ODYSSEY CHARTER SCHOOL, INC.
PALM BAY, FLORIDA

Welcome to Odyssey Charter School... Odyssey Charter School was founded in 1999 in a church building and has grown to nearly 1000 students in preschool through high school on two beautiful school campuses. Odyssey Charter School provides educational tools and programs that help each child reach their own unique potential. U.S. Secretary of Education Names Odyssey Charter School as a 2015 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School Managing Director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Christy Goldfuss joined U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to announce that Odyssey Charter School in Palm Bay, FL and our Founder, Constance Ortiz have been honored as being among the 2015 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools award honorees. Odyssey Charter School was selected by the U.S. Department of Education after being nominated by the Florida Department of Education. The Odyssey "Whole School-Whole Child" education model combines the best practices in holistic education and child development with the best practices in healthy living and environmental stewardship. The school's aim is to help each child reach full potential by providing learning environments that both nurture the health of children and strive to create a healthier world for them to inherit through the essential elements of wellness, connections to nature, sustainability, experiential learning and physical exercise. Notice of Meeting of Board of Directors of Odyssey Charter School, Inc. The Board of Directors of Odyssey Charter School, Inc. meeting, originally scheduled on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, has been **CANCELLED**. Odyssey Charter School, Inc., a non-profit organization, will comply with chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, relating to public records, and s. 286.011, relating to public meetings and records, public inspection, and penalties the Florida Statutes relating to public records and public meetings. In accordance with federal and state anti-discrimination laws and in accordance with the Florida Educational Equity Act, Section 1000.05(2)(a) the School will not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability, or marital status against a student in its school admission process. Mission and School Profile The mission of Odyssey Charter School is to work in partnership with the family and community, with the aim of helping each child reach full potential in all areas of life. We seek to educate the whole child with the understanding that each person must achieve a balance of intellectual, emotional, physical, spiritual and social skills as a foundation for life. Odyssey Charter School has been in existence since 1999 and grew from 112 students in a church building to over 700 students in a healthy, high-performance school building. Odyssey was one of 22 finalists from 12 states in the Charter School Growth Fund, a grant program sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to replicate successful charter school models. Their analysis of the students’ academic data since the School’s founding in 1999 was that our students are making strong and consistent achievement gains. It should be noted that these achievements were realized while the school’s student population and staff tripled in size. Odyssey Charter School meets high standards of achievement by offering a holistic educational model, which blends methodology that includes the Montessori approach to education in Kindergarten through 3rd grades with other compatible models such as research/project-based education for 3rd grade through high school. As a result of the combination of philosophies, academics, and environment, the School’s achievement data has been promising. The school community focuses on establishing healthy relationships, providing rigorous academic instruction, and offering extracurricular activities to ensure each student a school experience that is challenging, non-biased and inclusive. The innovative use of programming, curricula, and technology helps bond teachers and students toward instructional delivery methods that encourage problem solving and that pave the way for a future that is unfolding. The essential philosophy guiding the mission is the belief that all children can actualize their potential as productive and contributing members of society and that the school provides essential opportunities for students to develop the necessary skills for success. The rapport between teacher and students and the role of the family in supporting the student’s development are critical to meeting our expectations for student success. Our K-3 program is guided by the philosophy and technique of Maria Montessori. The classrooms encourage and foster academic learning while providing children the opportunity to make choices and direct the path of their learning. In grades 3-5, students are provided with project-based learning opportunities, which require that they make choices, plan a project from the beginning to end, and build responsibility to deliver the chosen project on time. At the middle and high school level, cooperative learning strategies are being implemented. Peer teaching, peer review and peer feedback are powerful classroom management strategies for focusing students. We encourage students to work on team building skills and develop global citizenship. Students will work on social causes and become citizens of the world in an environment that promotes conflict resolution and peace. The curriculum focuses on clear and measurable expectations for student learning and is derived from the Florida Next Generation Sunshine State/Common Core Standards. Students take a variety of research-based assessments, which provide data to identify learning trends and learning gaps. Given the reflective, but difficult-to-measure goals of our instructional program, the high-stakes indicators such as FCAT and End-of-Course Exams are limited measures of student success. Because we strive to nurture and grow the whole child, we must look beyond academic assessments to measure our performance.