BEEHIVE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION APPROVED
Sandy-based school to add grades kindergarten through 5
Sandy, Utah—Beehive Science and Technology Academy, the Sandy-based charter school for grades 6 through 12, will be able to add grades kindergarten through 5 to its offerings beginning with the 2020/2021 school year.
In addition to offering humanities, arts and history classes, Beehive’s curriculum places an emphasis on STEM (an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses and activities.
Beehive Director Hanifi Oguz and board members Calvin Zulich (president), Sudha Kargi (treasurer), Tarik Guney, Rolland Lee and Chris McCandless appeared before the Utah State Charter School Board on Jan. 16 to formally request that the elementary school grades be added. On Jan. 17, the Utah State Charter School Board unanimously approved Beehive’s application.
In order to accommodate the influx of new students, Beehive will add a satellite campus at a yet-to-be determined site to its current location at 830 E. 9400 S. in Sandy. According to McCandless, the new location could be an existing facility or a new building. He said Beehive’s board will begin researching possible new sites now that the request to expand has been approved.
In his opening remarks to the Utah State Charter School Board, Zulich cited an article, “Utah Students Need STEM,” that appeared in Utah Business Magazine online on Dec. 10, 2018. The article noted that today, there are nearly 5,000 open computing jobs in Utah—jobs with an average salary of over $81,000, nearly double the state’s average salary. But, there are not enough qualified workers in Utah to fill many of these positions. The article went on to state, “This workforce gap is the result of an educational infrastructure that hasn’t always kept pace with Utah’s—and the country’s—rapidly evolving workforce demand.”
Zulich said, “Beehive Science and Technology Academy is uniquely positioned to broaden STEM education in the Sandy, Utah area. This charter school already has a strong track record of providing STEM to students in grades 6 through 12 in this geographical area, and there is really no other school nearby that is equipped to also teach grades kindergarten through 5.”
Beehive was named Charter School of the Year 2016 by the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, and given Platinum STEM School Designation (the highest designation possible—and Beehive was the only school to receive this designation that year) by the Utah State Board of Education and the STEM Action Center for the 2015/2016 school year (incidentally, there are now over 120 public charter schools in Utah). In October 2017, Beehive was named an Apple Distinguished School for 2017 through 2019. Beehive is the first and only Utah school to receive this national honor.
