Anderson Community School Corporation and Simon Youth Foundation Announce Creation of Mounds Mall Education Resource Center
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Anderson Community School Corporation and Simon Youth Foundation Announce Creation of Mounds Mall Education Resource Center June 7, 2000 Partnership to Provide Students with Alternative Educational Programs ANDERSON, INDIANA – June 7, 2000 . The Simon Youth Foundation and the Anderson Community School Corporation today announced the creation of an Education Resource Center at Mounds Mall, carrying out the Simon Youth Foundation’s mission to foster economic and career development in youth through the implementation of focused and appropriate educational initiatives and programs. The Simon Youth Foundation, which was founded by Simon Property Group and the Simon family in August of 1998, is implementing a national initiative to utilize Simon malls, the nation’s largest mall portfolio, as a vehicle to provide economic and educational opportunities for young people in the communities in which the company does business. The Simon Youth Foundation and Anderson Community School Corporation will partner to develop and manage the Mounds Mall Education Resource Center, where students with unique learning needs can attend and receive their high school diploma in a non-traditional setting. The Mounds Mall Education Resource Center will be the second of its kind in Central Indiana, the first being at Washington Square on the east side of Indianapolis. Simon Property Group and the Simon Youth Foundation have also established Education Resource Centers in Pittsburgh, PA, El Paso, TX and San Antonio, TX. Additional centers are under various phases of development in more than two dozen cities throughout the country. “The Anderson Community School Corporation is very excited about forming a partnership with the Simon Youth Foundation and Mounds Mall,” said Jane A. Kendrick, Superintendent of the Anderson Community School Corporation. “ACS has been searching for additional options for our high school program with an ever-increasing number of students needing a non-traditional approach of hands-on activities. This partnership is perfect for our alternative teaching faculty and students. The technology-based curriculum, mentorship opportunities with local businesses at the mall and the higher education partnership will truly provide an exemplary program for Anderson Community Schools and extend our traditional focus on academic achievement for all our students as the top priority in our school corporation,” she added. The Mounds Mall Education Resource Center, in addition to providing high school degree accrediting educational programs, will also provide career training and mentoring opportunities in sales and management to equip students with the life and job skills necessary to work in a retail environment or elsewhere. “The Simon family and Simon Property Group feel that we have a responsibility to use our malls as more than a place of commerce and entertainment,” said Deborah Simon, chairman of the Simon Youth Foundation. “Through the Simon Youth Foundation, we will continue our commitment to serve as a trusted community partner by making our malls a place where students can go to receive the one-on-one, personalized attention they need to achieve academic success.” Construction on the Education Resource Center, which will be located near the Elder Beerman Home store inside entrance at the northeast end of Mounds Mall, is scheduled to be complete by late summer, permitting classes to begin at the Education Resource Center with the start of the 2000-2001 school year. Simon Property Group, Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust which, through its subsidiary partnerships, is engaged in the ownership, development, management, leasing, acquisition and expansion of income-producing properties, primarily regional malls and community shopping centers. It currently owns or has an interest in 255 properties containing an aggregate of 184 million square feet of gross leasable area in 36 states and five assets in Europe. Together with its affiliated management company, Simon owns or manages approximately 190 million square feet of gross leasable area in retail and mixed-use properties. Visit www.shopsimon.com..