About Us

Our Purpose

Mission

Summit Academy of Greater Louisville provides a nurturing educational environment for children with learning differences, in which each child's academic achievement comes to reflect his or her potential.

Flexibility. Discernment. Compassion. Expertise.

These are just some of the qualities that we embrace at Summit Academy, and families that need our school need all of these things from us.

Too often, children are asked to adapt to school policies, procedures, and programs rather than the school making adjustments to meet the unique needs of the learners. As a result, many families and students find themselves frustrated by academic programming that does not work for them. Summit Academy of Greater Louisville is an independent, non-profit school that helps families and students stop feeling frustrated. Our students are pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and they love going to school here.

Summit provides a place where each child's learning challenges are understood and met using a whole child approach; a place where we celebrate and develop a child's strengths, as well as addressing their area of difficulty. It's a safe place where a child is treated and educated as an individual - in an atmosphere of caring and respect that allows our students to succeed.

Philosophy

We believe:

Every child is valuable and necessary to our society.
Every child is unique and has unique strengths and weaknesses.
Every child deserves to be taught in a way that will allow them to be successful.
Individual attention is vital to assessing and addressing a child's needs.
Early intervention for learning differences will contribute to a child's academic success and emotional well-being.
An emotionally safe environment is essential for a child to be able to learn.
A school experience should address the needs of the whole child – social, emotional, physical and academic.
A joint cooperative commitment between family and school is essential to the success of the student.
Technology enhances education and can be used for remediation and compensation of learning differences.

Because this is our philosophy:

We use the most current diagnostic tools to identify learning challenges.
We adapt our curriculum to meet the changing needs of each student.
We integrate teaching of organizational/compensatory skills into the daily curriculum.
We are committed to maintaining a low student to teacher ratio.
We provide a pre-kindergarten and kindergarten program for early detection of learning differences.
We create and maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and a structured, secure environment.
We are committed to a complete curriculum that includes art, music, library science, recess, and physical education.
We provide extra-curricular activities that correspond to current students' interests and abilities.
We use a multi-faceted approach to communication with parents, including conferences, weekly newsletters, website and daily notes.
We use new technology as part of the instructional process, and identify and provide access to whatever specialized technology a student requires.

Equal Opportunity

Summit Academy does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, nationality or ethnic origin in administration of its policies and programs.

Goals

It is the goal of Summit Academy to:

Help every student view school as a positive, challenging and successful experience.
Narrow the gap between a child's academic achievement and academic potential as measured by standardized testing.
Create a supportive community that includes families, staff and teachers working together.
Establish a scholarship endowment, so that every family that needs financial aid will receive it.
Continue to be a dynamic entity; continually improving, changing and growing in response to the needs of our students and to new knowledge gained through educational research.

Going Green

Go Green Initiative Summit Academy is proud to be a 'Going Green' school! We do our best to be
earth-friendly in all of our work processes.

We try to use the least amount of paper possible; therefore, most of our communications and forms are online.
We pay for recycling pick-up every week.
The students are actively involved in our recycling program.
Paper, hard plastics, bottles and cans are collected from every classroom, office and lunchroom weekly.
We buy office and lunchroom supplies made from recycled materials whenever possible.
We collect printer cartridges from our staff and parents to be recycled.
We have banned Styrofoam cups from our campus; it's strictly BYOM (mug) for us!
We have recently installed new, energy efficient windows and doors in our main building.
Our grass is cut with a mulching mower, instead of being bagged and disposed of in a landfill.
We use programmable thermostats to reduce energy use when school is not in session.

We hope to add more earth-friendly programs in the future. If you have ideas, please contact us!

History

Summit has been educating children with learning differences since it was incorporated as an independent, non-profit school in February 1992.

Margaret Thornton and Rosemary Middleton, co-founders of Summit Academy, believe that a conventional school setting may not meet the needs of every child. Too often children are asked to adapt to school policies, procedures and programs, rather than adapting the school to meet the unique needs of the learners.

With this in mind, they opened Summit Academy in August of 1992 with 21 students and a staff of five. We have grown every year and now have a staff of 47, and the capacity to educate 175 students!

Accreditation

Summit is accredited by the Kentucky Department of Education, and governed by all policies and procedures applicable to a certified, non-public school in the state of Kentucky. Summit is fully accredited by, and a member of, the Independent School Association of the Central States (ISACS), the Kentucky Association For Independent Schools (KAIS) and the National Association for Independent Schools (NAIS).

The school also holds memberships in the following associations:

Our Students

Are pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
Need help, but don't necessarily qualify for special education services through the public schools.
Come from all over the Kentuckiana area, including Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, and Spencer counties in Kentucky, and Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties in Indiana.
Are bright, talented, fun, creative, interesting people!
Stay with us for an average of three and a half years.
Most return to a conventional school setting, go on to high school, and pursue post-secondary educations at universities and trade-schools.
Have a variety of learning differences including:
- Central Auditory Processing Disorder
- Dyslexia
- Dyscalculia
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- Language Processing Disorder
- Asperger's Syndrome
- Non-Verbal Learning Disorder
- Sensory Integration Disorder
- Developmental Delay (through age 6)

Our Faculty and Staff

Faculty

Summit Academy faculty members are committed to the development of the whole child – social, emotional and academic. The faculty includes fifteen lead teachers and several teaching assistants. In addition to our excellent faculty members, Summit Academy also offers an on-staff Licensed Clinical Psychologist, and on-campus speech and occupational therapists, to enhance our students' total development.

Staff

A full administrative staff manages the day-to-day operations of the school. Staff or faculty may be contacted by calling 502.244.7090 or by emailing using first name initial, last name @summit-academy.org. Example: mthornton@summit-academy.org.

POSITION	NAME	PHONE	EMAIL
Head of School	Margaret Thornton	502.244.7090	mthornton@summit-academy.org
Division Head	Barbara Waldrop	502.244.7813	bwaldrop@summit-academy.org
Division Head	Rebecca Hoffmann	502.244.7090	rhoffmann@summit-academy.org
Division Head	Jaynie Rockhill	502.244.7090	jrockhill@summit-academy.org
Director of Admissions	Barbara Waldrop	502.244.8311	bwaldrop@summit-academy.org
Director of Development	Janice Cates	502.244.7813	jcates@summit-academy.org
Director of Mktg/Communications	Abbe Pedersen	502.244.7090	apedersen@summit-academy.org
Director of IT	Bob Deitel	502.244.7090	bdeitel@summit-academy.org
Psychologist	Dr. Laura Reed	502.244.7090	lreed@summit-academy.org
Business & Facilities Manager	Fred Sabo	502.244.7090	fsabo@summit-academy.org
Office Manager	Jenny Segin	502.244.7090	jsegin@summit-academy.org
Bookkeeper	Tom Thornton	502.244.7090	tthornton@summit-academy.org
Receptionist	Joann Powell	502.244.7090	jpowell@summit-academy.org
Food Services	Sandy Beard	502.244.7090	sbeard@summit-academy.org
Tree House Coordinator	Gray Middleton	502.544.2942	gmiddleton@summit-academy.org
JCPS Services Coordinator	Barbara Waldrop	502.244.8311	bwaldrop@summit-academy.org
Director of Ancillary Services	Rebecca Hoffmann	502.244.7090	rhoffmann@summit-academy.org

Board of Trustees

Our Board of Trustees consists of a group of civic-minded community leaders, current and alumni parents, and Administrative, PTO and teacher representatives. The Board is responsible for the fiduciary management of the school and meets on the third Wednesday of every other month at Summit Academy. Meetings are scheduled and minutes shown by fiscal year (July 1-June 30).

The Executive Committee, consisting of the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Board, meet with the Head of School every month.

2011-2012 Board of Trustees

Executive Committee	Amy Kessler Leslie Gagnon Richard Whipple David Strite Margaret Thornton	President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Head of School
Members at Large	Stacy Banks Greg Burton Jennifer Gomez Henry Kelsey Todd Metcalf Marcia Sparks Bob White
Ex-Officio Members	Janice Cates Jennifer Dwyer Abbe Pedersen Fred Sabo Susan Hill Belinda Dimas Denise Cobb	Director of Development Chief Financial Officer Director of Communications Business & Facilities Manager Faculty Representative PTO Representative Recording Secretary

Our Head of School

In addition to being co-founder of Summit Academy, Margaret Thornton has served as the Head of School for Summit since its establishment in 1992. She received her Bachelor's of Science in Special Education from Murray State, and her Masters of Education in Teaching the Neurologically Impaired from Indiana University.

Margaret has been a practicing special educator since 1974, first as a classroom special education teacher and then as a school principal. Mrs. Thornton is recognized as an authority in the field of special education and is an expert in prescriptive education for children with learning challenges. She is the recipient of the Middletown Spirit Award for Excellence in Education, the Today's Woman Her Award for a teacher who has had a significant effect on the outcome of others' lives, and was a nominee for the prestigious national Sam Kirk Educator of the Year award.

Our Campus

The Lodge Our campus is unique, like our students! It consists of four buildings:

Our main building - The Lodge (shown right) - contains the lobby, main office and conference room, as well as fourteen classrooms for the primary and intermediate grades, the music classroom, auditorium, playground area, kitchen and cafeteria. Sierra House

Eagle's Point houses our Middle School, in addition to the library, art room, clay studio, art rotunda, Science Exploratorium, gymnasium and The Tree House Extended Day Program facilities.

Sierra House (shown left) provides space for our on-campus speech and occupational therapists. Students who access their private services are excused from class to attend, instead of being bused to a public school.

There is a large playground behind Sierra House which includes a gazebo and a basketball half-court.

Tykes' Peak (shown right) is a renovated house toward the back of the property that provides the homey space for our Pre-Schoolers and Kindergarteners. It includes a full kitchen, separate boys' and girls' restrooms, three classrooms, a large 'centers' area, and a separate, fenced "tyke-sized" playground.

The Peaks of Summit Newsletter

We are so proud of our students and our school! Read "The Peaks of Summit" newsletter to find out just some of the amazing things that we've been up to.