On Sunday, July 15th, Patriot Preparatory Academy opened their new addition to the building. The additional 19,000 square feet of space includes: 9 classrooms, a computer lab, a community space, a science lab, 3 offices, a conference room, a staff lounge, and bathrooms.
A little over 2 years ago, PPA heard about a unique grant opportunity for select charter schools. This construction grant would only be available to any school who was rated as “high performing” on their 2014-2015 school report card. At the time, there were nearly 300 charter schools in the state of Ohio and only 18 of those earned the designation of academically “high performing.” While many people played a critical role in making this dream a reality, ultimately it all starts and ends with our students and teachers.
Being eligible for a grant vs. being selected as a grant recipient are two completely different things. Once we knew we qualified, we only had 7 weeks to submit the completed grant application, which was over 500 pages, and project plans. We met multiple times over this short period with staff from the Keiser Design Group and Elevated Integrity to engineer and design an amazing instructional space along with Marianne Lombardo who wrote and compiled our grant application.
In August of 2016, we received notice that we were one of the 8 schools selected by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission and Ohio Department of Education to receive 50% of the total cost for our new addition. Over the next couple of months we worked with Jean Stevenson and her staff to ensure all of the requirements of the grant were met. In total, the OFCC awarded Patriot $1.5 Million dollars to be used towards this project.
The most important thing we have learned through this process is that it takes a team effort to accomplish anything worthwhile. It is only through the collaborative work of many key individuals that this could be accomplished. That team mindset and hard work is the same thing that we NEED to ensure the success of our students here at Patriot. We can’t accomplish it on our own, it is only through the commitment of the students, parents, teachers, and staff that graduates of PPA will continue to strive for the amazing, the unusual and the uncommon. Thank you for joining us in celebrating the completion of this project!