Facility address and contact information:

920 Holley Avenue, Suite 3
St. Paul Park, MN, 55071
Phone: 651-925-5050 Fax: 651-925-5051

The vision of the Michael Frome Academy is to develop a "green" school where the facility, operations, and educational program reflect a commitment to environmental sustainability and to preparing our young citizens to become leaders and models of exemplary, responsible citizenship, and stewards of the natural environment.

The Michael Frome Academy will provide innovative, inquiry-based and place-based learning opportunities for K-5 students utilizing the unique environmental assets of the St. Croix River Valley and a variety of community partnerships. With support from Minnesota's Audubon Center of the North Woods and the State Education and Environment Roundtable, MFA will promote academic achievement in the areas of science, math, technology, literacy, music, and the arts and will develop students' social responsibility through experiential education, interdisciplinary environmental studies, and inquiry-based learning projects. MFA will strive to develop the capacity in all students for working cooperatively with others, for empathy and compassion, for thinking critically and creatively, and for becoming adept learners, community leaders, independent thinkers, and lifelong environmental stewards.

When traveling from village to village, the Masai elders of East Africa have a greeting that translates to, "How are the children?" The greeting suggests that with the welfare of the children goes the welfare of the entire community. Our own experiences tell us that children who feel loved, appreciated, and cared for are more likely to love, appreciate, and care for others and for the world they live in. Children need to feel that they belong and that they have an identity within their community. They learn how to nurture through the experience of being nurtured. They learn respect for others and for the environment through positive experiences with others in the natural environment.

Today's students typically have little exposure to the natural world. Traditional public and private schools offer occasional field trips to the outdoors, but occasional outings are not enough for students to develop knowledge and an understanding of the natural world around them and a desire to preserve its integrity. In order for children to learn to care about the future of our environment, of our world, we must care enough about them to provide them with regular and frequent educational experiences in natural settings. They must be inspired and impelled through experiences in the outdoors to learn about natural systems, about the interconnectedness and interdependence of all living and nonliving things. Young students must be nurtured to develop strong identities within their immediate community in order for them to blossom into the leaders of tomorrow and caring stewards of our natural environment.

Dr. Michael Frome, renowned conservationist, author, and environmental educator, for whom our school is named, has written this about education: "Education, with only a few exceptions, is about careers, jobs, success in a materialistic world, elitism, rather than caring and sharing; it's about facts and figures, cognitive values, rather than feeling and art derived from the heart and soul; it's about conformity, being safe in a structured society, rather than individualism, the ability to question society and to constructively influence change in direction. A change in direction is critical and imperative. Our most precious gift to the future, if you will ask me, is a point of view embodied in the protection of wild places that no longer can protect themselves." (From the International Journal of Wilderness, August 2001: V.7 No.2.)

The founders of the Michael Frome Academy believe that if we are to develop citizenship and stewardship in our young students, all learning must begin with the place in which a student lives. Embracing the philosophy of place-based education, we believe that elementary students often lose their "sense of place" through curriculum and instruction that focuses too quickly or intensely on national or global issues. Children will develop a strong sense of place through daily educational experiences that take them out into their immediate community, outside of traditional classrooms and school buildings, and into their neighborhoods and the natural world around them. Many of today's schools fail to recognize the importance of developing each student's sense of place that is, an authentic attachment to and feelings of belonging within their community. We believe that one of the most effective ways to instill compassion for others, the values of stewardship and preservation of our natural environment, and leadership skills in our citizens of tomorrow is to provide opportunities for young children to explore, connect with, and learn to understand and appreciate their community through experiences in natural settings.

The purpose of the Michael Frome Academy is to prepare our young citizens to become leaders and models of exemplary, responsible citizenship and stewards of the natural environment. We will also promote academic achievement in the areas of science, math, technology, literacy, music, and the arts.

The MFA will be innovative in its utilization of integrated-interdisciplinary, inquiry-based environmental studies, community partnerships, and place-based learning. A unique characteristic is that it will be a "green" school where the facility, operations, and educational program reflect a commitment to environmental sustainability. The school's facilities will model Low Impact Development and feature green building design, utilizing principles of sustainability and energy efficiency. The facility will serve as a model for green school buildings and a focal point for on-going research and learning within the school.

MFA student experiences learning about the environment and sustainability will include study and data collection of the building's construction and operations, such as energy usage and air and water quality. Using Environment as an Integrating Context for learning (EIC) and Project GLOBE as instructional methods and techniques, MFA will utilize the school's facility, surroundings, the community, and the natural environment as a framework and classroom for instruction. MFA will work closely with the City of Woodbury and Woodbury's Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC) to address local environmental education issues and to ensure alignment of MFA's philosophy with the Woodbury Comprehensive Plan and the city's vision for sustainability. In recent conversations with EAC, frustration was expressed because of Woodbury elementary schools' unwillingness to participate in EAC's educational outreach addressing recycling and other sustainability issues. MFA will work closely with Woodbury's EAC to provide place-based, context-based learning activities for its students.

Other innovative and unique characteristics of the school include an adapted Suzuki music program which is an important feature of the music program at MFA, where K-5 students can study violin with master teachers from the St. Paul Conservatory of Music (SPCM). Individual lessons are offered to students once a week and students participate in a group lesson once a month. The opportunity for every K-5 student to study a musical instrument daily through classes with a master teacher does not exist in any area public elementary school. During Suzuki music instruction, students will learn to work cooperatively with others, to think critically and creatively, and to become focused, adept learners.

Another unique characteristic of the MFA will be its emphasis on visual arts, creative writing, poetry, and drama, woven throughout the curriculum. Classroom teachers will be assisted in the development of fine arts projects with assistance from community artists and specialists.

The school will be innovative in its teaching of movement education and lifelong fitness through both indoor and outdoor experiential pursuits, including hiking, canoeing, climbing, x-country skiing, yoga, gymnastics, dance, cooperative games, and team building. Two of the founders of MFA have more than 20 years experience in designing adventure and experiential education activities for young children and have received national recognition for community-based programming designed to enhance student learning through experiential activities facilitated in natural settings.