Though they and Sowers had been told
that it could take a year or more to organize and build
a new school, the academy's site on Friedberg Church
Road in the southern part of Winston-Salem was established,
with help from the community, in five months.
"As I look back on it now, I say, 'How did
we do this?'" Hanes said recently.
Sowers provided the land for the private school, which
had been under different direction on Green Street downtown
since it was founded in 1995.
At the time, the school only taught 17 sixth- through
12th-grad-ers who were not functioning well in school.
The Sowers Limited Partnership, the parent company
of Foltz Concrete and Sowers Land Development, con-sists
of George and Dorothy Sowers, and their two daughters,
Hanes and LaChell Gentle. Although the family provided
the building and land for Triad Academy in 2000 under
a lease agreement, they decided in December to donate
all of the property, valued at close to $1.1 million,
putting everything in Triad's name.
Since 2000, the 17 teachers and staff at Triad Academy
have offered individualized instruction for students
in grades one through 12 with dyslexia or a specific
learning disability.
When the school was established, students did not have
to be medically diagnosed with a learning disability
to be accepted, but now they do. Though doctors have
diagnosed the children and teen-agers as learning-disabled,
Malloy said, "these kids are bright kids."
She said that a day at Triad Academy is like two days
in an average school.
"Our kids' reading ability increases by two
years in a year here, on average," she said.
The 65 students at the school focus on language arts
and research-validated teaching me-th-ods based on Orton-Gillingham
principles, which consist of coordination techniques
and multisensory teaching.
Malloy said that about 85 per-cent of the students
are dys-lexic, and that this year the aca-demy will
have its largest class of graduating seniors, at six.
"We have kids (traveling) from eight different
counties. There's a huge need," Malloy said.
There are now 16 classrooms, and Malloy said that the
school has already outgrown its space. The academy has
one trailer, and she said that they are determining
how to expand.
The school's staff and the 11 parents who make up the
board also are looking at other issues. "Our
computer technology is outdated," Malloy said.
The staff and board say they hope by next school year
to have a new computer lab, along with a computer in
every classroom. The board plans for the new lab to
have voice-recognition and reading software that highlights
the text. They are looking into different companies
for prices before buying anything. (*Implemented
over the summer of 2004.)
The board and staff for next school year have also
reached an agreement with the Downtown YMCA to bring
the children there each Friday for gymnasium play, which
they don't have in the Friedberg Church Road
building.
The only sport that the school offers to take advantage
of the expansive outdoor setting is soccer, and school
officials are looking to add a golf team.
Sowers, 67, had a personal passion for donating the
7.5 acres of land to Triad Academy.
"You're looking at somebody who had ADD,"
he said. "I will see that this school succeeds
as long as I've got a breath in my body."
Janell J. Lewis can be reached
at 727-7338 or at jlewis1@wsjournal.com
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