Draft:LEAD Academy Public Charter School

Lead Academy is a free, public charter school founded on the belief that every child can achieve at an exceptionally high level, regardless of background or circumstance. Lead is a member of the South Carolina Public Charter School District. Lead Academy is located in Mauldin, SC and school serves kindergarten through eighth grade. Lead academy opened its doors in the fall of 2010. In 2015, Lead Academy joined a national network of schools called EL Education. EL Education core practices detailed in this book create school environments that promote deep engagement in learning and support students to achieve at high levels. EL students gain skills critical to college readiness and lifelong success-literacy, numeracy, problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, persistence toward excellence, and active citizenship-as well as mastery of subject-area knowledge. The school moved to the new permanent facility at 804 Mauldin Road and grew to 400 students during the 2017-2018 school year. In the fall of 2023, a new addition was opened to expand the related arts program.

Lead was founded on four pillars: Be nice(Empathy). Work hard(Perseverance). Serve well(Integrity). Have fun(Perseverance). These pillars guide everything and help build a stronger school culture. Lead works to incorporate those four pillars into students’ everyday lives all the way from kindergarten through eighth grade and make all of the students become EPIC Leaders.

Lead Academy believes in creating well-rounded students. They believe that in order for students to become effective leaders who can make a difference in the community, achievement must be defined in three ways: Mastery of Knowledge and Skills, Character and High Quality Work.

Learning Expeditions are a crucial part of the Lead Academy academic process. These expeditions involve students in original research, critical thinking, and problem solving, and they build character along with academic skills. All learning expeditions intentionally focus on building literacy skills in students, particularly in the reading and writing of nonfiction text.

Lead Academy offers a number of middle school sports options. Students can participate in sports that are not offered at Lead Academy at the public schools that they are zoned for.