Big Changes at Centennial Place

Centennial Place Elementary (CPE) opened this school year as the first conversion charter school in APS and welcomed their first 6th grade class to the school.  The 6th graders spent their first two days experiencing “classrooms without walls”, which was a big goal for the leadership team during this conversion.  Students were greeted by Falcons Cheerleaders and several of the school’s governing board members.  

The entire 6th grade class spent two days at Georgia Tech and Georgia Aquarium classrooms working with CPE teachers and Georgia Tech students and being introduced to project-based learning.  These 6^th graders actually took classes at Georgia Tech!

With the conversion came the changes of new staff.   Over 50% of the teachers are new this year.  They represent a combined 450 years of teaching experience and over 60% of them hold advanced degrees.  As part of the charter’s goals, all teachers will receive math and science endorsements from Georgia State over the next two years and training in project-based inquiry learning from Georgia Tech (PBIL).  There are so many great things happening at Centennial Academy!

I look forward to working with the principal on how we can get more clarity on what it means to be a conversion charter in APS so that we can better support the school.