On July 19th, Thomas Dougherty and Amy Bottomley, addressed the Rotary Club of Nashua regarding the MicroSociety Academy Charter School (MACS). Thomas brings his years of technical support and Amy brings years of education to the school. Amy led the presentation. The school is presently located at the former Dartmouth-Hitchcock building. They offer school from K-8th grade, preparing students for high school.
The idea behind the school is to bring “real world” learning to academics. The school has its own currency, bank, newspaper, and marketplace (student-produced goods), legislative government, even a court system with lawyers and judges. The teachers or “facilitators” teach many life skill aspects including banking, government, business and policing. Their programs have a learn by doing approach. Students start businesses, learn financing, government processes. The uses real world ideas or “learn by doing”; business start-ups, hiring, resume writing, interviewing, hiring of staff, banking, applying for loans, student government (elected officials, bills, laws), policing (safety). Students with business explain financial/year 4-end statements to shareholders.
The school has students from the Nashua area (90%) and they are culturally diverse in their make up. Their current enroll is 265 students with plans to expand to 550. They are looking for a new location to help with that expansion. They enjoy and encourage strong parent input and participation in the school. The admissions to the school are based on a blind lottery system.
The school has a rigorous academic competency-based core curriculum aligned with and assessed by the NH Common Core Curriculum. They have exceeded those standards.
They have partnered with several area organizations like the Nashua Police Department, TD Bank, Nashua Public Library to name a few, and they are always looking for new partners.
MicroSociety Academy has been recognized as the top Non-profit organization in 2021 by the Nashua Chamber of Commerce and have received the highest level (4-star) since 2017.