Compass Academy Accepting Applications For Next School Year

Compass Academy in Idaho Falls has been open since the start of the school year.

After a few changes to class sizes and scheduling, the school says they have gotten a lot of positive feedback from students and parents.

There’s no bell to let freshman and sophomores at Compass Academy know it’s time to change classes.
Simple, real world applications like keeping an eye on the clock and knowing when it’s time to switch activities is all part of the school’s focus to prepare students for success after high school.

“We’re trying to treat them like professionals. We look at what we want the students to be when they finish high school and we try to model our school around that,” said principal Matt Bertasso.
The school uses the project-based learning model for their curriculum.

“The students have a lot of control over what their education is going to be and the ability to use their strengths to enhance their education,” said Bertasso.

Compass Academy has a heavy focus on presenting projects to the community.

Students use the freedom of applying their own ideas to deliver the projects on everything from a poster board tothree-dimensional Google renderings of their ideas.

“Well, in middle school they told you what to do all the time, but in this school you get to do whatever you want. Well not like whatever you want, but like you get to have a lot more freedom and choose how you would do projects and stuff and so I really like that part,” said Compass Academy freshman Emma Reed.

Compass Academy is part of District 91, therefore students still have to meet all local and state graduation requirements. Reed said prospective students should consider what type learning suits them best.

“Well, if you like reading stuff and like if you like doing what teachers tell you and not like thinking outside the box, I wouldn’t really recommend it, but if you love like thinking of new ideas I would so recommend coming here,” said Reed.

The school will begin accepting application for the 2013-2014 school year on Jan. 28. Only 150 spots are available for the incoming freshman class. All applications must be submitted to the district office no later than 4:30 p.m on Feb.1. .https://sites.google.com/a/echo.ifschools.org/ca/