On Monday, Sheldon Hart and other organizers will see their vision become reality as Cirrus Academy opens its doors to students for the first time.

The state-funded charter school is located in the old Hamilton Elementary School site on Pio Nono Avenue, and Hart — chairman of the school’s governing board — said things were “moving very quickly” to put finishing touches on classrooms and other parts of the building.

“It’s almost kind of surreal a little bit,” he said of being so close to opening.

The school has reached its goal of 618 students with a waiting list in every grade, and construction at the school was complete in time for teachers to move into their classrooms. Last week, as those teachers began to decorate classrooms and post class rosters, Hart said he could tell everything was coming together.

“It started to really, really look like a school,” he said.

School leader Ashanti Johnson, who is serving alongside Principal Michele Flowers, said her enthusiasm picked up when she met with teachers last week.

“We’re excited,” she said. “It’s like a community, it really is.”

Johnson came on board in June after a career in higher education, most recently at the University of Texas at Arlington. She said the school’s leadership, faculty and staff are aiming to make Cirrus a “light on the hill” for the community, and that common goal is encouraging.

“That is like watching a group come together, hearing the potential and actually seeing it,” she said.

The school — the county’s third charter school — will have a focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math. That curriculum will focus heavily on hands-on learning, which will include a new gardening program through Mercer University in the spring. This fall, students will begin learning about compost and making preparations for their gardens.

“It’s essential,” Johnson said of the experience-based education.

That emphasis helped convince LaQuita Mainer to come out of retirement to coordinate the school’s classroom technology efforts. Mainer taught for 33 years in Bryan County, Savannah and Bibb County schools and also worked at Middle Georgia State College, but she decided she wasn’t quite done when she read the vision statement of preparing students for college and careers through a STEAM education that was posted on the school’s website.

“It just seemed like something that I feel is really needed,” Mainer said.

She even said she didn’t necessarily need to get paid to work at the school.

“I told them, ‘Even if I can’t be involved, I’ll volunteer,’ ” Mainer said.

In her position with the school, Mainer said it’s her goal to help teachers incorporate technology into their lessons and methods. She said today’s students are “digital natives,” so it’s important that teachers use technology with a purpose and even learn from their students’ creativity in the digital realm.

“My passion is I love to work with teachers on the integration of technology,” she said.

The Bibb County school district, along with the Academy for Classical Education and Macon Charter Academy, will also start school on Monday, and there are several new things to remember this year.

Veterans Elementary School

For the first time, students will attend the new Veterans Elementary School, located at 4901 Faubus Ave. in southwest Macon. The school is a consolidation of Morgan Elementary School and Barden Elementary School, and it features a two-story layout.

Cleveland Johnson III is the school’s first principal, and Arrika Tunstell, who has worked in Bibb County for 13 years, is the school’s assistant principal.

New career education campus

The career education programs for Bibb County schools are also on the move.

Formerly housed at the Hutchings building on Riverside Drive, the programs will now operate from the Dr. Robert J. Williams Complex on Anthony Road, formerly known as the Promise Center. That created room at the Hutchings building for the alternative school, which is moving from the Burghard Elementary campus.

Bell schedule change

The district has also changed the bell schedule for all of its students in a switch to a three-tiered system that is expected to allow buses to arrive on time more consistently.

High school students will attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 2:35 p.m., elementary school students will attend from 8:20 a.m. to 3:20 p.m., and middle school students will attend from 9:05 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. The move came after a series of surveys and public forums and was largely in response to a shortage of bus drivers.

Jeremy Timmerman: 478-744-4331, @MTJTimm

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