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===== Thales strives for fiscal efficiency =====

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Thales Academy in Apex cost about $107 per square foot to build. That compares to $189 per square foot for Laurel Park.
Staff photo by Michael McLoone

by anne woodman, correspondent

As straw is scattered and the playground equipment assembled on the grounds of the new Thales Academy building in downtown Apex, Chairman of the Board Kent Misegades surveys the site. On Dec. 15, the 80 students in grades K-5 will take their first classes there, and Misegades checks to see how the playground is coming along.

Thales Academy is different. Even a first glance at the two-story brick structure gives the impression that this is no public elementary school.

That’s without knowing what’s beneath the brick — a pre-engineered steel building — that keeps the costs in check.

“The engineering is done by a manufacturer of steel in Nebraska, and we were able to choose from various sizes; there was a lot of flexibility,” said Misegades. “It spreads the costs over thousands of customers, unlike public schools, where each one is individual.”

Misegades said costs were kept low in a variety of ways: The three acres of land were donated by Apex First Development, the project has taken just over six months to complete, and general contractors Cade Inc., who also built Franklin Academy and Thales Academy in Wake Forest, used the same subcontractors and a staggered schedule to complete similar buildings in the area.

Thales is part of public school critic Robert Luddy’s vision for an alternative to public schools. Franklin Academy, a charter school, and the two private Thales, were built in a similar vein. “Mr. Luddy is very particular about quality materials,” said Misegades.

Coming in right on schedule, Thales Academy cost $3.2 million, took a little over six months to build and will eventually hold up to 432 students in 30,000 square feet. Nearby Laurel Park Elementary, a renovated former manufacturing plant, had a total project budget of over $21 million, took about two years and opened with about 600 students in 111,356 square feet.

That’s a construction cost of about $107 per square foot for Thales compared to about $189 per square foot for Laurel Park. The new 103,769-square-foot Mills Park Elementary in Cary cost about $262 per square foot.

Misegades said that Thales [pronounced Thay-leez], which will work up to teaching students in grades K-8 by 2011-12, has the same efficient outlook on teaching. Using the direct instruction method, teachers employ a highly structured, fast-paced lesson plan. Students may be moved up or down a grade level for a specific lesson plan if they either can’t keep up or are not challenged by their own grade level work.

Teachers can measure students’ performance daily.

Interior spaces reflect the vision for the school. “Lockers” with no locks and clear plastic windows as well as towering ionic columns outside the multipurpose room remind students and parents of the school’s goals of honesty and devotion to the classics. Thales, after all, is the ancient Greek mathematician thought to be the teacher of Pythagoras.

Thales, which opened in temporary space in the Marketplace on Center Street in September, has a $5,000 tuition fee. “To keep tuition down, we keep the costs down,” said Misegades. “And your child is guaranteed never to be reassigned.”

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