I am honored to return to the Aspire family and excited about the direction of Capitol Heights Academy. Our team is committed to ensuring an equitable and rigorous learning environment that serves the needs of every student. We are poised to lead and teach with the love, support, and urgency needed for our students to attain excellence.

Educational research supports that ALL students, regardless of socio-economic status or ethnicity, can learn when provided with high expectations, rigorous standards, and exceptional teaching. We recognize that there are no shortcuts on the road to high achievement, and there are no excuses for effort and commitment. We are committed to lead and teach with the love, support, and urgency needed for our scholars and educators to attain excellence.

While returning to school during the pandemic presents incredible challenges for our community, our scholars and their families remain our first priority. In 2020-2021, we have identified two focuses Aspire-wide: Academic Acceleration – ensuring all scholars are meaningfully engaged in rigorous standards through aligned culturally responsive academic programming; and Resilience – ensuring all scholars have access to a team of diverse, effective, and thriving professionals who are developed and supported to show up their best and enact culturally responsive and anti-racist practices. We will not let this moment beat us. We will get through this together!!!

In addition to working through a pandemic, standing strong in our fight for equity and social justice was an equal priority this summer. The Aspire network of schools was founded to battle racism and advance social justice. It is our charge to support the next generation of changemakers who will not just learn how to navigate systems that were not created for them, but who will disrupt those systems and forge a new future. In this, our Capitol Heights Academy team will strive to see our students’ individualism, their brilliance, and their future potential. We strive to create educational experiences where students thrive, families and communities experience a deep partnership with us, and teachers, leaders, and staff feel valued and excited about their work. This is what has guided our work.

I sincerely believe that our community will grow stronger from this moment in time. Capitol Heights Academy is dedicated to our mission and belief in the significant good that happens in our classrooms and schools every single day. We are honored and proud of the students and families who have chosen us, the faculty and staff who have chosen to work with us, and the Aspire alums who are making their mark on the world. We are deeply committed to doing everything possible in the days, weeks, and months to come to fulfill our mission of being an organization that combats racism, fights for social justice, and is fully rooted in love, respect, safety, and learning.

In hope,

Chris Orr | Principal
Aspire – Capitol Heights Academy