StudentFirst Academy charter: Plans for a window on the world

The StudentFirst staff at the Forum. From left: Donan Chicot, director of facility, security, & cafeteria services; Sandra Moss, deputy head of school; Stuart Belizaire, dean of students and athletic director; Curtis Walls, director of marketing, social media and brand development; Reshall Williams, director of academics, curriculum and master teacher development; and Phyllis Handford, head of school.

Jan. 8, 2013

The staff of a charter school expecting to be teaching more than 400 students this fall laid out their plans for a Paideia curriculum with an international flavor at the Tuesday Forum.

School owner Phyllis Handford is making the transition from operating as a small private, tuition-based school operating in a Plaza-Midwood church into being the main occupant of the old Wilson Middle School in west Charlotte financed by charter school dollars funneled through CMS.

Staff distributed three documents to Forum participants: a mission-vision statement, a “breakdown of mission statement,” and a two-side color brochure. The charter school’s website is here [saved by the Wayback Machine March 7, 2014, before being removed from the Internet]. The predecessor academy, which operated at a church in Plaza-Midwood, had its website here [saved by the Wayback Machine Aug. 15, 2010 before being removed from the Internet.

Below in seven parts are video from the presentation, then from the Q&A that followed.