Drew Charter Students Celebrate STEAM Week with an Egg Drop Contest

Pupils designed different contraptions to see who could keep their egg from breaking.

EAST LAKE — The students at Drew Charter School capped off a week of celebrating STEAM - Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math - with an egg drop contest to showcase pupils' ideas for the best anti-breakage design. The contest was part of a week highlighting their engineering-related work they did all year. The school also hosted Designorama, in which craftsmen and craftswomen showed students the design principles of things they created, from woodworking to food.

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Drew Charter Students Named Carson Scholars

The Carson Scholars Fund, Inc. was founded in 1994 to address the education crisis in the United States.

Twenty Atlanta Public Schools students, including three from Drew Charter School, were named Carson Fund Scholars. The students will each receive $1,000 college scholarships. The fund is named after Benjamin S. Carson, the famed Johns Hopkins Pediatric neurosurgeon, and his wife, Candy. They founded the funded in 1994 after reading a study that showed the United States ranked 21st out of 22 nations in science and mathematics. Since then, the fund has awarded scholarships to students in grades 4 to 11 who excel academically and are dedicated to serving their communities. The Drew students named as scholars were: Since 2002, the Carson Scholars Fund has recognized more than 400 students in the Southeast.

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Planting the Seeds of Healthy Foods at Drew Charter School

Burpee Home Gardens brings its "Grow Anywhere" tour that stresses the importance of growing your own fruits and vegetables.

EAST LAKE — Jakari Vickerson, a seventh grader at Drew Charter School, loves toiling around in his backyard garden, alongside his grandfather. Jakari, who has been tending his garden for the last two years, said he enjoys the quality time they share together and gets a kick out of eating food he's grown. Burpee Home Gardens, the plant and seeds company, is looking to foster a love of gardening that will help create that same joy with scores of kids across the country. The company, which is on a national cross-country tour to promote its "Grow Anywhere Tour" campaign, came to Drew on Friday to deliver 1,500 pounds of fresh, seasonal produce and 450 vegetable plants and seedlings to the children. Drew was among the schools selected to …

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Drew Charter Breaks Ground on High School

Gov. Nathan Deal says charter school is great example and model for other schools to emulate.

EAST LAKE — Commercial strength and residential stability are signs of a neighborhood's vitality. Equally as important is the quality of its schools. So says Atlanta developer and philanthropist Tom Cousins. Cousins, chairman emeritus, of Cousins Properties Inc., was one of several dignitaries who gathered on the back nine of the Charlie Yates Golf Course Tuesday for the ceremonial turning of the the dirt on construction of Charles R. Drew Senior Academy. The groundbreaking brings to fruition a long-hoped for dream of a K-12 educational institution under the Drew Charter School banner, one of the best-performing schools in Atlanta Public Schools and across the state. Indeed, Gov. Nathan Deal, a longtime supporter of the school and its …

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Last Tee for the Back Nine Holes of Charlie Yates Course

Back nine closing in preparation of Drew Charter's high school expansion.

Effective Jan. 2, 2013, holes 10 through 18 of East Lake’s Charlie Yates Golf Course will close in order to prepare the construction site for the Charles R. Drew Senior Academy. Earlier this year, Drew Charter School received approval from both the Atlanta and Georgia Boards of Education to build a Senior Academy, grades nine through twelve and expand Drew’s grades Pre-K through five. The new Senior Academy will be a 200,000 square foot, state-of-the-art, LEED certified school and will house Drew’s Junior and Senior Academies — grades 6 through 12. Yates Course golfers will still use the front nine (and most popular) holes. Current hole No. 17 will become a chipping green, while hole No. 18 will become a practice putting green. By next …

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Patch Pic of the Day

Drew Charter Students' Impromptu Creativity

East Lake school celebrates Fall Festival.

by Cindi Kurczewski Students at Drew Charter School in East Lake created an “impromptu sculpture” that sprung up at Drew Oct' 18 and will only be in place through the school’s fall festival on Saturday. This was part of a “site sculpture workshop” led by Young Audiences teaching-artist Jeff Mather for fourth grade students. The children were asked to create a quick temporary sculpture to inspire their imagination for the possibility for a more permanent installation on campus. While working on the temporary sculpture, students learned how to use tools successfully and design on the fly in a collaborative manner. Students used the elements of art and principles of design to make the sculpture. They also practiced decision-making skills, …

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Drew Charter Receives $750,000 Grant

Drew also named "Charter School of the Year" and receives $50,000 award from the Coca-Cola Foundation.

by Patch Staff The Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement awarded a $750,000 Race to the Top Innovation Grant to Drew Charter School in East Lake. The grant will be used to support expansion plans, including next year's planned opening of the high school, Drew Senior Academy. “We were delighted to learn of this generous grant,” Cynthia Kuhlman, chairwoman of Drew Charter School's board of directors, said in a statement. “An investment in Drew Charter School’s expansion will reap benefits for many years to come in the revitalized East Lake community. Drew’s recent academic successes can now be extended through the high school years, completing vision to provide students with a cradle-to-college education.” Seperately, Drew was …

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Patch Pic of the Day

$2.5 Million for Drew Charter's Pre-K Program

James M. Cox Foundation's grant furthers philosophy of supporting childhood education.

The James M. Cox Foundation is giving $2.5 million to Drew Charter School over the next five years. The money is earmarked to support the East Lake-based school's Cox Pre-K program. Drew's Pre-K program was launched in 2007 with 20 students and now has 66 youngsters. It aims to prepare children with the tools necessary to succeed in the critical early learning years of elementary school and is part of Drew's overall philosophy of pushing its students to excel. "Before founding our company and serving as Governor of Ohio, James M. Cox was a teacher and always valued the importance of education," James Cox Kennedy, chairman of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, said in a statement. "Today, it is vital that we give our children the opportunity to…

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A Conversation With. . .

Cynthia Kuhlman, Drew Charter Board Chairwoman on School Expansion

School leader discusses mission, goals and plans following board of education vote on Drew Charter's expansion plans.

Drew Charter School won approval of its long-hoped for desire to create a high school Monday night. Drew Charter, which is in East Lake, became the city's first charter school when the Atlanta Board of Education approved it in 1999. Its core mission upon which that aproval was based: To primarily serve low income children from the Village of East Lake, a mixed-income housing community. Though the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education approved Drew Charter's request to expand to create a high school and increase K-8 enrollment by another 400 students, district Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. expressed concern that that core mission would suffer as the school grows. East Atlanta Patch spoke with Cynthia Kuhlman, chairwoman of Drew …

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UPDATED: APS Board Approves Drew High School Plan

Board decision comes with several stipulations.

The Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education voted Monday to approve Drew Charter School’s request to expand operations to include a high school and increase enrollment in its elementary and middle school grades by 400 students. The decision to approve the Drew Senior Academy and expansion of the grammar school follows months of lobbying, letter-writing and e-mail campaigns from parents, administrators and other supporters of the East Lake school. "It's wonderful; it’s a great thing," said Drew parent Adrienne Howard, following the board's vote. "It's been in the making for a long time and it's great to have a choice." But the board's approval comes with several strings attached for Drew's K-8 operations: The plan for the Drew Senior …

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