Out of Door Academy

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The Out of Door Academy, commonly called ODA, is a private school based in Sarasota, Florida. It consists of two campuses: one, the lower school, or grades K-6, is based on Siesta Key and two, the upper school, or grades 7-12, is based in Lakewood Ranch. It's team mascot is Thor. It is noted for its college prep and rigorous education along with its highly known athletic department. The upper campus is currently undergoing construction for a new Arts building, soon to be followed by new athletic facilities.

Staff

Both "ODA" campuses are headed by David Mahler, The Lower Campus on is headed by Leanne Reynolds and the Upper Campus by Bruce Latta.

Sports

The Out of Door Academy is very involved in Athletics as their website states. The School's "Thunder" Team sports are restricted to the Upper Campus (7-12), and they include Baseball, Basketball, Volleyball, Football, Track and Cross Country, Golf, Swimming, Soccer, Tennis, Softball, and recently starting in the 2008 year Sailing. Starting in 8th grade it is mandatory for students to participate in at least one sport during the year.

Academics

The Out Of Door Academy is a college prep school, and students take academic exams such as the SAT or the ERB. In order to graduate a student must have a certain amount of credits in each subject, such as 4 credits in order to pass History.

Community Service

Starting in 7th grade students are required to complete a certain amount of hours of Community Service. In middle school (7th and 8th) it is required for students to get 15 hours of community service to graduate. In High School 72 hours of community service are required to graduate. New rules are in place that says that the students have to get at least 7 hours by the end of December.

= Students =

eniors

The Senior class is honored every year in late September, there is a convocation where each Class starting with Kindergarden and ending with 11th gives a gift to the senior class. The process is called Senior Convocation and usually lasts for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Seniors are also the only students allowed to take a shortcut across a small field called "The Quad", before 2007 they also had the right to tackle any non-seniors who cut across but this has been revoked due to safety purposes. Also they have a buddy system in which seniors pair up with kindergardeners every few weeks.

High School

High school starts in 9th grade and goes until 12th. The high school is lead by Bruce Latta, who also is a teacher in the school. The teachers in the school are cool and they really care about their students. They will always give kids extra help, they coach the sports teams and they go to the games, plays and concerts.

Middle School

Middle School is grades 7 and 8. Lead by Sean Ball and Kathy Dozier, the Middle School is the first section of the Upper School. The middle school is located next to the (Under Construction) New Arts Building. Mathematics start with Pre-Algebra at grade 7 and students go into Algebra in grade 8. Difefrent events bring the two grades together such as hunts and a trip to the beach on certain occasions. 7th graders go to the Florida Keys for Sea Camp and 8th graders go to Washington, DC and New York City.

Lower School

The lower school consists of Pre-K to 6th Grade. 6th grade has something similar to the seniors buddy's only with first grade. It is lead by Leanne Reynolds, but Mr. Ken Melber, who also teaches literature 6th grade literature class, helps with 5th and 6th grade. Starting at Grade 5 the students get lockers with combination codes instead of keys. These prepare them for 6th grade and Middle School/High School. The lockers are protected by a gate due to the campus being so open.

External links

* [http://www.oda.edu/page.cfm?p=29 School website]

ources

Students,Faculty,"ODA" Web-Site