Janet Agranoff said her daughter Nora stopped attending school in October after the then-freshman struggled with high anxiety levels. By the time her daughter recovered, she had been gone long enough to make return nearly impossible.

Though she supports public education, Agranoff said she sent her daughter to Fusion Academy, a new school in Evanston that offers individualized learning. Since enrolling, she said, Nora has found a renewed interest in school.

“My favorite part is that she goes to school every day, and does all her work here,” Agranoff told The Daily. “She doesn’t bring any of her homework home. If you have a child that doesn’t want to go to school, she doesn’t want to do homework either.”

The Evanston location of Fusion Academy — 847 Chicago Ave. — held its grand opening celebration Thursday, giving prospective families a chance to learn about the nontraditional middle and high school. Fusion is part of a for-profit school system with locations in 10 states, including four in the Chicago area.

The schools serve students from grades 6 to 12, and children can be enrolled at any point in the year as full-time or part-time learners.

About 130 people attended Thursday’s event, which included a live band, student musical performances, a short panel discussion and tours of the campus.

Although the school officially opened in January, the faculty wanted to host an open house to celebrate its first full school year, director of admissions and outreach Loni Itah said.

One of the the school’s defining traits is its dedication to one-on-one learning, in which teachers have one student for each 50-minute class period. Most of the students have learning differences, struggle socially or emotionally, are athletes needing flexible scheduling or do not “meet the mold of a traditional setting,” Itah said.

“A lot of these kids come from schools where it wasn’t working,” Itah told The Daily. “Because we’re one-on-one, we’re extremely intentional about that social interaction.”

She cited field trips, student-run clubs and intercampus collaborations as parts of the student experience.

Fusion teacher Sara Goodman said the close relationships at Fusion foster academic growth. One key aspect of the school is how involved teachers become in students’ lives, which makes going to school feel like “coming home to a family,” she said.

“When you are in an academic setting and you feel anxious, your anxiety becomes the prevalent force that’s dictating everything, and it blocks what you could actually be learning,” she said. “Here, the fact that we get to know them as people, the anxiety factor kind of dissipates.

This article was updated to reflect Fusion Academy’s description of itself as a “nontraditional” school and its aim to educate students who may struggle socially or emotionally, have learning differences, are athletes needing flexible scheduling or who do not “meet the mold of a traditional setting.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @mar1ssamart1nez