A Letter From Pat Bradley

October 17, 2022

Dear CBA Families,

I am excited to partner with you for another year at Clayton-Bradley Academy. I want to take a moment to update you on our school. Last year we introduced a schoolwide survey to parents, faculty, and high school students. We received honest and constructive comments about your experience at CBA. Thank you to those who participated.

In the survey, we heard your appreciation for our unique learning environment. You also had suggestions about pick-up safety and efficiency, communication, and our hiring process. Let me briefly update you on each of these.

Unique Learning Environment

Clayton-Bradley is beginning to receive national attention for our innovative approach to education. This past summer, Dr. Bill Daggett, founder of the Successful Practices Network, recognized CBA as an exemplary school at the Learning 2025 National Summit in Washington, D.C. This continues to show the value of CBA’s brain-based model of instruction at the national level. 

Pick-Up Safety and Efficiency

We met with traffic engineers to evaluate the design of our dismissal procedures. As part of that evaluation, the decision was made to move student drivers and high school pickup across Alcoa Trail. To help parents and guardians during dismissal, we also filmed and released updated pick-up procedure videos. 

Communication

We understand the importance of families feeling connected and informed. We will continue to send out school newsletters every three weeks and share updated calendar dates, messages from our principals, and other important information. We also encourage you to attend “Coffee and Tea with Pat and Kendall.” Please see the grade-level time slots in the newsletter. We designed these short gatherings to update you on our vision and give you a chance to chat with Kendall and I about your experience here at CBA. We will also offer a series of workshops for middle and high school parents. These will cover topics such as standards-based grading and managing social conflict.

Our Hiring Process

This year’s hiring process included national and international interviews to fill open positions. Our policy is to hire the best candidate for the job. As part of this hiring process, we have updated our onboarding procedures for new teachers to better acclimate them to the CBA culture. All faculty are part of mentoring and coaching teams that continue to challenge and grow each other professionally in our brain-based educational model.

In addition to these, we are refining our science curriculum from preschool through twelfth grade, working with architects and engineers on designs for a sports field, and looking for new ways to connect and give back to our community. Finally, these last couple of years brought a marked increase in our student enrollment. This caused many grade levels to reach capacity. With our student body nearing full capacity, we are updating our admissions process and focusing on enrolling new students in preschool.

On October 24th, we will send out a new survey. Please take a moment to share about your experiences at CBA.

Clayton-Bradley Academy is dedicated to creating a student-centered, positive, and challenging environment where all students excel through: Critical thinking, Collaboration, Problem-solving, and Lifelong Guidelines & LIFESKILLS. Our vision is to reimagine education, and our purpose is to ignite the power of learning. Thank you for supporting our values and playing a vital role in our school community.

My best,

Pat Bradley

Executive Director

Clayton-Bradley Academy