ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Suzanne Fortune

M.Ed.

FOUNDERS

Larry Peroulas

John Couchell

Dr. Antonis Stylianou

“The

Greek heritage

belongs

to humanity

and not

just to Greeks”

Dear Socrates Academy Families and Community Members,

On behalf of the Socrates Academy Board of Directors, I would like to welcome you, our scholars, faculty and staff to our 2009-2010 school year. We are off to a wonderful start. I want to thank and congratulate all of you for your hard work, input, support and great interest in making Socrates Academy an “Honor School of Excellence”, North Carolina's top recognition for student performance. This prestigious honor did not come by luck. It is the result of the efforts of everyone at Socrates Academy. Our administration, scholars, staff and parents worked very hard to help achieve this wonderful academic honor.

Many good things have happened during our four years of operation, and they are reflected in our School Report Card which is posted now at this website. We are really proud of what we did. We achieved high growth in all tested areas. Our overall proficiency was 92.8% up five percentage points compared to 89.1% overall proficiency from the previous year. That is great progress. A lot of things have to go right for a school to make high growth. Our students love school and come on campus each day eager and ready to learn.

Our students, ready and eager to learn, love to come to our school. The teachers are effective in the classroom, the administrators inspire excellence in everyone, the parental involvement is strong. Our local and international partnerships are great and the dedication and great enthusiasm of the volunteer Board of Directors is unbeatable. All of these things came together in order for us to make continuous progress and growth.

We are extremely pleased but not satisfied. There is plenty of room to grow. As we move through this school year, we will continue inspiring excellence in everyone around us. Our unique and exciting rigorous curriculum and commitment to helping every scholar achieve academic success continues to make Socrates Academy a wonderful place of teaching and learning. Our success is a work in progress. We should be really proud of what we accomplished. However, we’re on a journey and we’re not at the end of that road yet. We will do our best so that high student achievement and academic growth, provided in a state-of-the-art facility, bilingual/multicultural and discipline environment will help allow our young people to reach their full potential.

Each member of the Board is committed to serving and supporting our school as well as creating a unique and rewarding learning environment so that our scholars will continue to receive an exceptionally high quality of education. We are here to ensure that our school progresses and grows to its fullest capabilities.

Construction is underway on our current elementary school property. To serve our growing needs of our elementary facilities, a gym and seven additional classrooms are added. Current projections are for this new building to be completed in 2010.

In the beginning of this year, Socrates Academy received approval to operate as a K-8 public charter school. We would like you to know that progress is being made on the design and construction of our middle school building. We are working closely with the architect and the property owners to determine and refine the feasibility of the use of their property which is located adjacent to our elementary school. More detailed information will be forthcoming at our next Town Hall Meetings. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending and participating in these important communication events. Representatives from various leadership teams will all be present and you will receive information firsthand about key projects and initiatives. As a reminder, our website www.socratesacademy.us contains information about upcoming BOD meetings (which are open to the public) as well previous BOD meetings minutes and other useful information.

I would like to ask and urge all of you to intensify your volunteer involvement and consider expanding your contributions. We need the input and talent of each of our families. You are the backbone of our school and with your continued love, support and interest we will be able to make our school one of the best in the country.

Many challenges lie ahead. Come together, and honor our mission:

“ work in partnership with parents and community to encourage our students to reach their full potential by developing critical, analytical thinking skills and becoming self-confident in a high achievement, multicultural, disciplined environment. Particular emphasis will be placed on developing proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics both in English and Greek through the use of the Socratic Method.”

By doing this, we will be able to face all challenges ahead successfully.

On behalf of our students, parents, staff, Board of Directors, and the Administration we thank you for your support and commitment to our Academy.

Sincerely,

Larry Peroulas

President, Board of Directors