Excelsior Academy

7202 Princess View Drive, San Diego, CA 92120
Phone: 619-583-6762
Fax: 619-583-6764
Frank Maguire, Director/Principal

Excelsior Academy is a private school that serves students with learning disabilities who have average to above average intelligence in Grades 3-12. It is not affiliated with any religious organization. The school was established in 1988. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. It has a full 6 year accreditation. The single campus was formerly a San Diego City school, with a pleasant campus that includes playing fields, 2 basketball courts, volleyball etc.

ents prepare for all types of transitions, including college and career counseling. The Excelsior Academy Parent Association holds monthly

The curriculum is designed specifically for students with learning disabilities. Special programs include "Fast Fonics", Fast Forward, Lindamood, Bell Visualizing/Verbalizing, "Healthy Choices": a social skills curriculum, Key to Math, and Saxon Math. The ratio of students to teachers in both core academic and elective courses is 5:1.

The degrees of the 16 faculty members include 2 doctorates, 6 M.A., 5 B.A. of Education, 2 LSH with M.A. and 1 O.T. One-on-one language therapy is offered. The adaptive technology offered to the students include: Alpha Smarts, closed caption TV, books on tape, computers and software, auditory trainers and sound field system. Library resources offered on the campus includes fiction, non-fiction, reference books multi media and internet access.

Excelsior has a Transition Task Team that helps stud

meetings. The parents are actively involved in special school events such as dinners, fund-raisers, career day and carnivals throughout the year.

The Excelsior Academy recently won a National Award! In Philadelphia recently, Excelsior Academy was honored with the National School of Character Award-the only private school out of one hundred fifty applicants. Excelsior Academy is a small private school, founded and directed by Frank and Nance Maguire, for students with learning interferences for grades three through twelve. A National School of Character is a school recognized for having an outstanding and exemplary character education initiative. At the heart of the initiative is a partnership consisting of parents, students, staff and community members who share a commitment to promote core ethical values such as respect, responsibility, honesty, and compassion. In such a school, teachers model these values in their interactions with students and each other. In addition, students know, understand and care about these values, bringing them to life through their interactions with staff and students and through service to others. At Excelsior Academy this way of being is called "The Excelsior Way".

School of Character Awards are presented each year by the Character Education Partnership (CEP) a Washington, DC-based coalition working with organizations and individuals throughout the nation to implement character development in schools. Today's character education movement recaptures the historic role of schools as both moral and academic educators. Character educators believe that core ethical values form an essential foundation for creating environments that not only promote learning, but that also nurture children to become virtuous adults. As a result of the honor, Excelsior Academy has received a cash award of two thousand dollars, a character education flag, and a chapter in the CEP Schools of Character book. Additionally, the school has been visited by a group of principals from Singapore, has presented their program at a national conference and will serve as ambassadors for the national character education movement.

San Diego Branch of the IDA  P.O. Box 87448 San Diego, CA 92138-7448  Phone: 619.685.4413  Fax: 760.723.7168  email us