Bridges Community Academy Is a charter school serving Seneca County and the surrounding areas. It is located in Tiffin, Ohio. The purpose of the school is to help students work at their own pace. The school is located in the basement of the Elizabeth Schaefer Apartments on the grounds of the Saint Francis Center. Laptops, desktops and thin clients are provided for students to do their in class assignments and homework on. The computers are property of the school, and there are strict regulations against downloading music and unnecessary programs onto them and/or tampering with the settings without an administrator's approval.

History

Bridges Community Academy opened for students in September 7th, 2004 and had a capacity of 100 student. It was sponsored by Seneca East Local Schools. It was originally targeted to gifted students, but any were later allowed to attend. In 2005, the area of the basement the school had access to was expanded, and the capacity was increased to 120 students. The school was slightly over its capacity of 120 students. Ms. Smith was the only teacher remaining for the second year, as the other three were replaced. This is the second year for most of the current teachers. The 2006-07 school year is different in room layout, as the space used for classes has been expanded. Due to approximately half of the current student body being in what is currently the 7th and 8th grades, few 8th or 9th graders were allowed enrollment for the 2006-07 school year. The school, with its recent expansions, has now upgraded its capacity to 150 students.

School Setup

Kindergarten through sixth grade are taught all their subjects in one room, like regular Elementary schools. The Kindergarten through second grade are taught by Mrs. Kelli Cunningham, Third and Fourth by Mrs. Kim Bonnell, and Fifth and Sixth by Deb Kohler. The Junior High/High School portion of BCA has four main teachers, one for each of the core subjects. The school has four periods of 70 minutes each on Monday through Thursday. From 8:30 to 11:00, students are in a study hall class, and from 11:40 to 2:15, students are in regular classes. English is taught by Ms. Julie Fannin, Science is taught by Mrs. Sonya Stripe, Math is taught by Ms. Cathrine Smith, and Social Studies is taught by Mrs. Katie Slosser. Due to the amount of 9-12 students taking different classes being relatively small, various classes are combined into one period of the day. On Fridays, the entire day students are in elective classes, ranging from art to technology classes.

Most of the work done by the students is online. While K-3 classes do their work on paper, Grades 4-6 use Compass Learning Odyssey, 7-8 use Aurora Learning and 9-12 use Apex Learning.

Other

Student Forum- The student forum was introduced early in the 06-07 school year. It was used as a means of peer mediation among students. The forum remained open for the majority of the first quarter until students started neglecting schoolwork and spending the school day on the forum. Also, many students there use horrible language, are aggressive, and don't do their schoolwork. Some students are good and do their schoolwork. Also, the disipline there focuses on 'B.A.R. Codes' a very innefective and very bad system of discipline. Most of the students hate it and want to get rid of it.

The Forum was thought up by Brandon Bugner a 17yr old student at bridges, and coded by Daniel Brown a first year student in the 9th grade. The forum will be back on at school soon.

B.A.R. Codes

B.A.R. Codes are evil (As called by the students) things used to discipline the students at Bridges Community Academy. The system goes like this: Kid does something against the rules, a bar gets taken away. Kid does something good, (other then normal good) and gets one. You can spend them at the end of the week, and at the end of the quarter, if you got enough, you get to pick a movie to watch. But most kids here get plenty taken away, so here are the punishments.

1 taken away: Nothing
2: Warning
3: Punishment and/or calling th kids parents.

But, some kids don't really care and get tons taken away with out thinking about the punishments.

Other Kids There

Some kids at BCA curse, talk about sexual things, and be mean and aggressive every day. Some students have been expelled and left the school for those reasons. Students out of the ordinary get teased (in subtle ways) and sometimes hurt by other students. The kids in the lower grades are less crude, but mostly smart-mouthed and do not listen well to authority. The older kids are worse in this as well, along with the other bad things. I feel sorry for the good kids.

External links

http://www.bridgescommunityacademy.org/ -Official website

http://www.compasslearningodyssey.com/ 4-6th grade Classes

http://www.auroralearning.com/ 7-8th grade Classes

http://www.apexlearning.com/ 9th-12th grade Classes

http://z10.invisionfree.com/bca_undeground/ Student Forum