MicroSociety Academy Successfully Opens Doors to Greater-Nashua Students

The MicroSociety Academy Charter School (MACS), a new tuition-free public charter school, welcomed its’ first cohort of K-5 students on Tuesday, September 8. This unique school started classes at a temporary home 500 West Hollis St. (St. Philip Orthodox Church Education Center) in Nashua. Renovations are expected to be completed at the school’s new permanent home at 591 West Hollis Street, (former Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic) in Nashua, NH, by the end of the month and ultimately house nine classes of 20 students each in Grades K-8.

At this writing, there are still some limited Grades 2-5 seats available in some classes for parents from any New Hampshire town to enroll their children.

MACS School Director Amy Bottomley noted, “NH Parents are still encouraged at this late date to submit their child’s application and required documentation ASAP. The benefit to parents applying to MACS now is that once a student has been accepted for this school year and remains in good standing, the child will NOT be subjected to the anticipated 2016-17 open enrollment lottery in January. An additional benefit is their incoming siblings will receive preference next year for Kindergarten and/or other available limited classroom seats. Even if children are not accepted immediately, an active waiting list is being maintained and can be quickly accessed to fill open seats as they become available.”

Interested parents should see www.macsnh.org for student application and more info. Parents with specific concerns/questions should call 603-595-7877 and/or contact Program Coordinator Susannah Williams at swilliams@macsnh.org. School news updates will be posted on the website and on the school’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/nhmicroschool.

The new teachers and support staff have worked diligently over the past few weeks to not only prepare the school and their classrooms for students, but also engaged in 8 days of professional development training, including three days with Sylvia Sanchez of MicroSociety, Inc., a national MicroSociety education professional development clearinghouse. During the first week, the staff immediately began introducing the MicroSociety approach to the student/citizens in the classroom and during the school’s first MicroSociety Town Meeting.

The MicroSociety Academy is the first NH charter school to utilize the MicroSociety theme. The unique school theme enables students to take their classroom learning and apply it by creating and operating the agencies/ventures of their own small society in the school. MACS founders, former faculty and students (now Nashua parents) of the City Magnet School in Lowell, MA, have 24 years of successful experience implementing a similar model. Since then it has been proven to be successful in over 250 schools throughout country and internationally.