SOAR Academy celebrates anniversary, $500,000 in funds

EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The SOAR Academy on Thursday celebrated its 12-year anniversary as a neurodivergent private school in the CSRA.

It also celebrated receiving half a million dollars in 2022. SOAR Academy received a STOP Award from the Yass Prize Foundation. It awards funding to non-traditional schools doing innovative things.

The school has a wait list of 64 right now that will be coming in the fall because then the school will have more space, too.

It plans to more than double its space.

Even then, the school is constantly getting parents desperate for solutions for their kids who find the traditional system isn’t working for them.

“We’re after the kids that no one wants ,and they come here, you know, they got these resumes that are just terrible – behavioral defiance, anxiety – and the class shuts down and you come here, smaller environment, multi-sensory, flexible schedule, and they’re seeing all that goes away,” said founder Kenisha Skaggs.

LEARN ABOUT SOAR’S PLANS FOR FUTURE:

The Yass Prize team was at Thursday’s celebration, which had the theme of “Creating Leaders Through Literacy.”

The Yass Prize, gives more than $10 million out each year to organizations that are sustainable, transformational, outstanding and permissionless.

The Chamber of Commerce was also there along with local dignitaries who support school choice options.

We were there Thursday, but also stopped by the school earlier this week to learn what makes it so special.

It’s a school that serves students with autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, depression, or any other neurodiversity.

For eighth-grader Carter Hazuda, what makes the school unique is teachers like Tiffany Scott. She takes a creative approach to help students learn.

“Teaching neurodivergent students, you have to be creative. You have to get them going. You have to keep them interested,” said Scott.

She’s using music to teach students to read and be excited about it.

“It makes it much easier for the words to flow, and it, you know, becomes an easier process because reading can really be tedious. I love to see children excited about learning and the progress that they make,” she said.

This creative, multi-sensory approach to education is the goal of all teachers.

Kenisha Skaggs is the founder and director of SOAR Academy. She said, “If we can be more flexible and slow everything down, it seems to work. By us providing that one-on-one intervention, and being willing to take them back to the foundation, without making them feel small, it’s huge.”

It’s helping students like Hazuda soar.

“I was so behind whenever I came here. I was like multiple grades behind from what I was supposed to be,” according to the student, who “didn’t have the best experience” in public school.

“It was just a struggle to learn and comprehend things like the other students in the school,” he said.

But SOAR has been a great experience, he said.

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