By Michael Reed
Valley Voices Staff Writer
As 15-year-old Corey Purvis gazed out over the scenic overlook, he saw more than the dense trees and wide stream that filled the landscape. “Everywhere you go here,” he said with a wide sweep of his arm, “is a part of my school.”
Corey’s school is Ivy Academy, one of Hamilton County’s first charter schools. Ivy opened its doors this year to ninth-graders with approval from the Tennessee Board of Education after appealing repeated denials by the Hamilton County Board of Education.
Located in Soddy-Daisy on 40 acres adjacent to 7,000 acres of state protected property in North Chickamauga, Ivy Academy’s teaching philosophy is based on the idea that learning should reach beyond classroom walls.