Dr. Alex Oliver, Headmaster for Wyoming Classical Academy-Alpine, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, May 5 to discuss the building, curriculum and enrolment for the charter school as they prepare for their inaugural year this upcoming fall.

(0:00) More from Duke Dallendale on the weekday wake up. (0:03) When’s the last time you had a bath? (0:05) Heading into our next guest interview segment this morning at 843 live on SVI (0:09) radio and joining me live in studio today is Dr. (0:12) Alex Oliver. (0:14) He’s the headmaster, the first headmaster at that for Wyoming Classical Academy in (0:19) Alpine.

Dr. (0:20) Oliver, good morning. (0:21) How are you today? (0:22) Good morning, Duke. (0:22) Thank you for having me today.

(0:23) I’m thrilled to be here with you today. (0:25) Absolutely appreciate you stepping in studio. (0:26) We had you on the air previously after it was announced as you would be the (0:30) headmaster, but you hadn’t moved here yet.

(0:32) So we were over the phone. (0:34) So good to have you in the Valley. (0:35) Remind our listeners where you’re from and what you had been involved in leading up to (0:39) taking over this position in Alpine.

(0:41) Absolutely. So I am a tenured educator. (0:44) I’ve taught for about 12, 13 years.

(0:47) I then moved into administration, moved over to a charter school from Chattanooga, (0:51) Tennessee. Upon completing my last job placement, I was in a high school (0:56) charter, worked at a elementary charter, did a number of years in K through eight, (1:02) teaching from physical education to health to a variety of different classroom (1:06) positions. It was an opportunity of a lifetime to move over here to Alpine, (1:12) Wyoming, and again in the Star Valley to see what was being offered and have the (1:15) opportunity to build a charter school from scratch.

(1:19) Absolutely. Now, you and I were kind of talking off the air before we went on. (1:22) The work that had been put in for years leading up to getting to where this is now, (1:27) and I’m sure you’ve you’ve kind of seen and been able to appreciate that since moving (1:31) in.

Indeed, a number of community members have already talked to me about the (1:34) different items that they worked on trying to get this school established here in (1:38) Alpine. It really took a lot of effort and they’ve built it up over the years. (1:42) And now we finally reached a point where we have a school building, we have the (1:46) school in process of opening, and now we have that enrollment growing every single (1:50) day.

So we’re so excited seeing the kids come into the building, giving tours to (1:54) parents and allowing to see what we’re going to have here in Alpine. (1:57) Yeah, I was gonna say you’re to the point. You just need students now.

I mean, (1:59) that’s that’s where you’re at. So there was an open house at last week. And (2:03) sounds like great attendance for that.

What was the feedback that that you and the (2:08) rest of the staff received from that open house? (2:10) We truly had a packed out house. So many parents were interested in what was being (2:14) developed in the town of Alpine. Walking through those doors, a lot of them were (2:18) blown away by what they saw.

Every time you pull up to the building, you see a (2:23) set of modulars and you say, Oh, these are gonna be a small building. They’re (2:27) gonna have to go building to building. However, once they walked through those (2:30) doors, they really saw that it was an open concept from one side of the (2:34) building to the other.

You can see all the way down the hallways. We had (2:37) classrooms completely built to really establish what we’re trying to prove (2:42) and see here in the town. We want to make sure that parents and Children have the (2:47) opportunity to see that success every single day when they walk into the (2:51) classrooms.

And again, walk away with not only the academic success that we hope (2:56) for him to take away moving into high school, moving into the out of the (3:00) secondary setting, but also building the character virtues that we want to see. We (3:04) have established 10 different virtues that we’re hoping to take away so every (3:08) scholar can walk away and become effective members of society. (3:11) Excellent.

So as you start getting ready for the inaugural school year this (3:15) upcoming fall and start talking to walk us through the registration process. How (3:20) does that work? If someone wants to learn more? Absolutely. So you can reach (3:23) me at my email.

It is Alex period Oliver at w y o class school dot org. Again, I (3:29) want to set up any type of tours to get you into the building to see what we’re (3:33) working with in the classrooms. Again, I’d love to show off our curriculum and (3:37) again, just show what WCA is all about and all we have to offer again over the (3:42) course of the summer, we’ll begin setting up our electronic services, (3:46) getting our infinity campus set up so we can get students registered and get (3:51) those classrooms set up so we can have that success in the fall.

(3:54) Let’s talk more about the curriculum and and what it is students will be (3:57) learning when they go to Wyoming Classical Academy. (3:59) So we will be based on a phonics based system. Again, we are really deep in in (4:04) the structure of writing, reading, math, history, science.

And again, we’re very (4:10) big in the arts. We want to make sure that all our students have that baseline (4:14) established to really understand what they are needing once they move into (4:18) middle school, they move into high school, and then moving into that (4:21) post secondary life, whether it be going to college going into the workforce or (4:26) even just getting a certain certification, we want to make sure that (4:28) they’re going to see that success. So with that, they’ll be working on a (4:31) variety of different programs, like I said, phonics based for our younger (4:34) students, as well as Singapore math, this is going to be something that has (4:39) really shown the deep understanding of the mathematics program.

It is one of (4:43) the top rated curriculums currently used for mathematics. So we want to make (4:47) sure that we have that opportunity shown there. We’ll also be using core (4:50) knowledge for our science and history aspects.

And then we’ll also be doing a (4:55) strong emphasis on the arts. So every day they’ll have exposure to art, excuse me, (5:03) on art, music, and then physical education as well. So all of these (5:07) different opportunities for them to be engaged in those different aspects to (5:11) truly understand the incorporation of that within the academic realm.

(5:16) Dr. Alex Oliver, headmaster for Wyoming Classical Academy and studio this (5:19) morning on the weekday wake up ages, what how young can a parent enroll their (5:25) children? And how long would they be in Wyoming Classical Academy? (5:28) So for this opening year, we will be kindergarten through sixth grade, we will (5:32) be expanding every year all the way until 12th grade. So the plan is within (5:36) the next six years to have a full operational kindergarten through 12th (5:40) grade in the campus of Alpine. (5:42) Now perfect.

And of course, this is a charter school, not a private school. And (5:47) so remind our listeners the difference there. (5:48) So a charter school is a free tuition public charter school.

Again, it operates (5:53) just like any Lincoln County school, we are mandated by the state to follow all (5:57) regulations and certifications when it comes to teachers. And again, providing (6:01) those educational curriculums that we want to see foot. Again, we want to make (6:05) sure that we are providing any opportunity for any child that wants to (6:08) come and see what we have to offer.

It doesn’t matter race, gender, religion, we (6:13) want to be open to the community. And again, have any opportunity for every (6:17) child in the Star Valley community to come and check out what we’re doing. (6:21) I wanted to ask Dr. Oliver about the staff.

Are you still looking for help? (6:25) Are you fully staffed at this point? (6:26) So at this point in time, we have a couple of teachers lined up. Again, as (6:30) enrollment grows, we’ll be looking at adding more teachers to that number. (6:33) We’re currently looking for a office manager, as well as some custodial (6:38) service.

So if there’s anybody interested in those positions, please go (6:42) on Indeed. We have the positions posted and we’d love to bring you in for an (6:45) interview. (6:45) Perfect.

Wyoming Classical Academy Alpine online at alpine.wyoclassical.org (6:51) alpine.wyoclassical.org. Dr. Oliver, anything else we missed that you’d like (6:55) to mention today? (6:56) Again, we just want to stress the importance of the academic excellence (7:00) that we’re looking for to bring into the Alpine community and the Star (7:03) Valley community as a whole. We want to make sure that we’re building that (7:06) character development, introducing those virtues every single day. So we’re (7:10) bringing that well-rounded student, that whole student to the table again, (7:14) allowing that opportunity to build and grow as they see foot moving into the (7:18) secondary life.

(7:20) All right. And this August, going to be ready to rock and roll sounds like. (7:23) So we’re so excited and we’re ready to bring it to the table.

(7:25) Excellent. That’s Dr. Alex Oliver, Wyoming Classical Academy online at (7:29) alpine.wyoclassical.org. It’s the weekday wake up this morning on SVI (7:34) radio.