Last year, Elmira charter school Finn Academy celebrated its 10th anniversary, and now the school is ready to mark another major milestone.
On Friday, June 5, academy officials will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate assuming ownership of the building it has leased since it officially opened in 2015.
Finn Academy opened its doors in September of that year in the former Ernie Davis Middle School at 610 Lake St. in Elmira. The charter school started its inaugural year with 212 enrolled students.
For the first year, the academy leased the building from the Elmira City School District, and then from William Lake Properties LLC after the school district sold the property to that business for $400,000.
Finn Academy completed purchase of the building last November. The sale price was $1.26 million, according to Chemung County Real Property Tax Service records.
“After a decade of leasing this space, owning our building marks a powerful milestone for Finn Academy,” said board Chair Renee Sutton Snyder, one of the charter school’s founders.
“It reflects not only our growth and stability, but also our deep, long-term commitment to the Elmira community,” Sutton-Snyder said. “This is more than a building — it’s a permanent home for our mission and the scholars and community we serve.”
Finn Academy, which was named in honor of one of Mark Twain’s most famous characters, now has more than 400 enrolled students in kindergarten through 6th grade, and accepts students from five area school districts — Elmira, Elmira Heights, Horseheads, Corning-Painted Post, and Waverly.
Each district provides funding for the school based on the number of students attending, and those students return to their home district to complete their education after finishing 6th grade. The academy has about 75 teachers and support staff to educate the students.
Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m., is actually part of a big weekend for the school, according to Chief Operations Officer Martina Baker.
“We’ll have the ribbon-cutting and at the same time, we have our chalk festival,” Baker said. “Every year the kids go out on the sidewalk space and make a design based on a theme. We’ll have beautifully decorated sidewalks. Saturday is our farmer’s market. It’s a big weekend for us, an overall celebration of everything.”
For more information about Finn Academy and its programs, go to finnacademy.com.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Finn Academy finally owns its building. Here’s how it will celebrate
Reporting by Jeff Murray, Elmira Star-Gazette / Elmira Star-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jeff Murray, Elmira Star-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
