With the help of a financial gift, Scenic Land School has announced that it will operate at full strength for the 2008-09 school year.

Heading the school this year as interim director and search consultant will be Jack Stanford, a veteran independent school educator.

“We are pleased and excited to announce that the school will operate in full fashion for the coming school year,” said Mr. Stanford. “A donor has made a major lead gift to the school that has re-energized the entire Scenic Land community.”

An open house will be held at the school’s Four Squares Center campus off Mountain Creek Road July 30 from 3-5 p.m., with comments from Mr. Stanford and representatives of the school’s board at 4 p.m.

New school board chairman Tom Jones said the school is excited to have Mr. Stanford, a former Baylor School teacher and basketball coach, who also served as headmaster of Presbyterian Day School and Hutcheson School in Memphis.

“We are blessed to have Jack Stanford at the helm,” said Mr. Jones. “He cares about students who need a program where their special needs can be met and where they can thrive, learn, and compensate effectively for their learning differences.”

Mr. Stanford, who served as interim head of school and consultant at Baylor in 2004, also operates an independent contractor consulting business specializing in head of school searches and board/head workshops. He is assisting Scenic Land in a search for a permanent head.

He has also served as interim head of school of five independent schools in the Southeast.

Mr. Jones added that $1.8 million has been pledge to an endowment to secure the future of Scenic Land, a 42-year-old independent school that tries to help students who, because of learning disabilities or other factors, have not been able to succeed in a traditional school environment.

“Our goal is to raise the endowment to $5 million and we are well on our way,” said Mr. Jones. “We owe a special thank you to the donors who are contributing so generously.”

Fellow board member Tommy Dickinson said that research has shown that 17 percent of all students have some degree of learning disability, and that a school like Scenic Land is needed for the Chattanooga, North Georgia, and North Alabama area.

Officials also stated that the school is still enrolling students for this year for pre-kindergarten through eighth- grade. An application or more information can be obtained by calling (423) 877-9711 or emailing Mr. Stanford at jstanford@sceniclandschool.org.