Atlanta Adventist Academy

Atlanta Adventist Academy (AAA) is a multi-campus, college preparatory high school operated by the Georgia Cumberland Conference to honor God by preparing young people for a life of excellence and service in this world and the world to come. Atlanta Adventist Academy serves youth in the metro area of Atlanta, Georgia, and across the Georgia-Cumberland region as a vendor of online distance learning approved by the North American Division.¹

Atlanta Adventist Academy was formed when the constituents² of three junior academies (Atlanta Junior Academy, Marietta Junior Academy, and Cascade Junior Academy) merged them in 1979.³ The constituents chose the campus of the Cascade Road Seventh-day Adventist Church and Cascade Junior Academy as the location for the new venture and began utilizing the facilities that were already in place. Several individuals are particularly significant for their contributions to these developments. They include Harry Haugen; Bruce Bergherm, chairman of the academy board; and Eugene A. Anderson, secretary of the board.⁴ Pastor Alvin Klein, along with the Anderson family, was particularly influential in the decision to enhance the campus by building a multi-purpose Gymatorium in the early 1980s, shortly after the merger.⁵

Initially AAA functioned as a junior academy with an opening enrollment of sixty-seven ninth and tenth grade students. The first twelfth-grade graduation was held in May 1984 in the new Gymatorium with eighteen graduates⁶ By the 1990s, enrollment regularly exceeded 100, peaking at 147 near the end of the decade. In the mid-1990s a new classroom wing was added, and several aging facilities were refurbished.⁷ However, despite this growth significant, complex logistical and organizational challenges developed that impacted the future of the academy going into the new millennium. Taken together, these factors began to negatively affect enrollment and operations which resulted in the sale of the Cascade Road property (2005-2006), relocation of the main campus to Duluth, Georgia, and the reorganization of the academy into a multi-campus hybrid program integrating traditional and online distance learners in real-time classes. This model, which became operational for the 2006-2007 school year, featured two satellite metro locations—Marietta and Peachtree City—and multiple partner campuses located throughout the Georgia-Cumberland Conference and selected locations in the eastern and midwestern United States, all connected by cutting edge technology. The new AAA slogan was appropriately labeled “Education That Connects.” In 2010, the administration was invited to the United States Department of Education in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate the effectiveness of this innovative approach and how it might be utilized on a high school level in other places. AAA’s major change of program resulted in a demographically and geographically diverse and stable enrollment, averaging 122 students during the first eleven years of the multi-campus “connected” model.

Even as these developments took place, AAA continued to enhance its brand of quality, innovative, and holistic education. In response to the 21^st Century Adventist Edge and Journey to Excellence initiatives, the school, beginning in 2001, initiated a college-preparatory full block schedule (also known as a “semestered system”). It became one of the first academies in the United States to offer direct college credit on campus through extension courses and began participation in the National Honor Society, which included the implementation of the challenging AAA Scholars program. It also continued offering popular co-curricular and spiritual opportunities, and became a leader in the use of technology for instruction, student learning, and program support.

Regardless of the instructional format, a major strength of AAA’s program over the years has been the skilled and dedicated faculty.⁸ Several teachers and staff served AAA for long duration, providing valuable continuity as well as an enduring influence on the AAA community. Individuals who served more than one full decade include Robert Geach (1970s-2010s), Aline Travis (1970s-2000s), Lettie Bragg (1980s-2010s), Harold Cunningham (1990s-2000s), Bruce Kimball (1980s-2000s), James Boyd (1990s-2000s), Gary Cockrell (1990s-2000s), and Stan Hobbs (2000-2010s). Geach, a science teacher, was particularly noteworthy because he was teaching at Cascade Junior Academy in the 1970s when it became Atlanta Adventist Academy, then continued to positively impact generations of students at AAA until his retirement in 2010. His service during crucial program changes and campus relocation helped form an important bridge between the original AAA and the reconstituted AAA.

Now in its fifth decade, Atlanta Adventist Academy continues to operate with the vision to be the school of choice for young people of all backgrounds who desire a Christ-centered, academically challenging educational experience.

AAA is accredited by the Adventist Accrediting Association of the North American Division, the National Council for Private School Association, and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.⁹

Principals

Keith Gibbons (1979), David Fardulis (1980), William Worth (1981-1982), Victor Kostenko (1983-1987), William Ruby (1987-1991) Dean Maddock (1991-2000), Stan Hobbs (2000-2003), David Denton, (2003-2009), LaRonda Forsey (2009-2011), Justin Okimi (2011-2012), Matt Jones (2012-2017), Raiza Fernandez (2017-2018), Kirk Haley (2018- ).

Sources

Atlanta Adventist Academy. 2020. Accessed November 28, 2022. https://www.aaa.edu/.

“Atlanta Adventist Academy to Open in August.” Southern Tidings, June 1979.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Accessed November 28, 2022. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=12123.

Notes

1. Unless stated otherwise, information in this article comes from the author’s personal knowledge as the academy’s principal from 2000 to 2003.↩

2. The constituents were comprised of the Atlanta metro area Seventh-day Adventist churches of Austell, Belvedere, Beverly Road, Cascade Road, Douglasville, Jonesboro, Marietta, Metropolitan, Peachtree City, Smyrna, and Stone Mountain. See “Atlanta Adventist Academy to Open in August,” Southern Tidings, June 1979, 20.↩

3. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Atlanta Adventist Academy,” accessed November 28, 2022,↩

4. “Atlanta Adventist Academy to Open in August,” Southern Tidings, June 1979, 20.↩

5. Ailene Travis, interview by author, Peachtree City, GA, December 12, 2016.↩

6. Ibid.↩

7. Robert Geach, telephone interview by author, March 8, 2017.↩

8. Ibid.↩

9. “Accreditations,” Atlanta Adventist Academy, 2020, accessed November 28, 2022, https://www.aaa.edu/accreditations.↩