The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
New charter high school coming to township
Veritas Academy will act as high school for Keystone
By Austen Smith, Editor
PUBLISHED: February 8, 2007
Administrators for Veritas Academy, a new charter high school to be located in Ypsilanti Township, are hoping their new project will be as successful as its predecessor, Keystone Academy in Sumpter Township.
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Veritas will act as the high school for Keystone students wanting to remain in the charter school environment beyond the eighth grade — something that is in high demand, planners said.
The school, whose mascot will be the Vikings, will be located at the corner of Bunton and Martz roads in Ypsilanti Township, and most likely will be open next fall, said Doug Jahner, former member of the Keystone School Board of Education.
"We are planning on opening up with just ninth- and 10th-grade students," Jahner said. "We will add a new grade each year after that."
Jahner said it was a combination of parents' demand and the tremendous success at Keystone that catapulted the project.
"We have a long waiting list for Keystone. Our parents kept asking us, 'What about a high school?' So really it's about parent demand.," Jahner said.
Financing for the multi-million dollar construction project was contracted with Helicon Associates, based in Trenton, which also will act as the educational services provider for Veritas, hiring staff and administration and conducting day-to-day operations of the school.
The charter for the school was authorized by Bay-Mills Corp., which will provide quality control and oversight of the large investment.
The appointed Board of Education for Veritas, which includes Jahner, will purchase the building from Helicon within five years.
During that time, representatives from all three entities will be working collaboratively to properly "steer the ship" Jahner said.
"It's a good system of checks and balances," Jahner said.
"Those are the companies sinking in the millions of dollars, so they have a really vested interest in making sure that we don't have empty seats.
"And having all of that will just make us work harder, I believe. We cannot afford to not deliver a quality education because if we don't, we're going to have empty seats and its not going to work."
Charter schools employ cost-saving measures that public schools cannot, such as not offering traditional 401(k) and pension plans. Also, teachers at charter schools are not offered tenure.
Jahner said it allows for the staff to have more flexibility.
"When we get a teacher who isn't up to par, we're able to get that teacher out of the school very quickly, as opposed to traditional public schools where it is almost impossible to terminate a teacher if he or she is tenured," Jahner said.
Building on practices and programs from Keystone Academy, Jahner said they are able to offer education within a charter-school environment for nearly the same per-pupil cost at public schools.
"And we're able to do that because (charter schools) are able to spend their money differently," Jahner said. "It really revolves around the spending with the biggest savings coming in pensions and healthcare."
Planners for Veritas have outlined an aggressive construction schedule so that eighth-grade students at Keystone will be able to enroll for ninth-grade at Veritas for the coming fall semester. After the initial construction, builders will add a new grade level allowing the first ninth-grade class to spend their entire high school career at Veritas.
Jahner admitted that the construction and planning seemed fast-paced but said once they break ground on the property the construction will quickly proceed.
Planners also will construct a football field and other high school amenities, Jahner said he is looking forward to getting started.
"It is a tremendous task to get a charter but now the real work is going to be when we start educating the kids. That's the hard part," Jahner said.
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