Click on a question below to be taken to the answer.
- What’s the student teacher ratio?
- Will you follow a public school calendar?
- What are your hours?
- Why did you decide to be a nonprofit?
- Will you consider having a high school in the future ?
- Will you have summer camps? Vacation camps?
- What will you do about transportation?
- What are your plans regarding food?
- What is your admissions process like?
- Will siblings get preferential admission?
- What will we do about a student requiring additional academic assistance or additional enrichment?
- How financially stable is Lumen for the first 3 – 5 years?
- Health and safety inspections
- What are the requirements to be approved as a private school?
- Is this a school exclusively for Russian-speaking kids?
- Will you offer any part-time learning opportunities for homeschoolers?
- What’s the student teacher ratio?
During the first five years of operation (2024-2029), our anticipated student/teacher ratio will range from 5:1 to 8:1.
We will not exceed 12 students per class.
back to top - Will you follow a public school calendar?
Yes, Lumen Academy follows the Waltham Public School calendar. We will also follow Waltham as far as snow days and school cancellations.
Click here for Lumen’s 2024-2025 calendar.
We considered a more traditional “private” school vacation schedule (a longer December break and a two-week March break) but realized this would unduly inconvenience working families, or those with older children in public school.
back to top - What are your hours?
The school day goes from 9:00 to 3:00, and aftercare runs from 3:00 until 5:45. Click here for a sample schedule.
We’re starting at 9:00 for the sake of families who live afar and have a longer commute; we’re ending at 3:00 to give parents ample time to make it to after-school activities. Students can be dropped off as early as 8:00. (If you need an earlier drop-off time, we can make special arrangements.)
back to top - Why did you decide to be a nonprofit?
We value transparency, which is inherently built into the structure of a nonprofit. We believe that it will add a level of trust with parent and teacher alike. We will share as much information as we can with our community, such as our financials (so you can see where your money is going), and minutes of Board of Director meetings.
We also value that, as a non-profit, we are not beholden to shareholders or investors. We believe in profits being funneled directly into the operations of the school in order to prioritize teacher salaries, curriculum development, and special programming.
Finally, our long-term plan is to keep tuition down and teacher salaries high by applying for a variety of grants available exclusively to nonprofits.
back to top - Will you consider having a high school in the future?
Starting a high school is a huge undertaking–it’s very hard to attract students without a large number of courses and extracurricular activities, and it’s very hard to support a large number of courses and activities without an adequate number of students. We’re elementary and middle school teachers, and for now this is our singular focus: we want to create an amazing PreK – 8 school and a high school would distract us from this goal.
However, it’s possible that we will eventually expand to include a high school, but the demand would need to come from our students and families.
back to top - Will you have summer camps? Vacation camps?
We understand that working parents value having options during the school vacations (in February and April) and during the Summer. For that reason, we plan to have camps available starting in our very first year. Check here for more information.
back to top - What will you do about transportation?
We will explore transportation options, but we are unlikely to offer this service in our first year. If there are an adequate number of students commuting from the same area, we can explore the possibility of hiring a driver to bring these students to school.
At the least, we will create and share a map of Lumen families to help with carpooling arrangements.
back to top - What are your plans regarding food?
We highly value the idea of providing fresh, nutritious food to our students for breakfast, lunch, and during afterschool. We plan to always have snacks on hand: fruits, vegetables, cheese, yogurt, crackers, cereal, and granola bars.
As far as lunch is concerned: We cannot promise that we will have a fully operational kitchen in time for the 2024–25 school year. For our first year, our plan is to rely on catering and to pass the cost directly on to the families (approximately $6.75 per day). You can opt out of this option if you prefer to pack your own lunch.
back to top - What is your admissions process like?
Interested families should fill-out an Application Form. We will contact you and schedule an interview, during which your child’s math and reading/writing skills will be assessed. This will also be a chance for you to ask any questions and discuss your child’s particular needs. We will be in touch to let you know if your child will be a good fit for our program. At this time, if you decide to join us, we will ask for a $1,000 refundable deposit (to be applied to your last month at Lumen Academy).
back to top - Will siblings get preferential admission?
yes, if we accept one child from a family, we will do our best to accept his/her siblings as well. Keeping siblings together under one “school roof” is very important. Unless your child has special needs that we do not have the services for, we will make an effort to admit siblings together.
back to top - What will we do about a student requiring additional academic assistance or additional enrichment?
As a private school, we have the ability to place an advanced student in classes that adequately challenge him/her. Math and language will be leveled by ability, without regards to age.
We plan to have a team that consults on any special education needs. At this time, the team consists of an occupational therapist and a speech therapist. We have the ability to add additional team members as required.
back to top - How financially stable is Lumen for the first 3 – 5 years?
We are more than happy to discuss our budget and financial projections with parents of potential students. As a private school, our primary revenue source is tuition and our largest expenditures are salaries and facility costs. We plan to be cash-flow positive by our third year.
The founders, their families, and a group of supporters have agreed to cover the initial costs of starting the school and any shortfalls in the first five years of operation. We have access to approximately $1.5MM to support us through the first few years of operation.
back to top - Health and safety inspections
We are leasing a facility that previously served as a private school (until 2019) and temporarily housed a public elementary school while renovations to the public school were performed. We are confident that we can satisfy all health and safety requirements pursuant to MGL c76 §1. The location has a licensed capacity of 350 people and is free of lead, asbestos, and PCBs.
back to top - What are the requirements to be approved as a private school?
We are required to receive approval from the local school committee in order to operate our school. The current requirements are listed in an advisory from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. On Wednesday, March 27th, we submitted our application, with the accompanying cover letter, to the Waltham School Committee.
back to top - Is this a school exclusively for Russian-speaking kids?
No! One of the founders (Rita Dunn) was born in Ukraine, and has a lot of connections within the Russian speaking community of Boston. Many of the teachers (and students) who will be joining us in year one are from that community. However, our school is open to everyone! What’s important for us is to attract families that value academics, no matter the background.
For bilingual families: we understand how important it is to many of you to preserve your home language. We will make every effort to offer your home language as part of our language program. Given the interest of the current student body, we are planning on offering Russian, Spanish, Hebrew, Mandarin and French in the first year of operation. Students will be able to pick two languages, starting in 1st grade.
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- Will you offer any part-time learning opportunities for homeschoolers?
We will be more than happy to accommodate your homeschooler. Some options: joining as a part time student, attending after-school clubs, working with one of our teachers over Zoom.
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