Center Grove schools will partner with the Simon Youth Academy to provide scholarship and travel opportunities for students who have fallen behind in a traditional classroom setting.
The school board last week unanimously approved a partnership between Center Grove Community Schools and the Simon Youth Foundation.
Simon Youth Academy already has a footing in Johnson County, and its partnership with Clark-Pleasant Community Schools resulted in two students earning $40,000 in scholarships last year. This year, the foundation awarded $37,000 worth of scholarships in Johnson County.
It also holds services at the Edinburgh Outlet Mall, and students from Edinburgh Community High School have been able to use spaces in the mall to complete coursework online and engage in a credit recovery program. Two Edinburgh students also earned $40,000 worth of scholarships last year, spokesperson Molly Linehan said in an email.
Students who attend alternative schools often work and can’t attend school full-time, or have had trouble adjusting academically to a traditional school environment, said Tim Clark, grant officer for Simon Youth Foundation.
Simon Youth Foundation is a partner of the Simon Property Group, which owns both Indiana Premium Outlets and Greenwood Park Mall. Academies that partner with the Simon Youth Foundation can use Simon malls for educational purposes free of charge, Clark said.
While both the partnerships with Clark-Pleasant and Edinburgh schools started in 2008, the newest Johnson County partnership, which will start in the fall, was the result of Simon Youth Foundation reaching out to Center Grove schools and Superintendent Rich Arkanoff about a year ago, he said.
“We have known about the alternative academy at Center Grove for awhile. We’ve had a partnership with Clark-Pleasant for a long time, and they talked about the academy at Center Grove,” Clark said. “We reached out to Dr. Arkanoff a year ago to see if he’d be interested in a partnership, and he said yes.”
As part of the newly formed partnership, Center Grove will change the name of its alternative school to Center Grove Simon Youth Academy from Center Grove Alternative Academy, said Nora Hoover, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Center Grove.
“Day-to-day, they don’t want to disrupt what we do,” Hoover said. “They did visit and asked a lot of questions; they wanted to make sure their vision and our vision matched. They’re a philanthropic foundation looking to support a cause and provide resources.”
In addition to college scholarships for students who graduate from alternative schools, the Simon Youth Foundation, which has partnered with 24 school districts across the country, allows schools to apply for up to $5,000 in grants for professional development opportunities, student enrichment and workforce development opportunities, facility improvements, curriculum supplements and other educational resources that enhance student learning; to help students prepare for post-secondary education, such as taking students on college visits; and to support community service projects.
Each year, four students and one teacher from each partner academy travel to Washington D.C. for a week to learn about government, Clark said.
“It’s a way to support the economic development of communities,” Clark said. “If kids don’t drop out of high school and get their diploma, they have a chance to get a college degree with scholarships. Now, they’re part of the economic engine, and are paying taxes and coming to malls. Those are the benefits, but the first approach of why the foundation came into existence was the Simon family wanted to invest in communities.”
