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Show 8 SPRINGVILLE HERALD Thursday, August 21, 2008 Merit Academy Continued from page 1 tion, with earth-moving equipment still preparing the now empty property for crews to begin work on the structure. Construction Construc-tion of the school's building build-ing was delayed when an investor pulled out; working work-ing through the construction construc-tion process has also been slower than anticipated, Baltes said. A new investor came forward, however, a situation which allowed the school to construct a bigger and better-quality building. Merit Academy will eventually be housed in a 65,000-square-foot building with nearly all the amenities ameni-ties found at traditional high schools including a gymnasium, locker rooms, a commons area, a soccer field, tennis courts, computer com-puter labs and other specialized spe-cialized rooms for subjects such as biology and chemistry. chem-istry. Final construction cost of the building, including property improvements and the land, will be about $9 million, Baltes said. Investors In-vestors have paid for some of that cost, while the rest will funded through an educational bond through which the school borrows money and then pays it back through money it receives re-ceives for its school from the state. Completion of the school's building is scheduled sched-uled for late December. Charter schools are public pub-lic schools paid for through public tax dollars and are generally subject to the same laws and requirements require-ments as traditional public schools. They are required to accept all students up to the amount they are chartered to enroll, after which students are chosen through a random drawing. draw-ing. Merit Academy was chartered through the state and is not part of Nebo School District. Merit Academy's charter char-ter allows the school to . enroll up to 450 students this year and up to 600 in following years. In an interview in-terview last week with the Springville Herald, Baltes said the school was about half ful "We don't have a class bigger than 15 students right now," he said, adding add-ing that this provides the advantage of smaller class sizes and individualized instruction, two important concepts embraced by the school. "We'll never go above 25 (students per class)." Students have enrolled from as far away as Sandy and Santaquin, Baltes said. The school is fully staffed with about 20 teachers, two counselors and two special education teachers. Students will not have to wear uniforms but will have to abide by a dress code. "It's a little bit more lenient than uniforms," Baltes Bal-tes said. "Professional dress is what we're going for." No jeans will be allowed, but students may wear skirts, dress pants and even Capri pants and shorts if they are dressy in nature. Planning for the school began about three years ago when a group of Springville and Mapleton parents came together and began considering future fu-ture educational options for their young children. Baltes said the group researched re-searched the best schools in Europe and the United States and learned that at those schools, subjects are taught with a real world perspective. Merit Academy Acad-emy has adopted this philosophy phi-losophy as well. "We still follow the state core but everything has a real world context to it," Baltes said. For example, business students will learn through opening their own business, art students will gain experience in the studio, stu-dio, and physics students could study the physics of snowboarding. The school will encourage cross-curriculum projects and learning, with teachers teach-ers and students involving involv-ing multiple fields of study in one project. Also, each student will be assigned a teachermentor who will guide them throughout their entire high school experience. ex-perience. Overall, the school's goals are to prepare students to be successful in their higher education pursuits and provide them with an understanding of the civic and social responsibilities they have as citizens of the United States, Baltes said. Merit Academy students will also have access to an early morning and release time LDS Seminary program. pro-gram. Students can still enroll; for more information informa-tion about the school, call 491-7600. tut ') y-A 'Vis J n;,','i. in. n 1 if ,. v, . ,. . .. ... On Tuesday, seventh-graders at Mapleton Junior High School started school a day earlier than their peers so they would have a chance to get used to their new surroundings. The students rotated through shortened versions of their various classes, attended an orientation assembly and ate lunch at the school. The day is counted as a regular day of school for the seventh-graders, seventh-graders, who skipped Wednesdy and returned to school today. On Wednesday, the official first day of school for Nebo School District the school's eighth- and ninth-graders had their own first day of school. The junior high school began bringing the seventh-graders to school a day early last year in an attempt to help seventh-graders make the adjustment from elementary school to junior high. Pictured above is seventh-grade English teacher Alisha Adams as she talks to her first-period students. Photo by Christi Babbitt Health franchises becoming more attractive in Utah SpinalAid Centers of America, a national franchise, fran-chise, was recognized in the 29th annual Entrepreneur Entre-preneur Magazine list of top franchises called the "Franchise 500." The spinal decompression decompres-sion franchise, with five locations in Utah, is the number two health services servic-es franchise and the 268th top franchise overall. SpinalAid was also recognized rec-ognized on the "Fastest Growing Franchise" list and ranked as the 18th "Top New Franchise" out of 50. These rankings reinforce rein-force a growing trend; consumers and practitioners practitio-ners are choosing health and wellness franchises over private practices. Health franchises are appearing across the United States at an increasing in-creasing rate and Utah is no exception. Customers are choosing the convenience conve-nience of health and wellness well-ness franchises like SpinalAid Spin-alAid Centers of America, Massage Envy and Pearle Vision rather than shopping shop-ping around and comparing compar-ing products and services at independent stores and clinics. "I joined the SpinalAid Spinal-Aid spinal decompression decompres-sion franchise so people in my area would know what they can expect when they walk through my doors," said Dr. Gordon Gor-don Stapel, of the SpinalAid Spi-nalAid Center at 269 E. 400 South in Springville. "They know they'll get superior treatment, excellent excel-lent customer service and viable solutions to back pain as a result of corporate corpo-rate marketing efforts and commercials that solidly sol-idly brand SpinalAid." According to Dr. Stapel, Sta-pel, if a health and well ness business owner is not franchised he or she has to worry much more about things like marketing market-ing and promotion on top of treating and servicing patrons which can be a tedious te-dious and time consuming feat. Joining a franchise can eliminate many of those additional business concerns. Because franchises can offer multiple locations with standardized products, prod-ucts, treatments, training and pricing they can be a stress-reliever to both customers and franchise owners alike. Health and wellness professionals, such as Utah SpinalAid franchise owners, have found there are many benefits to being be-ing a part of a franchise; Corporate franchises often of-ten help build individual location's foot traffic and name recognition by es tablishing solid brands and providing marketing and advertising Today, there are more than 170 SpinalAid franchises fran-chises across the country, a significant feat considering consid-ering there were zero in 2005. Locally, the SpinalAid Spinal-Aid franchise has grown as well with six franchise locations established since franchising began. Utah SpinalAid Centers offer non-surgical spinal decompression and a variety va-riety of other chiropractic and back-pain solutions. Currently Utah SpinalAid Spinal-Aid Centers can be found in Springville, American Fork, Brigham City, Cen-terville, Cen-terville, Layton and South Jordan. For more information about non-surgical spinal decompression or a no-cost no-cost consultation please call Lisa at 491-8688 or visit www.spinalaid.com. p,m '.7,7, " ' 1 MI I f m M J" m II spsciac XV V goon day passfC- Hogi Yogi Gift certs -Imfalga Datenite pasesT n3 Seer a Shell Tickets, ..If s basy wiw.hcraldextra I s fill I'JustJoo "X 'X X T ontoW V dextracomAummerg or your chance, tq wink v. l f - J T '-itu" ..02 :'t I sundance summer theatre "A MkJsummo Night's Drewn vM be prtwnm) r iht Outdoor Them from August J 23. 2001 op Monday, fluid. Friday SturJr nts. D prodocwxi, i Mrtnmf bmmr. tt ftwcn d thf Thwri(il tefurtmtnt m Utah Vadty ynmryty, mH bt prestnted by the Sundanrj Pmtr wffltlp a mg IC; j ('1 (The best selling vehicle on the planet!) OAC must finance through FMCC. Not all customers will qualify. Sea dealer for details. 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