DURHAM, N.C.- Healthy Start Academy, Founder and Principal Dietrich A.M. Danner continuously makes a difference throughout the African-American community. Danner has reached great achievements through his ongoing efforts to improve the educational opportunities for Eastern North Carolina’s at-risk youth.

Healthy Start Academy teaches kindergartners through eight (8) graders with an overwhelming student body of ninety-eight (98) percent being African-American, almost entirely derived from the surrounding area, which is largely an African-American community.

As a kick-off to the school’s tenth (10th) year anniversary, a Hip Hop Symposium was hosted in February 2007. Principal Danner said, “we are excited to begin a study of what we call Hip-Hop culture, because that’s the language of today’s students. That’s how they move. They listen to the beats and that’s how they deal with life:”

Featured presenters included Katrina Billingsly, a graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Cicero Leak, a graduate of North Carolina Central University (NCCU), Michael Wilson, a graduate of North Carolina Central University and Film Producer and HP4 Digital Works and Solutions president, Christopher “Play” Martin and Dr. Mark Anthony, professor of African-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Healthy Start Academy became North Carolina’s first charter school in 1997. Immediately Principal Danner began to make a huge impact not only in the Durham community but also throughout the state of North Carolina. As the original charter school, Healthy Start Academy has set the bar for grade school educational institutions. Since it’s inception in 1997, the charter school movement has continued to grow in North Carolina. Presently there are ninety-eight (98) Charter Schools that operate within the state.

Healthy Start Academy has made national headlines for its successes in the charter school movement since its’ 1997 birth. Back in 2000, George W. Bush election campaign invited Claudia Daye-Kirkley, Healthy Start Academy teacher and representative to address the Republican National Convention on issues concerning the 2001, No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), or the “Nicklebee” as it is known in the education community.

Healthy Start exemplifies successful change in those progressing educational institutions that President Bush was aiming for with his proposed No Child Left Behind Act, which is now law. In June of 1998, Principal Dietrich’s students body scored 99th percentile among five (5) million students nationwide taking the Iowa Basic Skills Test.
This occurred one-year (1) after Healthy Start Academy, began operating before kindergarteners scores stood around (42nd) percentile. The school’s second grade students leaped from the 34th percentile to the 75th percentile.

According to Danner, “Healthy Start Academy focuses on the diamonds in the rough, they supply students with basic educational needs, self-esteem improvement skills, positive diversion qualities while using the sway of the hip-hop culture.

Healthy Start currently educates two hundred and thirty (230) kindergartners and some three hundred and eighty-eight (388) grade school level students in Durham’s West End District. Healthy Start classes are convened in a newly renovated Baptist church that serves as the schoolhouse.

Thanks to Danner’s insight, drive and vision, Healthy Start received a five-year (5) Reading Grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2004, as they continue to propel to success.