I think Atlanta is
the center of the universe right now," Walker gushes. "I love the
city of Atlanta and think it has tremendous potential." Establishment
of the New Century School allows parents the option of sharing their
commute time with their children, Walker notes. The school's location
also offers more opportunities for involvement in their children's
education, according to Walker.
New Century School is competitively priced
among the Atlanta area's private schools at $5,500 annually for a
regular school day. After-school care is an additional $900. At about
30, the school's enrollment is near what Walker sets as his break-even
point, but far below the number required for it to return a profit
to its investors. Designed by the local architectural firm of Venning
Atwood Kean, the 12,000-square-foot school occupies most of the Healey
Building's basement with bright splashes of rugs and toys, shelves
of books, computers, work stations and play areas. Unlike the schools
familiar to most '90s parents, it's not arranged in rows of desks
facing a dusty blackboard. New Century School features open spaces
and activity centers that encourage students to pursue their interests
and learn at an individual pace.
The school's pupil-teacher ratio is about
15-to-1, with two full-time teachers supplemented by a mixture of
part-time specialists such as the music teacher who will make three
visits weekly. Its founders expect to use frequent field trips to
supplement classroom education. The present student body is "a good
cross section of the Atlanta population," according to Walker, drawing
students from all around the metro region. Although the school uses
state-of-the-art computers, its curriculum is not technology driven.
"We believe that good teachers are better than technology," Kinnaman
says. Initially, the New Century School will encompass grades K-6.
Later, the curriculum will expand through 8th grade if sufficient
demand exists, Walker says. Kinnaman and Walker do not see their school
as competition for the city's public schools, but as a model for public
education's efforts to grow and improve. "It's not us and them," Walker
says. "It's more about models of education. We're trying to do what
we know that works."
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