Waterford - While there are still six weeks left to summer vacation, one school - with a new location, new director and growing student body - is already gearing up for the start of the academic year.

The Dual Language Arts Academy, a small magnet middle school offering classes in English and Spanish with a focus on the arts, will be moving into the former Southwest Elementary School building in Waterford with Peter DeLisa, former principal of Leonard J. Tyl Middle School in Montville, at the helm.

"With the dual-language immersion and arts focus mixed into the curriculum, there's a uniqueness not found at a typical school," DeLisa said.

DeLisa was the first principal of Tyl Middle School, serving from its opening in 1992 until his retirement in 2006. He was quickly pulled back into the ring, however, to help out a new principal by working as a part-time assistant principal at Mohegan Elementary School. But as Montville struggled to cut costs in its education budget, the Board of Education voted in February to eliminate his position for the coming school year.

Looking to "do something," as he put it, he heard about the opportunity to help run the Dual Language Arts Academy. He applied, and after several rounds of interviews, he was hired earlier this month.

"It feels amazing to be back in a middle school environment, and this is a great opportunity," he said. "It's where I'm most comfortable; I know what these young people are like, and I know how to relate to them."

The academy, founded in 2007 as a joint venture between Waterford and New London school districts and administered by LEARN, is one of the newer additions to a growing list of regional magnet schools in southeastern Connecticut. In addition to its unique curriculum, where classes are taught in English and Spanish on alternating weeks, it boasts a more intimate setting than most public schools - total enrollment between the three grades is less than 100.

That statistic belies the growth the school is experiencing. More than 90 students will walk through the doors in August, a 30 percent jump from last year. DeLisa said the increased enrollment is part of a plan to eventually cap each grade at 50 students, with this year's sixth grade class already at that number.

"We offer an intimacy that middle schools don't typically have," DeLisa said. "It's a major selling point, and we don't want to lose that."

And with that growth comes a need for more space. Housed at the Shiloh Baptist Church in New London last year, the school began talks earlier this year with the Town of Waterford about leasing the former Southwest Elementary School, which closed in June. At a public hearing Tuesday, the town's Board of Selectmen voted to approve the one-year, $30,000 lease with a six-month renewal option that maintains public access to the recreational fields behind the school.

The academy will occupy a block of classrooms and offices close to the main entrance, with the rest of the building being blocked off and winterized. Payment of utilities will be transferred to LEARN, though the town will still be responsible for mowing, plowing and waste removal.

The building offers numerous advantages to the academy, including arts facilities, a large multipurpose room and administrative offices. Located on Daniels Avenue, a few blocks from the Niantic River, DeLisa hopes they'll be able to use their proximity to the water in their science and art curriculums. If everything goes smoothly, he said, they'll begin moving into the building over the next couple of weeks.

"Assuming the town has no other plans, this will be home for the near future," he said. "The Waterford setting is really ideal right now."

For now, DeLisa is wasting no time in making his mark on the school. He spent his first day on the job reading the student handbook and making revisions. When he got home that night, he decided he wasn't happy with it and decided to rewrite the book. It now reads like less of a rulebook and more of an invitation to learn, he said.

"I can't wait to meet the incoming sixth-graders," he said. "We're both the new kids on the block, and I want them to know that."

k.cheromcha@theday.com