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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Summit Schools, celebrating 25 years in Cedar Rapids, considers future expansion
The private school, which serves PK-8th grade students, is known for its approach to teaching reading and writing
Sep. 11, 2023 5:30 am, Updated: Sep. 11, 2023 8:55 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Summit Schools is the first and only teaching job Jamie Day applied for. It was “serendipitous,” he said.
The 10:1 student to teacher ratio, the school garden and every student taking PE every day were “very appealing,” said Day, who teaches PE and wellness every day to all 120 students in PK-8th enrolled at the private school in Cedar Rapids.
“I wake up every day and I am psyched to come to school,” said Day, an experienced weight lifter and former gymnastics instructor in his sixth year of teaching.
“Other than their parents and their best friends, I probably know more about these kids than anyone else,” Day said. “I have little pockets of down time I can ask them about their weekend and really listen. I know about their pets, siblings, I know what they like and what they don’t like. It makes teaching way more enjoyable.”
Summit Schools, 1010 Regent St. NE, Cedar Rapids, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this school year. It opened its doors in the fall of 1998 in its current location.
The school is sought out by teachers and students for its reputation for using the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching literacy. It’s an almost century-old multisensory teaching method that includes visuals, sound and movement as students learn to read and write.
The Orton-Gillingham approach is especially beneficial to students with dyslexia. It is not commonly used in public schools in Iowa.
Summit Principal April Bickford was drawn to the school because of the Orton-Gillingham approach. Bickford originally used the approach as a special-education teacher in the Mount Pleasant Community School District in Mount Pleasant.
This is Bickford’s first year at Summit and as a principal. She described herself as a “mother hen” growing up, taking care of her siblings and her friends. Now, she wants to take care of teachers.
“I want to be the person that makes teaching enjoyable,” Bickford said. “I want to build a safe place for staff, be their coach. I’m here to guide and support them, so they’re able to support kids.”
As Summit Schools’ leaders look forward to the next 25 years, Bickford said she feels like “there’s a lot of weight on my shoulders. Where we go next kind of falls on me too.”
The 120-student school doesn’t have classroom space to grow, although there is a long waiting list of students wanting to get in, Bickford said.
New to private schools across Iowa this year are Education Savings Accounts, which provide a student’s full per-pupil state allocation — around $7,600 — to families to pay for private school tuition. It was a top legislative priority of Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds during the 2023 legislative session, and the first bill she signed into law in January.
Thirty-four students at Summit are using Education Savings Accounts and 20 of those students are new to the school this year.
One of the areas Bickford could see expanding first is separating combined classrooms. Fifth and sixth grades learn together, as do seventh and eighth and prekindergarten and kindergarten.
In her first few weeks at Summit, Bickford is observing, building relationships with teachers, families and students, and learning students’ names.
“I go in at lunch and they know I’m trying to memorize their name. They patiently wait for me to remember,” she said with a smile.
Summit Schools board president Laurene Lanich said a decision needs to be made on how the school will grow. Do they build on to their current structure, which is landlocked on less than an acre? Or do they find a second location?
Whatever decision is made will require a capital campaign to raise money, said Lanich, who was once a part-time principal at Summit. While the school makes up some revenue in tuition expenses, Lanich said the amount it actually costs to educate each student is more than that.
The average salary for educators at Summit is $47,346 a year.
“We do a lot of fundraising. We have an auction every year that is highly supported by our families, but we need to grow beyond our families into the greater Cedar Rapids community to raise more significant funds,” she said.
For now, the school board is considering hiring someone part-time as director of development to lead a capital campaign, Lanich said. Members of the 10-member school board are selected by a governance committee made up of volunteers.
Lanich has 14 years of experience as a residential treatment teacher for students with severe behavioral disabilities, worked as a consultant for Grant Wood Area Education Agency, which provides educational services to local schools, and was a principal in the Marion Independent and West Des Moines school districts before coming to Summit.
She said she was intrigued by Summit’s approach to reading and has seen students “who were non-readers become fantastic readers and love to read” using the Orton-Gillingham approach.
Angie Neuville became a teacher at Summit Schools after her child — now a senior at Marion High School — attended elementary school there.
Neuville herself taught special education in a public school and then worked as a consultant at Grant Wood AEA before being a stay-at-home mom. Interested in returning to teaching four years ago, she found herself thinking about Summit.
That’s how she became the language arts and social studies teacher to seventh and eighth-graders there. “I feel supported and lifted up every single day,” Neuville said.
Erik Balster enrolled his twin children — Ben and Sarah — into Summit for preschool six years ago. Initially, the plan was to send them to public school after that.
“They were accelerating so much, not just academically but socially,” said Balster, whose children are now fifth-graders at Summit.
Balster said it’s a “luxury” they are able to send their children to private school. “In the end, we would do anything for our kids,” he said. “Our kids are really comfortable and proud of who they’ve become.”
How it became Summit Schools
Summit Schools has had several iterations over the years. It was first opened in 1985 by Terri Petersen as Linn Academy.
Petersen said she was volunteering at a private school at the time that now no longer exists. “A boy came in as a fourth-grader, and he could not read or write his own name, which was Ron. He couldn’t put three letters together,” she said.
Peterson said the child was frustrated and experiencing severe mental health issues linked to his dyslexia.
Petersen wanted to help, and even though she wasn’t convinced it would work, she was trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach Ron. Over the course of one school year, Ron learned to read at a third grade level, Petersen said.
Convinced, she started a school based on the approach.
The first year, Linn Academy had about 28 students — three times as many as Petersen thought would enroll. Many staff, herself included, were working without a salary. They met at Francis Intermediate School in the Marion Independent School District for many years.
“We started it with one intent,” said Petersen, which was to show the public school system the value of the Orton-Gillingham approach. “It never really was our dream to have this school go on forever.”
“Part of me feels badly with these vouchers (Education Savings Accounts), and all the things they have to say about private schools not taking kids with (behavior and learning challenges),” Petersen said. “That’s never been true for us. We’ve had a lot of kids who have had real issues, and because of the way we dealt with their learning, they ended up being pretty cool people.”
Later, the school was purchased by Clark McLeod, an entrepreneur and former math and science teacher at Franklin Middle School in Cedar Rapids. Today, McLeod is CEO of the Monarch Research Project in Marion.
After a few years, McLeod considered closing the school, but parents were adamant it stay open. Parents put a down payment on Summit’s current building to “keep it alive,” school board President Lanich said.
To celebrate Summit Schools’ 25th year, an anniversary gala fundraiser will be held Nov. 3, at Elmcrest Country Club from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Ticket information will be available online at summitschools.org.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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