Amana Academy Closes on Alpharetta Square Plaza Purchase to Expand

The public charter school has filed a letter of intent to renew its charter, which expires after the 2013-2014 school year.

Amana Academy has closed on the 100,000 square foot Alpharetta Square shopping plaza on Main Street, which has been home to the public charter school since 2007. The school secured more than $8.6 million in bonds to buy the property. The school did not use any county or school district capital program dollars to acquire the property, according to an announcement posted on Alpharetta-Milton Patch by Ehab Jaleel, the school’s executive director and the school’s principal. Amana Academy spent three years trying to secure a permanent home for the Fulton County charter school. One of the attempts was to get rezoning to move into a building off Marconi Drive, but that met with disapproval from many in the Windward community and Alpharetta City …

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Alpharetta's Community Development Staff Moving on Jan. 11

Unless you want to help them move, you probably won't want to be at the old offices on Friday.

Next week Alpharetta will relocate its Community Development Department offices to a new location at 217 Roswell Street, a short distance from its current site. The move will occur on Friday, Jan. 11, and customers will begin receiving services at the new location on Monday, Jan. 14. “Due to the large volume of customers that we receive each day, we wanted to make most of the move occur over a weekend to avoid inconveniencing the public,” said Richard McLeod, Alpharetta’s director of Community Development, in a news release.  “Unfortunately, customers should anticipate limited services being available on Friday, Jan. 11.” Alpharetta’s Community Development Department provides a wide array of public services including enforcement of zoning …

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Alpharetta Community Development Must Move into New Offices

Amana Academy's expansion plans in the shopping center that also houses the Alpharetta department is forcing the move.

Amana Academy plans to spend $10 million to buy the shopping center that houses not only its existing charter school location, but also the Alpharetta Community Development Department and several other businesses. so the city department has to find another office space even though it will move into the new City Hall in the downtown City Center in about 18 months. The Community Development Department isn't moving far. Office space has been found in an office build just behind the Satay House restaurant in that same shopping center. The new space is at 217 Roswell Street, and the department will be moved in this January 2013. Community Development director Richard McCleod said it's unfortunate that they will have to move twice in 18 months…

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Amana Academy Principal Given Coveted 'Game Ball'

Fulton County Schools Superintendent Robert Avossa passed the praise to Ehab Jaleel at a monthly meeting of principals and central office staff.

Sitting among principals from the 100 Fulton County schools and central office staff at their monthly meeting on Dec. 13, Amana Academy Principal Ehab Jaleel listened to the district's Superintendent, Dr. Robert Avossa, transition his remarks from leadership advice to recognizing key individuals with "game balls". The game ball portion of the meeting is highly anticipated; and Mr. Jaleel was stunned to hear his name called out. As he does at every month's Principals Meeting, Dr. Avossa hands out a football or basketball to a few select individuals working in the system who are nominated by their peers and evaluated by the Executive Committee for service and leadership. Ehab Jaleel was the first charter school leader to receive the honor. …

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Alpharetta Postpones Hearing on $10 Million Bond Issue for Amana Academy

The city had scheduled a hearing at 6 p.m. today, Dec. 3, on the public charter school's plans, but cancelled today's hearing to ensure the public has more notification about it.

The Amana Academy $10 million bond issue hearing originally scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. today, Dec. 3 has been postponed, the city of Alpharetta announced this afternoon. "This action is being taken by the City of Alpharetta to ensure enhanced notification to the public as to the time and place at which the hearing will occur.  A revised hearing schedule has not been determined at this time," said the notice issued by Assistant City Administrator James Drinkard. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 requires a public hearing as a pre-condition for the exclusion from gross income for federal income tax purposes of interest on all qualified private activity bonds, according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. …

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Dom

7:30 pm on Saturday, April 20, 2013

I totally agree, horrible experience at that school. Worst decision we made   more ›

Get Out This Easter Weekend for Fun, Fairth

Plant sales, Easter Egg hunts and Tea Party meetings are a few of the events this weekend.

Alpharetta Easter Egg Hunt and Visit with the Easter Bunny Easter Bunny Canvas pPainting with Out of the box art Amana Academy School Tour Roswell Easter Egg Hunt and Visit with the Easter Bunny at the Smith Plantation Home Zumba Jam Healing Writer’s Block North Fulton and Friends Tea Party Meeting Johns Creek Red Hound Celebrates 12th Anniversary Lenten Fish Fry A Thousand Cranes Learn To Dance Ballroom BYOB Painting Class Show Me The Funny! Authors Peter Desberg & Jeffrey Davis Cumming Plant Sale at Cumming Fairgrounds Kinsey Family Farm at FCMG Forsyth County Plant Sale The Cumming Harvest Market Festival Palm Sunday Worship Service Forsyth Community Chorale Concert

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Verizon Family Fun Walk Nets $22,000 for Amana

The Fulton County charter school's annual technology fund benefited from a $10,000 donation match by Verizon.

Amana Academy received more than $11,000 in donations and got a $10,000 matching donation as it hosted its second annual Verizon Family Fun Walk in support of Amana's Technology 2012 Annual Fund. Approximately 150 people attended and Amana received $11,162 in donations. Verizon has agreed to a matching donation of $10,000. The funds will be used to purchase hardware and other technology resources to further advance Amana's Expeditionary STEM program, which will be highlighted when the school hosts an Expeditionary Learning STEM institute in November of 2012. Amana Academy wishes to recognize the following Amana parents who are also Verizon employees: Amer Ahmad, Bham Ahmed, Brinda Taylor, Gary Samuels, Gwen Garrett, Hisham El-Nazer, Jaquan…

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Amana Academy Parent Joins Georgia Advisory Council

Craig Dean will help make recommendations to move STEM–science, technology, engineering and mathematics–education forward in Georgia.

Craig Dean, an Amana Academy first grade parent, was named to the Georgia Department of Education STEM Advisory Council. The council consists of education and business people who make recommendations to move STEM education in Georgia forward. His background is in physics research and technology development with Argonne National Laboratory, the Battelle Memorial Institute, and Translumen Technologies. STEM represents the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM education encourages a curriculum that is driven by problem solving, discovery, exploratory learning, and student-centered development of ideas and solutions. The saturation of technology in most fields means that all students – not just those who plan to …

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Amana Academy Teacher Awarded Fulbright Scholarship

Callaway will use the scholarship to study diversity in the German educational system this summer, and teach what she learns about the culture next fall.

Amana Academy kindergarten teacher Azusa Callaway has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship. This prestigious program offers grants to study, teach and conduct research for U.S. citizens to go abroad and non-U.S. citizens to come to the United States. Ms. Callaway's scholarship will allow her to travel to Germany and study diversity in the German educational system. In addition to studying diversity in the German educational system, she will have the opportunity to meet and study with other outstanding educators from around the world. "We know Ms. Callaway will have many important insights to contribute since she is coming from Amana, one of the most diverse schools in metro Atlanta," said Amana's Rochelle Wilson. The program will take …

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Letter to the Editor

Mother of Amana Academy Students Challenges Opponents to Engage with School

Seeing the Future: Vision or Status Quo

Early this morning, my sons’ school was denied the opportunity to purchase the 5905 Windward property, which would have provided for perfect alignment with the school’s educational platform, purpose, and mission which is providing excellence and leadership within the scope of expeditionary learning. As a business professional and current MBA/ MPA candidate, I understand the intricacy and legitimacy of private and public concerns. However, I am saddened—not for my sons or the school—but for the Windward area. Our request for the Conditional Use Permit, or CUP, and the eventual variance to the Master Plan would have changed the use of the area. I brought my sons to the meeting for a variety of reasons, mainly to show them how government …

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