Event to meet the NEXT School faculty

The NEXT School at Eagle Ridge predicts it will open August 15 with an enrollment between 180 and 200 students.  In the meantime, the community is invited to meet the faculty at a popcorn picnic at 6:30 Tuesday night, July 26 at the school in Salem.  Watermelon will also be served and there were will be games and music.  According to an announcement by Principal Joe Greenberg, a highly-qualified team of teachers has been reporting for duty daily and has already been engaging students and families, arranging for school record transfers, and surveying prospective program needs and options.  Background and biographical information about the faculty and support staff is to be available soon on the school’s website at www.nextschooleagleridge.org and most of them will be at the popcorn picnic.  One of the teachers, Rachel Hunter, shared her outlook on the school opening:  “Although this is all new and will be a big transition for everyone, I am excited to be a part of the foundation that we are all building together.  For the first time, I feel like I am going to be part of something big.  Something that is going to continue impacting the community and the world around us.”  Eagle Ridge plans to open as a state-charter school at the recently-vacated Tamassee-Salem Middle/High School campus.  NEXT School at Eagle is being billed as offering an “innovative impact-based learning approach.”