Summit Schools plans to add seventh and eighth grades

CEDAR RAPIDS - Summit Schools, an independent private school system in Cedar Rapids, is adding seventh and eighth grade education next school year.

The school, located at 1010 Regent St. NE, announced the addition of the full middle school component Friday during a fundraiser.

The school, which opened in 1985, is currently open to kindergarten through sixth-grade students.

Paly Afridi, a parent and member of the committee that recommended the expansion, said adding seventh and eighth grades was a natural move after the school added sixth grade this school year.

'We saw that there was such a gap in Cedar Rapids, in the market, for a nondenominational, non-profit middle school branch,” Afridi said. 'If families could afford to stay at Summit, and we had the capacity of adding seventh and eighth (grade), we felt there was really a need for it.”

About 120 children attend the school, and tuition starts at about $8,000 per year.

Summit board of directors Vice President Terri Petersen said as of now most students who graduate from Summit go on to public middle schools in the area.

'We just had so many parents who found their kids going to middle school, and they're not as challenged as they were or they're not getting the support they need,” Petersen said. 'Middle school is kind of an awkward age anyway, so they're wanting to continue with the same kids.”

Petersen joked that 'parent pressure” led to the board's decision to expand.

'It just seems like we have the right people, the right families,” Petersen said. 'It just seems to be right, right now.”

Afridi, who has a sixth-grader at the school, said she's happy her daughter will be able to stay at the school for two more years.

'We really want this middle school to be a completely different experience for them that will not only get them ready for high school, but to go out in the world,” she said.