Kindergarten scholars must be 5 years of age by September 1st.
What is your school schedule?
School is in session Monday through Thursday. School starts at 7:45 and concludes at 4:15.
What is a charter school? Do you charge tuition?
Charter schools are public education facilities and do not charge tuition. We are funded by taxpayers and are regulated by the Arizona Department of Education.
How do I get my child enrolled? Pre-enrollment for the 2013-2014 school year is now open. Please go to the Enroll Now! tab of this website to fill out your contact information and download specific enrollment forms. You may also come in to any of our campus offices to fill out enrollment paperwork.
Do you offer care on Friday?
Friday Care and Before/After-School Care is available, please contact the front office for details.
Do you have sports?
We offer a variety of competitive sports beginning in Jr. High: Flag Football, Girls’ Volleyball, Basketball, Baseball and Girls’ Softball. The Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies is a part of the AIA and participates in a variety of sports including: Football, Girls’ Volleyball, Basketball, Baseball, and Girls’ Softball.
Do you provide full day Kindergarten?
All kindergarten classes are half-day. You would be amazed at what our exceptional educators are able to accomplish with your little scholar in these four hours! Our intensive phonics program, Fundations, Singapore Math, and rich Core Knowledge content give our Kindergarten scholars the foundation they need to be successful. A paid after-care option is available at each of the elementary campuses, but the space is limited. Please contact the front office staff for specifics on this.
What is your campus location, phone number, and fax number?
6500 S. Apache Rd.
Buckeye, AZ 85326
Phone: 623-327-3111
Fax: 623-327-0554
Our school uniforms are sold exclusively by Absolute Screen Printing located at 407 E. Monroe Buckeye, AZ. Pricing and further information can be found at: http://www.absolutesp.com/index.html
- K-4th grade scholars wear the green uniform shirt and Dickies brand school uniform pants or shorts (girls may also wear capri’s) in black.
- 5th – 8th grade scholars wear the gray uniform shirt and Dickies brand school uniform pants or shorts (girls may also wear capri’s) in black.
A majority of our scholars rent their instruments at Milanos: http://www.milanomusic.com
At TOPA, every instructional minute counts. Our teachers have a specific plan from the first greeting at Morning Meeting until the final bell of the day. The last half an hour of the school day is considered protected time on campus. No scholars may be picked up during this time. If at all possible, scholar dentist and doctor appointments should be scheduled for Fridays, and should never be scheduled during protected time. Parents should wait outside the gates until 4:15 to pick up their scholars from school.
Who do I call when my child is absent?
You may contact the front office staff by either calling or emailing at attendancebuckeye@topamail.com or attendancegoodyear@topamail.com For scholar absences to be considered excused they must be recorded as such by the office staff.
Why do they have to wear shoes that tie?
Tying your shoes is one way to promote the development of fine motor skills. These skills are very important in the early years of school. In addition to promoting fine motor skills, tied shoes just stay on little feet better!.
How long have you been in existence?
The Odyssey Preparatory Academy family of schools is four years young! We have experienced phenomenal growth in the number of scholars we have been privileged to add to our campuses in the past four years. While we anticipate that our numerical growth will begin slowing down as we fill our campuses to capacity…we have no intention of stopping our growth in academics, innovation, and the arts!
What are your boundaries?
As a charter school, we are a school of choice. That means you may choose to apply for admission to any of The Odyssey Preparatory family of schools, regardless of where you live. The majority of our scholars live in Goodyear and Buckeye communities. However, we have scholars residing in communities throughout the West Valley who attend our schools.
Are your teachers certified?
We make every effort to hire teachers who are certified. Our expectations for our teachers are as high as those we have for our scholars! Teacher resumes are kept on file and may be viewed at the front desk during regular office hours.
What do the fundraising dollars go to?
The money raised from school fundraisers is funnelled directly into the purchase of technology for our classrooms and subsidizing field trips for all grades. We choose our scholar’s field experiences based upon their overall contribution to our curriculum, not based upon price. Because of this, we work very hard to raise money throughout the school year to make these a possibility for every scholar.
Why Mandarin?
The Mandarin dialect is spoken by more than 836 million people in five countries world wide. We give our scholars the opportunity of learning to speak Mandarin and make a conscious effort to interweave a variety of diverse cultural experiences throughout our curriculum because we hope to produce multilingual, multicultural individuals who are prepared to lead the decades to come.
What is the Homework Policy?
At The Odyssey Preparatory Academy we never use homework as a punishment, busy-work, or to introduce new concepts. We have designed our instructional blocks to allow for both introduction and practice of new material each day. Scholars may be assigned homework to either remediate skills or extend classroom learning with long-term projects.
Does your school provide free or reduced lunch?
No. We do not offer free or reduced lunch.
Do you have buses? We offer a paid bussing service which has multiple stops in the Goodyear and Buckeye communities. The fee for the bus service during the 2012-2013 school year is $35.00 per scholar, per month.
Do you require immunizations? The state of Arizona requires that every scholar be immunized or fill out a waiver before starting school. We take this very seriously and ask that all scholars be up-to-date on all immunizations. Please contact the school nurse at your campus if you have any questions on this.