Area private schools taking growth in stride

The Montessori Educational Center and University Academy are among the area's small, nontraditional private schools experiencing growth. Some of that has come with adding more grades.

The newer of the two, University Academy, added eighth grade for the first year and has 205 total students enrolled this fall. The school opened in 2014 on the campus of Louisiana State University of Alexandria with 179 ninth- through 12th-graders and grew to 189 last year.

The Montessori Educational Center, which opened in Pineville in 1978 and later moved to Alexandria, has in the last five years experienced a 21 percent enrollment spike, according to Head of School Joelle Flaherty. The school started offering junior high-level classes three years ago, and that played a big role in growing numbers.

Flaherty and UA's director, DeEtte Loyd, both said if the trends continue, they'll cap enrollment for similar reasons.

The Montessori school, which has 181 students enrolled and a waiting list, wants no more than 220 students.

"So we'll continue to keep our family atmosphere," Flaherty said. "We want to keep that even with the expansion."

The school is at capacity in its current building, which is why construction recently started on an addition.

"My goal is to always keep it (enrollment) under 250," Loyd said. "That makes us elite ... and our thing is, we are family."

Naturally, administrators and students at both schools have greeted recent growth with enthusiasm.

"I think we're moving in the right direction and that people are going to be keeping an eye on us still," Loyd said. "We're the real deal."

"It's exciting for us, and it's exciting for the children to get to see the construction," Flaherty said. "We're just really happy more people are becoming educated about Montessori (methods)."

Montessori students this summer helped break ground for a 5,000-square-foot addition. Upper elementary and middle school students will move in once construction is completed around the end of October.

"We've grown so much with our toddler program and the middle school and now this expansion," Flaherty said. "Things have been moving at a rapid pace."

The school's 15-member board of directors started a capital campaign called Give Today, Secure Tomorrow to raise $500,000 for the project and other campus improvements.

"We knew this was the time we really needed to start building," Flaherty said.

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Loyd said the slight demographic change at University Academy that now includes 15 eighth-graders already has made a difference at the school.

"They're just so excited to be here, and they look up to the older kids," she said. "I just love them."

Loyd said the school has no plans to add any more grades. Administrators of the young school still have a vision for the future, she said, but it's also nice to have everyone finally getting into a groove — especially students.

"We don't have to tell the kids what we do anymore. They knew what we do and what we stand for," she said. "They come in knowing what we expect and how we expect it. It's been fun to watch the transition."

Since opening, University Academy has drawn students from at least six parishes (Avoyelles, Evangeline, Grant, Rapides, LaSalle and Vernon). The class of 2017, about 70 strong now, was UA's first and largest freshmen class. They will be the first to go through UA for all of high school.

Through agreements with LSUA and Louisiana College in Pineville, UA students can earn up to 60 college credits before leaving high school. The school started offering high-school level classes to eighth-graders taught by UA faculty with the goal of preparing them for a very different high school experience.

As freshmen and sophomores, students take classes offered and taught just to them by LSUA instructors and earn 16 hours of college credit. Once they enter their junior year, they can dual enroll at either LSUA or LC and earn 40 or more hours of college credit.

Loyd said the school will have a class of about 50 seniors this year. She is very proud of the school's second graduating class in 2016, which earned a combined $1.5 million in scholarships.

"I told told the seniors this year, you've got big shoes to fill," she said.