Original Research by School Decision on Swmetro Freedom Academy Alc
SWMetro Freedom Academy ALC is listed as a future school, meaning it has not yet opened or begun operating. It is an alternative school within Southwest Metro Intermediate 288, an intermediate district that provides specialized services—special education, alternative learning, career and technical education, adult education, and care and treatment programs—to eleven member districts across the region. Because the school is not yet operational, there is no enrollment data, no state assessment results, no graduation rate, and no information on programs, staffing, or discipline. Parents looking into this school will be reading about a planned entity rather than an active one.
The school would be located in Waverly, a small lakeside community roughly 35 miles west of the Twin Cities. Waverly sits on Big Waverly Lake and has a compact civic core centered on Atlantic Avenue and 4th Street, where the historic Village Hall—a Works Progress Administration project from the 1930s listed on the National Register of Historic Places—serves as a community gathering space. U.S. Highway 12 is the main route through town. The town experienced a residential building boom over the past couple of decades, with several new housing developments and a notable population increase after many years of decline. The city describes itself as poised for continued growth while maintaining its small-town character. Typical home values in the area are comparable to state and national averages.
Southwest Metro Intermediate 288 is not a traditional school district that families enroll in directly. Instead, it functions as a cooperative that provides specialized programming for students referred from its member districts. Freedom Academy, as an alternative school within this intermediate structure, would serve students who are best suited for an alternative learning environment—this could include students who need a non-traditional schedule, credit recovery, or a smaller, more flexible setting. Because the school is in the future status, no further details about its specific approach, grade configuration, or capacity are available in the data.
The comparison set of districts in Wright County cannot offer any relative academic performance measures for this school, since no testing data, graduation rate, or chronic absenteeism data exist yet. The school's location in Waverly places it in Wright County, but its intermediate district affiliation means it draws students from multiple districts, not just Waverly. Families considering this option should contact Southwest Metro Intermediate 288 directly for information about the planned opening timeline, enrollment process, and the specific student populations the school intends to serve. For now, what is known is that this is a future alternative school in a growing small-town setting, operated by a regional intermediate district with a track record of providing specialized educational services.
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