North Metro Flex Academy opened in the Fall of 2016 as a K-4 school with 170 students in attendance. The school has since expanded to include fifth grade in 2017, sixth grade in 2018, and seventh grade in 2019-20.
North Metro Flex Academy opened in the Fall of 2016 as a K-4 school with 170 students in attendance. The school has since expanded to include fifth grade through eighth grade.
Our school is very diverse, including a rich blend of students from different cultures, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds. We strive to have our staff reflect the makeup of our student population, and includes members of the Latino, East African, and African American communities. We are now in the process of forming committees, engaging stakeholders, and enriching our academic and extra-curricular activities to better serve our community of learners.
2019-2020
The 2019-2020 school year was full of challenges, as COVID-19 came upon us with full force and instigated changes in the delivery of academics as we knew it. We went from full shutdown and distance learning to hybrid learning for some and distance for others, then back to distance learning for all. NMFA staff, students and families rose to the challenge by being flexible, patient, creative, and resilient. Academic data is difficult to provide, since the majority of our goals measure fall-spring progress, and there was no academic testing in the spring of 2020 to be used to show growth and comparisons to area school districts.
2020-2021
In September of 2020 we expanded to become a complete K-8 school with the opening of our new upper grades wing. Construction to add three classrooms, a science lab, and two bathrooms has been completed. We were excited to welcome new middle school students and additional K-4 students to fill up our space.
Other plans for the future include:
- Continuing to increase our after school clubs and activities.
- Offering more access to our coding, robotics, and engineering activities.
- Improve our science program, including adding a new instructor, new equipment, and more hands-on activities.
- Increasing partnerships with our communities of Oakdale, North St. Paul, and Maplewood, and East St. Paul.
- Committing to more community service projects with our North St. Paul neighbors.
- Connecting with local colleges to enrich our academic programs.
2021-2022
Our entire staff worked diligently last year to go through a very thorough curriculum adoption process for Math and Reading/English Language Arts. All of our staff were either in a Math Cohort, LETRS cohort or Social Justice cohort. All of the research-based curriculum selected is aligned to MN State Standards and research-based best practices. For reading/language arts, we selected a curriculum that is aligned to the SCIENCE OF READING. Many of our teachers last year received LETRS Training, which is training to understand the foundations of how to teach reading. We selected Super Kids for grades K-2, My View for Grades 3-5 and My Perspective for Grades 6 – 8. For math, we have selected Bridges for grades K-5 and Illustrative Math for grades 6 – 8.
I am excited to share that we have the following new staff joining our teaching and learning staff for 2022-2023!
- Kelly Winter, an experienced Middle School Math Teacher for grades 6, 7 and 8
- Kaylee Nash, new classroom teacher
- Chris Cowan, an experienced Middle School Math Intervention Paraprofessional Specialist for grades 6, 7 and 8
- Garius Carey, an experienced Special Education and Title 1 Intervention teacher for Middle grades
- Josie Borchert, new Reading and Language Arts Intervention specialist
- Maddie Jagerson, a new paraprofessional for our younger grades