Faculty
Biographies

Dennis Kelley
Director
Mr. Kelley, who has been the Director of Atlantis Academy, Palm Beaches since July 2005 received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Iowa and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Colorado.

He has been in the education field since 1999 serving as Executive Director of five special education schools in South Florida and later opening and operating seventeen (17) such schools nation wide as Vice President for Special Education Services for a large private education company. At that time, he served on the Board of directors of the Coalition of McKay Scholarship Schools and President of the Florida Independent Schools Association. After a short period consulting for a charter school company, he joined Educational Services of America as Director of the West Palm Beach Campus.

Mr. Kelley is an active member of St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Plantation, FL and Director of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew Chapter. He is also a member of the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Palm Springs Kiwanis, the Vietnam Security Police Association and the Air Force Security Police Association. 




	
Our Students and Programs


	
The school’s student population is made up of students, who because of their specific needs and abilities, do best in smaller classes, which focus on individual needs, rather than in the large classes with the one size fits all approach, commonly found in the public school system. The student population includes those who are academically advanced, those who require individual curriculums to challenge their special abilities, and those with learning and or processing disabilities.



	
For these students early intervention and remediation in the education process is essential to their future success. Depending on testing and professional evaluation, students are placed in grade level classes. Each grade offers differing and individual levels of goals and requirements in the major areas of study depending on need and ability. Grade level classes have an average of fifteen students.



	
One of the school’s primary services is in working with students who have been diagnosed with AD/HD, Dyslexia, and other learning and processing disabilities, who have not succeeded in the public school system. The school’s programs reinforce positive behavior, teach organizational and other skills needed to insure these students succeed with their education, permitting many of them the ability to successfully return to mainstream education.



	
A significant part of this process is in the inclusion of activities between those students affected with learning disabilities and those who are not. The process allows the affected student the maximum participation possible in a regular classroom, while providing services and aids in addition to regular instruction to ensure the student’s individual educational needs are met. Inclusion significantly benefits the school’s other students by providing better quality instruction, more creative instructive and presentation methods, peer teaching opportunities, and a more diverse learning environment, all of which serve to reinforce the learning process.