"Iraqi-born Dunia Hormez has always tried to pass on her Chaldean culture to her children even as they have attended public schools.

Next month, her lessons at home will be reinforced when she sends five of her kids to what organizers say is the nation’s first Chaldean-centered charter school.

Scheduled to open Sept. 8, the Keys Grace Academy Charter School, in Madison Heights, is aimed at preserving the Iraqi-Christian heritage through education.

“It gives them more of the culture I try to teach them, and they will learn the language, too,” Hormez said.

The school plans a ribbon cutting on Thursday and open house on Friday.

The Keys Grace Academy will open as Metro Detroit has grown to include 150,000 Chaldeans, making the region home to the second-largest Chaldean community in the world. Most Chaldeans are Eastern Rite Catholics who speak their native language, Aramaic, and are indigenous to Iraq, Syria and parts of Iran and Turkey.

Although the school will welcome all children in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, it is expected that most will be Chaldean. Upon graduation, the students are expected to be proficient in at least three languages: English, Aramaic and either Spanish or French. Each student will be provided two uniforms, shoes, computers, breakfast and lunch, and free transportation.

It will be “a public school with a private school feeling,” as founder Nathan Kalasho and his family will greet students every morning, spokesman Mort Meisner said.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/new...tion/31091035/

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I'm somewhat surprised that this is the first. Kudos and future success to this academy.