Gov. Ivey visits Ivy Classical in first weeks

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is no stranger to the classroom — and she returned to her roots as a school teacher when she visited Ivy Classical Academy.

The new charter school opened in August after it was authorized by the Elmore County Board of Education under legislation proposed by Ivey to help improve Alabama’s education system.

“(Charter schools) are just a part of the whole puzzle,” Ivey said. “We're working hard for all the charter schools, and they're paying off for us.”

Ivey spent part of the morning visiting with students. She spoke with first and second graders at the school reading Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You Will Go. 

Ivey addressed third, fourth and fifth graders in the cafeteria of Ivy Classical after they recited the Pledge of Allegiance in both English and Latin. She told the students they have a special opportunity as Ivy Classical Academy starts its journey as a charter school.

“Each one of you is having to write the first chapter of this story,” Ivey said. “There's something extraordinary about being here from the very beginning, about being a place dedicated to offering a unique and meaningful education. It's unique because it focuses not just on academics, but on the kind of person you're becoming. Here you're learning about things like respect, honesty and kindness. These are values that will guide you throughout your entire life, no matter what you choose to do.”

Ivy Classical Academy founder Bradley Neave said the school is different from most in its educational format. It uses the classical idea of getting students to ask questions about everything. Neave said students come from many different backgrounds and despite only being in the school for a few weeks are already reading more books and handwriting has improved.

“Every one of our teachers believed in Ivy,” Neave said. “They left other schools or came out of homeschooling. They came out of private schools to teach every one of our students.”

The decision made by teachers to come to Ivy was critical but Neave told the students there was a far bigger decision made. 

“The most important choice that was made was by your parents, your grandparents or your family members when they chose to believe in Ivy,” Neave said. “They chose to enroll you in the school. It's because they believe in Ivy's mission and they trust us and this administration that this school is going to shape your future.”

Ivy’s head of school David Withun said the classical academy’s mission is to inspire better people along with giving them knowledge.

“We want them to know a lot of things, but we also, and perhaps more importantly, want to improve their hearts,” Withun said. “It means that we want them to be virtuous, thoughtful people, so we focus on kindness and politeness and what it means to be a citizen in our country, even in our local communities.”

Ivy is built out of parts of a shopping center for its physical location. It was just a shell to start with and given the short time frame to get students on its campus, it relied on partnerships created as the charter school was authorized. It leaned heavily on the Elmore County Schools, especially the Child Nutrition Program. Ivy has about 600 students. About 100 are residents of Elmore County. 

Although the school’s cafeteria was recently completed, the new campus does not have a kitchen yet.The Elmore County CNP has been shipping about 200 meals a day to the school and providing staff to coach the charter school on how to start a meal program.

“They showed up on the very first day of school that we had a cafeteria and we're helping to serve food,” Withun said. “They were helping do crowd control in the cafeteria, all those things that are part of a school lunch.”

It is knowledge Withun said is much appreciated and they are finding the Elmore County Board of Education helpful in other ways as well.

“It is just the know-how in terms of being able to fulfill all the obligations that we have to fulfill towards the state in terms of paperwork and better serving our students,” Withun said.