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Gary Upper Academy LCS

About Us

Welcome to Gary Lighthouse Charter School-Upper Academy!

Gary Lighthouse Charter School-Upper Academy is a tuition-free public charter school serving scholars in grades 4-8 scholars. Our network of dedicated professionals works with scholars, parents, and community partners each day to make quality education accessible to our current body of need number.

Our campus receives public funding from federal and state resources. Managed by Lighthouse Academies, we operate under our charter as authorized by the Indiana Charter School Board. This funding fuels our ability to continue offering vital programs that support our endeavors to offer educational opportunities and activities that help our scholars grow strong in all areas of life.

Funding supports our academic and extracurricular programs including:

21st Century Scholars
Choir
Student council
Boys basketball
Girls basketball
Cheerleading
Girls on the RUN
After-school programming partnership with City Life Center
After-school clubs
After-school tutoring

Like all Lighthouse Academies, we share a vision for success that reinforces our belief that the 4Cs -curiosity, critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, and creativity-offer a comprehensive approach to learning. Driven by our focus on literacy as the foundation for successful we promise to prioritize clear literacy instruction starting in kindergarten so that by third grade all scholars have both the strong literacy foundation and social-emotional skills to successfully transition to reading to learn. For scholars entering Lighthouse Academies after kindergarten, we guarantee they will meet or exceed grade-level expectations within three years.

How Your Scholar Benefits of Attending GLCS Upper Academy

At the Upper Academy, our young learners enjoy the following benefits:

Small class sizes
Rigorous ELA and math curricula
Technology, art, and physical education
Opportunities for group work, field trips, and special programs

Our Mission

The education and well-being our scholars is our top priority. We know so much of their future depends on the quality of the education they receive during their time here with us.

Each and every day, our staff is committed to:

Inspiring lifelong learners
Progressing technologically
Motivating students
Fostering a student-centered culture
Providing a safe, equitable learning environment that includes high-quality facilities for students and staff
Welcoming parent and community involvement
Teaching the life skills necessary for success
Cultivating responsible citizens
Improving continually

Our Culture

A Culture of Perseverance and Intellectual Risk taking

At GLCS-Upper Academy, we know the importance of teaching students to look and think past the difficulties they face in pursuing academic excellence. Our culture encourages scholars to understand that their development as strong academic performers and strong human beings, can rely on their ability to approach challenges with clarity. We build a mindset that thinking creatively and working with others can be an integral part of not just academic solutions, but solutions affecting life outside of our walls.

GLCS-Upper Academy, our culture is rooted in fostering an environment that:

Encourages scholars to persevere through all academic challenges
Healthy relationships among all members of our community enables our culture of collaboration and empowers all members of our community to take academic risks and embrace the challenges of academic and personal growth.
Encourages scholars to become intellectual risk-takers
While each school develops and celebrates its own unique identity, all schools share core practices that support our culture of academic risk-taking and learning. We give students a safe place to push themselves, expand their thinking, and try out new ideas, learning and growing from their mistakes. We encourage collaboration across curricula and grade levels to increase understanding of how interconnected the world is and to reinforce that we are all both educators and learners.
Encourages scholars to add to our positive school environment
We believe each school should be a joyful and spirited place students are eager to come to every day. Each school team is responsible for creating and executing its own culture plan, implementing traditions that celebrate its unique identity, fostering spirit and joy while reinforcing the Habits of Scholars-which includes teaching our scholars the importance of integrity and respect for others.
Is One of Safety
GLCS-Primary Academy knows that children need a safe environment to learn. Here’s our approach to cultivating our scholar’s sense of safety:
- We employ an operations team to ensure that our facility is safe from hazards and outside threats. We conduct drills each month to ensure our students and staff members are well prepared in the event of an emergency.
- We maintain a constant pulse on scholar behavior, allowing us to be proactive in diffusing any negative behaviors before they become a disruption or safety concern.
- We warmly welcome parents and guardians visiting and being involved in the school. When you arrive at the school, please go directly to the main office to sign in and obtain a visitor’s pass. When you are ready to leave the school, please go to the main office, return the visitor’s pass, and sign out.

Our Leadership

Our leaders appreciate each and every parent who trusts us with their child’s education. Because we know that by trusting us with their education, they are trusting us with their future. Our leaders take pride in that trust, and work hard each day through professional demonstration of character, and by adopting the research-driven methods that make our campus great.