In 1973, a young man left the village of Rammun in Palestine and arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, beginning a journey that would eventually reshape charter education across Southeast Michigan. Years later, one of the schools influenced by his vision would be a modest elementary campus in Warren, where children would learn to read, grow, and discover the value of speaking more than one language.
That man is Dr. Mohamad M. Issa, and the school in question, opened only in 2017, is Frontier International Academy Elementary. It began with 35 students. It now serves kindergarten through fifth grade, and it is the newer half of a story that started twelve years earlier and eighty miles away, in Detroit.
A Promise Made in Detroit
Frontier International Academy’s origins trace to 2005, when its founders set out with what the school describes as a simple but powerful vision: to build a school where students from different backgrounds could receive a high-quality education, one that honored academic excellence, cultural identity, positive character, and family partnership in equal measure.
The mission, as the school states it, is “to promote lifelong learning by nurturing academic excellence, positive character, and an appreciation of cultures.” Two decades on, that sentence still functions as the school’s spine, the thing everything else hangs from.
Today, the Detroit campus is guided by Principal Mohammed Alsanai, a certified educator with more than 15 years of experience in the field of education. He earned a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Wayne State University in Detroit. In 2013, he obtained his Educational Leadership Certification in Administration and Supervision from the Michigan Department of Education, further strengthening his expertise in educational leadership and school administration.
Under Principal Alsanai and his dedicated staff, the Detroit campus grew into something known for high expectations, strong family connections, and a deep commitment to the students it serves. But a school district, like a family, tends to notice what is missing before it notices what it has. What Frontier’s leaders noticed was that families wanted the Frontier experience earlier, in the years before middle school, when a child’s foundation is still being poured.
The Warren Chapter
So in 2017, Frontier opened its elementary campus in Warren. It started small, with 35 students, a number so modest it is almost startling next to what the campus has become. With support from its management company, Global Educational Excellence, known simply as GEE, the Warren campus added certified teachers, professional educators, and support staff, strengthened its academic programs, and sharpened its focus on student well-being. Today it offers strong core instruction, language support, Arabic education, tutoring, and after-school opportunities, all within what the school describes as a caring school culture.
One District, Two Campuses
Frontier International Academy Elementary is one of 15 schools supported by GEE, and it operates alongside its sister campus in Detroit as one district built around two very different rhythms. The Detroit campus serves students from Pre-K through fifth grade, and again from ninth through twelfth grade, a structure that essentially bookends adolescence rather than walking straight through it. The Warren campus is simpler in shape, serving kindergarten through fifth grade, but not simpler in ambition. Its population, the school notes, represents a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds, a fact that shapes nearly every decision made inside its walls.
A Full Day, By Design
Academically, the Warren campus builds its day around English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, the traditional backbone of an elementary education. Around that backbone, Frontier has added Arabic Language and Culture instruction, Multilingual Learner services, targeted intervention in reading and math, technology integration, social-emotional learning, and time for art and sports. It is a schedule that treats language and culture not as electives bolted onto the side of the day, but as part of the day’s architecture.
Defining Excellence
Ask Frontier’s leaders what educational excellence means, and the answer does not begin with test scores. It begins with high expectations, strong relationships, and a commitment to making sure every student grows academically, socially, and emotionally. Instruction is built on research-based curriculum resources aligned with state standards, and teachers use student data, classroom assessments, and their own observations to figure out what each child actually needs.
The district’s stated priorities – High-Quality Teaching and Learning, operational excellence, and long-term sustainability – sound almost administrative until you notice what they are in service of: a goal of maintaining balanced funds and a healthy financial position so the school can keep providing the resources, programs, technology, and support its students need.
Where Language Becomes a Bridge
Frontier places multilingual learners and culturally diverse families at the center of its educational model. The school treats language and culture not as obstacles to manage but as strengths to build on. Each year it hosts events like Winter Around the World and Multicultural Day, giving students a structured chance to learn about different traditions while connecting with their own heritage.
The work is not only celebratory. The Multilingual Learner Department and the school’s Reading Specialist follow what the school calls an integrated and designated model, meaning students receive language support inside the regular classroom and, when needed, through additional pull-out instruction. Teachers, in turn, are trained to support language development and academic learning at the same time, rather than treating them as sequential tasks.
Beyond the School Gates
A school’s relationships rarely stop at its front doors, and Frontier’s list of partnerships is long. The school communicates with families in multiple languages and builds involvement through literacy nights, mathematics workshops, cultural and community events, and goal-setting conferences. Local businesses and community vendors are welcomed into school events, giving them visibility with Frontier families in return.
Some of the partnerships reach further. Frontier works with the Macomb County Health Department to support student health and well-being. Students have met with Michigan Department of Education (MDE) officials and state representatives, and a group of them traveled to Lansing to meet State Representative Mai Xiong and take part in Charter Schools Day, learning firsthand about government, leadership, and civic life. One student, Zainab Alhusseinawi, represented Representative Xiong at the Wax Museum event held during that same Charter Schools Day, a small detail that says something larger about how seriously the school takes civic education. The school library, meanwhile, works alongside the Warren Public Library to build a love of reading that starts early and, ideally, never really stops.
Life After the Bell
Ask any student, and they will probably tell you the school day does not end at dismissal. Frontier runs after school acceleration programs, Arabic language instruction, art, physical education, and enrichment activities built around creativity and teamwork. The 2025 to 2026 school year marked the launch of the school’s after-school athletic program, with boys’ and girls’ soccer and basketball. In its very first year, the girls’ soccer team took first place in the league, the kind of debut that tends to become school legend.
The trophies did not stop there. Frontier’s students won the EMU Math Facts Challenge outright, and brought home four first-place trophies and one second-place trophy from the GEE wide Arabic Spelling Bee. The school has also been recognized as a National ESEA Distinguished School, an honor announced in Denver.
The People Who Hold It Together
Behind any list of achievements sits a structure of people whose names rarely make the trophy case. Frontier’s Reading Department builds literacy through instruction and intervention. The Multilingual Learner Department supports language development and academic access. The Resource Room and Special Education Department provide specialized services, including speech therapy and occupational therapy, for students who need them. The Math Department helps students develop strong math skills through quality instruction and targeted support. The Social Worker and Mental Health Department attend to students’ social and emotional needs and offer resources to families as well as students. Threaded through all of it are instructional coaches, who partner with teachers using a student-centered coaching model aimed at strengthening instruction and improving outcomes, one classroom at a time.
A Seat for Every Student
Equity, at Frontier, is framed less as a policy and more as a belief that every student can grow, and every student deserves access to a high-quality education. The school’s diverse population is supported through strong instruction, multilingual services, intervention programs, family engagement, and resources matched to what students actually need, all grounded in the conviction that diversity itself is an asset rather than an obstacle.
Learning to Give
Some of the most telling moments at Frontier happen outside the curriculum entirely. Fifth-grade students partnered with Gleaners to collect canned food donations and cereal boxes for families in need, an initiative that gave students the opportunity to serve their community while developing leadership, teamwork, and a sense of responsibility. In previous years, students competed in robotics competitions, working in teams against other schools while sharpening problem-solving and technology skills, the kind of lesson that does not show up on a report card but tends to stick anyway.
What Comes Next
Frontier’s leaders describe their future in fairly plain terms: keep improving outcomes through strong instruction, collaboration, and continuous growth. That includes exploring artificial intelligence and other technology tools to support teachers and expand learning opportunities for students, alongside a continued investment in teachers themselves and a commitment to letting data, rather than habit, guide decisions.
The Man Behind the Vision
It is worth returning to Dr. Mohamad M. Issa, because so much of what Frontier has become traces back to a decision he made decades before the Warren campus existed. After building an early career in business and real estate, he founded Central Academy in 1996, then co-founded Global Educational Excellence two years later with his brother, Dr. Said Issa. What began as a single venture has grown into a network of 15 academies serving more than 5,000 students across Southeast Michigan and the MENA region.
Dr. Issa also helped shape a nationally used Arabic Language and Culture curriculum, a contribution that reflects the importance Frontier continues to place on Arabic language and culture education. In 2022, Eastern Michigan University named its Mohamad M. Issa Atrium in his honor, one line among several recognitions that also include the Economic Bridge Builder Award and MAPSA’s Trailblazer Award. He holds a Business Management degree from Central Michigan University and an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Eastern Michigan University, and he has served on the boards of MAPSA and the American Arab Chamber of Commerce. He lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, the father of five sons and a grandfather besides.
Steady Hands at the Table
Frontier’s Board of Directors has five members, four of whom have served since the school’s earliest years, a continuity that is rare in any organization and rarer still in education. The board is led by President Asm Rahman and is appointed through Bay Mills Community College, a structure that has given the school something not every young institution gets: a governing body that remembers where it started.
Every Student, Every Day
At the head of the Warren campus is Principal Mona Hamawi, who leads from a fairly simple conviction: every child has the ability to learn, grow, and succeed. Her vision is to provide and maintain a strong academic foundation while helping students develop positive character, leadership skills, respect for diversity, and the values needed to become responsible and caring citizens. It is a vision she has distilled into four short sentences, the kind that get printed on hallway walls and, more importantly, get repeated until they become true.
“Every student. Every day. No exceptions. No excuses.”
Quotes
Also Read: Frontier International Academy (Empowering Futures: Outstanding U.S. School Districts of 2026)
