The Pioneer Academy of Science is a private school located in Clifton, New Jersey, at 366 Clifton Avenue and at the intersection of First Street and Clifton Avenue. The school was formed in 1999. A second campus located in South Jersey opened in the 2006-2007 school year.
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History
In the late 1990s, Osman Öztoprak, Ismail Arican and Aziz Zafer Ergul started a school at the corner of Clifton Ave. and First St., at the site of a former mental hospital. They originally opened with only middle school students, but by the third year they had expanded to 3rd graders, making it 3rd-8th grade. In 2005, they opened up the school to 2nd graders as well. In 2006, Pioneer Academy moved from its 366 Clifton Avenue location to another building at 1253 Main Avenue, on a site which was formerly St. Paul RC Church and Private School. The Academy is now a Pre-K to 10th grade school, and grades K-3 are located at the old building while the elementary, middle and high schools reside in the newer building. New building is very large, and it has a gym, unlike the previous building.
Events
The school, before 2004, used the last three periods of every Friday (after lunch) for clubs (first period) and science and math projects (second and third periods). In 2004, they took away the science and math teams and replaced them with Science Olympiad; other teams such as the Math Olympiad team remained. A vast variety of clubs, including school newsletter, government, poetry, chess, puzzle, movie, electronics, origami, art and yearbook, exist.
Academic achievements
- 2007
- North Division First Place in New Jersey Science Olympiad
- Best Use of Transportation Modeling in New Jersey Future City Competition
- 2006
- North Division First Place in New Jersey Science Olympiad
- Second Place in Elementary School Science Olympiad
- Second Place in New York Future City Competition
- 2005
- North Division First Place in New Jersey Science Olympiad
- Third Place in New Jersey Future City Competition
- Fourth Place in Elementary School Science Olympiad
- Fifth Place in New Jersey State Science Olympiad
- 2004
- State First Place in New Jersey Future City Competition
- North Division First Place in New Jersey Science Olympiad
- Second Place in Clifton City Youth Week Art Contest
- First Place in Clifton City Youth Week Poetry Contest
- 2003
- Second Place in New Jersey Math League Competition
The school came in fifth place in the 2005 New Jersey Science Olympiad, earning one gold, four silver and three bronze medals in the competition's 23 events. The school's team of 17 middle school students finished ahead of 22 schools, all the more remarkable as the team represent half of all students in the school's grades 6-8.[1]
