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Stax plans charter school: Students' curriculum to include music, plus traditional subjects

By Pamela Perkins
perkins@commercialappeal.com

Stax Music Academy officials have found another way to provide opportunities to children: Open a charter school. The first day of the academy's charter school will be July 25. Student registration will be March 21 through April 1 for sixth-grade students. Up to 60 students who attend schools not meeting federal standards will be accepted. A grade will be added each year until it becomes a combined middle and high school. Academy officials also are looking for a school leader and full-time teachers. Soulsville, a nonprofit agency, developed the academy and adjacent Stax Museum of American Soul Music as a tribute to the old Stax Records label. The facilities stand on the studio's former site at 926 E. McLemore in South Memphis. The academy's programs already use music as a tool to nurture youth in summer and after-school programs. They hone singing, instrumental and performance skills while providing academic tutoring. But Soulsville officials wanted to get the 27,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building some full-time use, academy director Marc Willis said. "Clearly, we wanted to do more and make the academy more of a resource," Willis said. "It is a huge undertaking. But we're all very, very excited at the possibilities of continuing to help the kids." The school's academic curriculum will meld aspects of the music business with traditional subjects such as reading and math. Willis used study of Navajo Indians as an example, saying a class could creatively put what they learned about that culture onto a compact disc to market and sell. The curriculum also will include workshops, field trips and guest speakers. For more information, call 942-7627. -- Pamela Perkins: 529-6514