The Angela Day School | Where Learning is Living
Aspects of farming will be present from the start. The school is in the process of forging partnerships with several farms near the Twin Cities and eventually they hope to own land. The farm campus will host the 10-12th graders, while students in other grades visit periodically. The farm is an integral part of the vision and will play a role throughout the curriculum. Learning from beginning to end is key, with practical applications such as a food program that incorporates ancestral practices.
On Language
“Culture and language are tied together.” The uniqueness of a Spanish immersion program that engenders bilingualism for children who have been historically under-served in this and countless other ways in traditional school systems must be emphasized. The learning program begins as a full Spanish immersion and tapers off to about 50-50 once bilingualism is achieved.
Slated for opening with a pre-K through grade 6 in Fall 2023, the Angela Day School aims to fill some of the most glaring gaps in educational offerings in the Twin Cities. Dianna Myles, the school’s founder, and Kelly Shay, vice chair of the Board, spoke with me about their plans and dreams for the school.
Dianna characterized her experience with her children’s schools as a parent as one of compromise. In seeking a nurturing, progressive education for her children in the Twin Cities, she was presented with public school or a few private or charter school options at which most faculty and students are white. An involved parent, she sought to support her children's school in what she regarded as making changes in the right direction toward becoming a more diverse and equitable school climate. But reckoning with the speed of change (gradual), she realized that there would not be enough time to affect the changes she wanted to see in place for her children. The goal? “To see little black children affirmed with an unshakeable sense of self and identification.”
In the Fall of 2023, The Angela Day School will open with a private pre-K (Myles is working to ensure greater access in future years) and a 1-6 mixed aged schoolhouse with two teachers. With the child at the center and in a fully inclusive, no-cost environment, students will come together for art, music and other subject classes and separate for the academic program, which will be Spanish immersion. Sign language and French will also be taught. Ultimately, The Angela Day School will be a pre-K through grade 12 school with three to four campuses.
Influences
One of the exciting key components of the charter school model is that educators are free to employ a unique pedagogy that permeates the school. Founding leadership at The Angela Day School draw what they love and find inspiring about Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio, and others and plug in what’s missing. They’re excited about freely implementing the pedagogy and curriculum as opposed to being bound to a strictly enforced single model which can feel rigid or constraining. As Kelly says, “We work with a holistic picture of what learning should look like.”
“To see little black children affirmed with an unshakeable sense of self and identification”
WHO
The Angela Day School
5011 S 31st Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55417
Phone: (952) 373-1629
WHERE
WHEN
Opening Fall 2023. Upcoming events here
WHY
Our Vision
We envision fostering a vibrant, innovative, multiracial, multilingual, and multi-ability community of socially conscious change agents, collaborators and lifelong learners.
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