About AmeriSchools Online
AmeriSchools Academy Online: A School’s Choice Gives Parents Choice
Throughout the challenging days of 2020, the AmeriSchools educational family was fortunate to have had amazing parents, teachers, staff, and systems that adapted, adjusted, and performed very well for our student population.
Our results during this time were well documented and positively commented upon by our parents, teachers, and students. We worked together and maintained our focus where it belonged: on our kids.
AmeriSchools also saw the opportunity that this challenge presented. We asked ourselves, “How do we learn from this?” “How do we not just survive this pandemic response, but innovate to create an even more amazing future for our kids?”
AmeriSchools did not just choose to ask the question, but we dared to choose to innovate during a crisis.
Our answer to this question began with an internal development project involving curriculum, instructional, and technical experts. And from this effort AmeriSchools Academy Online was created, offering online instruction, using our in-house developed, integrated, online curriculum, to students throughout the state of Arizona.
Whether through AmeriSchools Academy Online, or at our in-person campuses in Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma, we continue to innovate and deliver results to be the school of choice for Arizona parents and their children. And when you choose AmeriSchools, we want you to know that we want what you want for “our kids”: an educational experience where “the sky’s the limit.”
The 25-Year History of AmeriSchools Academy
During Dr. Reginald Barr’s six-decade-long career, he has served thousands of children as an innovative and conscientious teacher and administrator. He also served other educators through local, state, and national associations, while serving children, their parents, and school professionals, during his two terms on the Arizona State Board of Education.
All of this considerable experience in the field of education set the stage for him to emerge from retirement in 1995 to take on the complex task of writing a proposal for a charter school through Charter Foundation, Inc.
The State Board of Education granted him an official school charter in 1996, the same year his first K-6 charter school opened in Tucson. This was followed in 1997 by a second K-6 charter school in Phoenix. Another charter was granted in 1998 that accommodates up to 6,800 students in Arizona. Thus, the AmeriSchools system of schools was born.
Today, the AmeriSchools system of charter schools includes:
- AmeriSchools Academy, with four campus locations: two sites in Yuma, and one each in Tucson and Phoenix, and
- AmeriSchools Academy Online, AmeriSchools’ “online campus” serving students throughout the state of Arizona.
There are other major events in the 25-year saga of AmeriSchools featured here, as we acknowledge the considerable contributions of Dr. Reginald Barr, Educator.
AMERISCHOOLS ACADEMY TIMELINE: 1995 TO 2021
1995
Arizona Governor Fife Symington established charter schools in Arizona by signing sweeping education reform legislation, with the first charter schools opening in the state in 1995.
1995-1996
Dr. Reginald Barr, former President of the Arizona State Board of Education, submits a proposal in 1995 for The Charter Foundation. The charter is approved in 1996, and AmeriSchools Academy opens at Stone & Drachman in Tucson, Arizona.
1997
AmeriSchools Academy opens in Phoenix on Central Avenue to serve students in grades K-6, and transitions to Camelback Road in 2001.
Academy Adventures After School and Summer Adventure Programs open in Phoenix and Tucson.
1998
AmeriSchools Academy opens the Yuma South campus on South 3rd Avenue to serve students in grades K-6.
1999
AmeriSchools joins the Internet age. Technology was introduced to all the schools to provide Internet access to the World Wide Web, as well as Electronic Mail, and other computer-accessible sources of information.
1999
Community as Laboratory was an innovation that created a bridge between community and classroom in a way that connects the absolute necessity of staying in school with compelling visions of good and prosperous futures.
2000
AmeriSchools Academy opens Country Club campus in Tucson at 1150 N. Country Club, to serve students in grades Pre-K through 8.
2000
AmeriSchools’ Charter School concept wins Innovations in American Government Award from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.
2001
AmeriSchools Academy opens in Phoenix on Camelback Road and Thirteenth Street to serve students in grades K-8.
2008
Dr. Reginald Barr chosen Professional of The Year in Education by Strathmore’s Who’s Who.
2010
AmeriSchools Academy opens the Yuma North campus on South 4th Avenue to serve students in grades K-6.
2012
Renewal application for a new 20-year charter was approved January 23, 2012, and effective July 1, 2012.
2014
Capstone Quest Academy, a private corporation, introduces Pre-Kindergarten for children ages three to five. Also, Before- and After-School Programs are added in all schools in Yuma, Phoenix, and Tucson.
2019
The Premier Issue of AmeriSchools Perspectives quarterly magazine was mailed to all parents and staff informing them of the latest news and activities at AmeriSchools campuses.
2020
The coronavirus struck early in the year, and all campuses closed in mid-March, just before our students began their Spring Break. Our entire staff responded quickly and transitioned to remote learning. Our parents pitched in and made the unprecedented event easier to handle.
2021
Courtney Braren, Superintendent for Instruction, Deacon Drawdy, Director of Information Technology, and others complete a year-long project to develop a customized online curriculum utilizing state-of-the-art technology, and managed by in-house technical staff, creating a highly customized, effective, and secure online learning system for students and staff members. This innovation, AmeriSchools Academy Online, officially launches in Fall 2021.