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Cuttin' (Edge) Class

When teacher writes your name on the "smart board," is it a good or a bad thing?

By Peter Kooiman

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you stumble onto the campus of Sage HillSchool at 10:30 a.m. on any given weekday, it might feel likeyou just set foot in a ghost town. There are no students playingbasketball on the sparkling new outdoor courts, no teachershustling back to class with freshly made copies. In fact, there areno classes going on at all. Everyone in this tiny community (whichwill eventually grow to between 500 and 600 students) is inside oneroom, where a town meeting is taking place. These daily gatheringsare just one aspect of Sage Hill that sets it apart from other highschools.

The manicured campus, set atop a hill in posh Newport Beach,California, drew immediate attention as a "tech highschool" when it opened in September 2000. The school'sfinancial backers include former AOL executive Stephen Johnson andBuy.com founderScott Blum, who would like to see business classes added to theschool's traditional college prep curriculum.

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