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    • Dan Lips
    • Chris Stewart
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Spotlights

Spotlights

Education ChoiceFeaturedHope ScholarshipParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsSchool ChoiceSpotlightsStudent spotlight

The light at the end of the tunnel was a Hope Scholarship

Ron Matus December 15, 2020
Ron Matus

Parker Hyndman, who attends Montessori by the Sea in St. Pete Beach, Florida, is described by the assistant to the head of school as “an old soul” with “a big heart” who clicked immediately with teachers and classmates at the private school he attends on a Hope Scholarship. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Editor’s note: To hear Tamara Arrington and her son, Parker, tell the story in their own words, watch the video at the end of this post.

The other student was older and bigger. But Parker, a 35-pound “runt” of a first grader, as his mom described him, didn’t hesitate. When the other student called his friend a racial slur on the bus, Parker piped up: “Don’t call her that.”

Parker felt proud for sticking up for his friend. But daring to do so tripped off a chain of events that would plunge him and his mom, Tamara Arrington, into a year-long nightmare. Some of the other kids put Parker in their sights. When Arrington asked them to stop, one of their parents called police. Eventually, Arrington sought relief in court.

“It was a very dark tunnel for us,” said Arrington, a personal chef and published author. “I had no way to protect my son. I had no way to make sure that my son was getting the education that he needed.”

Hope arrived unexpectedly when Arrington stumbled on to the existence of the Hope Scholarship, an education choice scholarship that Florida lawmakers created in 2018 for students like Parker. Having that option, she said, changed everything. 

“Our light came in the form of a Hope Scholarship,” she said.

Parker Hyndman. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Arrington and her son moved to the Suncoast six years ago. For more than a year, the school she handpicked, an A-rated elementary near some of America’s sweetest beaches, couldn’t have been more perfect. Parker excelled socially and academically. Arrington joined the PTA.

When Parker got to first grade, he wanted to ride the bus. Arrington said okay, thinking it would boost his independence. But after Parker stood up to the other kid, things went south.

A group of students on the bus started making fun of his name. (Parker’s last name is Hyndman, so they called him variations on “Hiney.”) They made of fun of his teeth. (Some of his baby teeth were discolored after a tumble down some stairs.) They threw paper balls and candy wrappers at him.

Nearly every day, it was something. Arrington said she went to school officials repeatedly, and was assured repeatedly things would get better. But they didn’t get better – and Parker went from loving school to “despising it.”

“I no longer had that smiling little kid that got off the bus and was happy to see me,” Arrington said. “I had a child in tears, in a rage, just so upset that sometimes he … couldn’t even form words to tell me or any of the other mothers at the bus stop what had happened.”

Arrington felt she had no choice but to take matters into her own hands, but the conflict escalated in ways she never would have imagined. One time, she told one of the students, while at the bus stop with other parents, to please stop picking on her son. That night she got a call from police, who said they got a call from the student’s parent. Another time, she did the same thing – only to have police show up at the bus stop. Arrington now had to respond to allegations that she was the bully.

Meanwhile, Parker started getting frequent headaches and stomach aches. At one point, Arrington took him to the emergency room. The doctors couldn’t find anything physically wrong. They asked, “Is Parker under a lot of stress?”

In late 2018, the stress boiled over. At a community event, there was an incident involving Parker and one of his friends and one of the same students on the bus. Afterwards, Arrington went to court and was granted a temporary restraining order. Two weeks later, a judge extended it three months, and urged the other parent to “get professional help” for the other child.

At school, things still weren’t right. Arrington said the school was upset because now it had to make special accommodations to keep the students separated. There was still too much tension.

She started thinking more about a potential solution she learned about a few months prior. She said she was Googling bullying prevention when an article about the Hope Scholarship popped up. Arrington thought it was too good to be true. But in the spring of 2019, she applied.

She and Parker were at the beach at sunset when she saw the email from Step Up For Students saying he had been awarded. Moments later, Parker said, a pod of dolphins started leaping out of the water.

“Definitely a sign,” he said.

“I just felt this wave of relief coming off of me,” Arrington said.

Parker Hyndman and his mother, Tamara Arrington. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Arrington began checking out other schools. She wanted a place where Parker could find peace. A friend suggested Montessori by the Sea, overlooking the sand dunes and sea oats in St. Pete Beach. Parker sat in on classes for two days – including yoga on the beach – and loved it.

“When I was at the other school, I felt like okay, I’m going into the worst day in my life repeatedly,” said Parker, now a fourth grader. “But here, I’m excited to get out of bed to come to the beach at my own school. And I’m excited to learn about fun stuff. Definitely.”

Christina Warnstedt, the assistant to the head of school, said Arrington told them about the trauma Parker had endured. But there was never any trepidation about enrolling him. “It was more like, ‘This could be the answer for him,’ ” she said.

And it was. Warnstedt described Parker as “an old soul” with “a big heart” who clicked immediately with teachers and classmates. He became a comforter to another student who was experiencing emotional challenges. “He’s just a light,” she said.

Arrington called the school a hidden gem “tucked away in this little bubble of happiness.”

“I have no doubt that every morning when I drop off my son at school,” she said, “he’s going to come home a better human being.”

Arrington said she’s not sure what would have happened had the scholarship not made that possible.

“There’s no better word than to say that it gave Parker hope for his future. And it gave me hope,” she said. “Making sure that as a mother, that I was making the right decisions for my son. And that he would thrive. Thrive in school. Thrive in life. Thrive. That’s what I wanted. So, the Hope Scholarship truly gave us hope.”

 

December 15, 2020 1 comment
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Education ChoiceFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsPrivate SchoolsSchool ChoiceSpotlightsStudent spotlightTax Credit Scholarships

Elisabeth’s story: From a mom’s worst nightmare to a mom’s best dream

Roger Mooney November 2, 2020
Roger Mooney

Elisabeth Edwards 9, attends Master’s Training Academy in Apopka, a K-12 private Christian school about 20 miles outside of Orlando, on a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship.

Elisabeth Edwards came home from school one afternoon and told her mom that she wanted to die.

She was 6.

Elisabeth was stupid, she told her mom. That’s how they made her feel at school. She questioned why God made her that way. She questioned why God made her at all.

She told her mom that she wanted to kill herself. She asked if she could kill herself right then.

Her daughter’s words were nearly too much for Consuelo to process. But she clung to the hope that Elisabeth was having a rough time adjusting to the first grade and to her new school, and this was her way of acting out.

But then Elisabeth began banging her head against the walls at home when she was angry. Then she started banging her head against the walls at school.

“That’s when I knew she was serious,” Consuelo said.

Elisabeth, now 9, has a sensory disorder that can prevent her from processing at lot of information at once. It became an issue soon after Elisabeth began attending the first grade. She would get confused in class and grew angry over her confusion. What Elisabeth perceived as a less-than-empathetic reaction from those around her – classmates and teachers – made the situation worse.

That’s when Elisabeth developed suicidal thoughts. Consuelo found a therapist and another school for her daughter. Elisabeth lasted a week. Administrators at the new school asked Consuelo to withdraw Elisabeth because they weren’t equipped to handle students with behavioral issues.

Consuelo and her husband, Maxwell, a plumber, qualified for a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, one of two income-based scholarships managed by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog. She found herself scrolling through the school directory on Step Up’s website, searching for one near their Apopka, Florida, home that accepts students with a sensory disorder.

Consuelo came across Master’s Training Academy in Apopka, a K-12 private Christian school about 20 miles outside of Orlando. The school focuses on students with behavioral health and learning disabilities. She called Helenikki Thompson, the school principal. Consuelo was upfront about Elisabeth’s condition and expected to be turned away. Thompson invited Elisabeth to spend a day at the school.

It was a perfect match. Elisabeth is now in the fourth grade at Master’s. She has a legion of friends. She leaves thank you notes and homemade muffins for her teachers. She said she can’t remember the last time she was angry at school.

“I felt like I was at home, because I just saw everybody was happy,” Elisabeth said of that first visit. “All the kids were funny, happy, everything that you would want in a friend. So was the teacher.”

Consuelo no longer receives phone calls from exasperated teachers and is no longer worried about her daughter’s mental health. She said she owes Elisabeth’s life to Master’s Training Academy and to Step Up.

“If it wasn’t for Master’s, I’d probably be going to grave site grieving for her,” Consuelo said. “It was that bad.”

‘We want her back’

Consuelo describes her daughter as an outgoing young lady with a beautiful smile and a warm heart.

“To me she is a typical person who is trying to find her way in a world that is full of craziness,” Consuelo said. “Sometimes, when she was young, she didn’t know how to internalize that.”

A person’s tone of voice can provoke Elisabeth. Stern language from the teachers and staff at the first two schools Elisabeth attended only made her outbursts worse.

“I had broken out in hives when she was going through all that,” Consuelo said. “That’s how bad it was. It was because of nerves. When your kid goes through something, you go through something.”

Elisabeth did have an outburst during her initial visit to Master’s Training Academy. It happened when a teacher asked her to read out loud. Elisabeth received speech therapy to help her properly enunciate words. She had some bad experiences when asked in school to read in front of the class. She thought this new teacher was setting her up for more embarrassment.

The reaction from Thompson, who was in the room, was not what Consuelo or her daughter expected.

Thompson remembers telling Elisabeth, “I’m sorry for your past hurt. I don’t know who hurt you. We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help you.”

She said she gave Elisabeth a hug and told her she would see her the next day.

“I don’t know what type of experiences she had, but I know she was hurt,” Thompson said. “She was damaged really bad.”

Thompson’s son, Brendan, was bullied in his district school. He received therapy and attended Apopka Christian Academy for high school, where he attended on a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. He graduated in 2016 and is currently enrolled in Seminole State College of Florida.

Dealing with what her son went through gives Thompson a unique perspective on why children can feel threatened at school. Thompson and her staff do not raise their voices when a student is acting out. They try to dilute the situation with kind words and hugs. The school has a quiet room, where a student go to calm down. The room has soft lighting and comfortable chairs. The student can read, listen to soft music or pray if they choose.

Teachers at Master’s have been known to diffuse a situation by taking the student or the entire class outside for some fresh air. Thompson said there is at least one activity a week that allows the students to put away the books and have some fun. An example: a spa day for the elementary school girls, where they do each other’s hair and nails. Pre-pandemic, of course.

Consuelo said it took Elisabeth months before she realized she could trust the staff at her new school. And when she did, she took off academically.

“I can tell you, when someone breaks down a kid, they can really break a kid down, and it takes a long time to build a kid back up,” Consuelo said. “What they did for her in the beginning, when she had her blowouts and cried, the teacher would look at her and say, ‘You know what? We still love you here. You can be mad at us and you can cry, but we’ll see you again tomorrow.’”

Thompson remembers a day not long after Elisabeth enrolled when Consuelo came after school to pick up her daughter. Consuelo asked Thompson how the day went. Thompson said Elisabeth had a moment.

“She said, ‘I’m sorry. I know you don’t want her back,’” Thompson recalled. “I said, ‘Why would you say that? We want her back. I just want you to know as a parent that she was having a bad day.’”

Master’s tailored the curriculum for Elisabeth, giving her extra time in subjects where she struggled and letting her advance at her own pace in those where she excelled.

Elisabeth has stopped telling her mom that she feels stupid. “I feel like I’m the smartest kid in the world,” she said.

Consuelo volunteers at the school. She’ll help out in the main office, chaperon field trips and watch a class if a teacher needs to step away. She has nothing but praise for Master’s Training Academy, the empathy toward Elisabeth shown by Thompson and her staff, and for Step Up, for managing the scholarship that enabled Elisabeth to attend the school.

“(Master’s) represent the scholarship very well,” Consuelo said. “If it wasn’t for Step Up, I wouldn’t be able to afford the tuition. I owe (Step Up) my daughter’s life, and that means the world to me.”

November 2, 2020 0 comment
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Coronavirus / COVID-19Education ChoiceEducation EquityFaith-based EducationFeaturedNewsPrivate School ScholarshipsPrivate SchoolsSchool ChoiceSchool spotlightTechnology and InnovationVirtual Education

For this Christian school, pandemic is opportunity to shine

Ron Matus June 3, 2020
Ron Matus

Jim McKenzie, headmaster at The Rock School in North Central Florida, communicates with families in a virtual town hall meeting via Zoom.

Last week, the headmaster at The Rock School, a Christian school in Gainesville, Florida, led a Zoom town hall with hundreds of parents. All of them had re-enrolled their children for the fall back in February, before COVID-19 upended everything. But Jim McKenzie told them during the meeting that if they wanted out of their contracts, the school understood. Just let the school know by June 1, he said.

The result? The parents of 26 students, 6 percent of the total, reluctantly opted out, with most of them saying they wanted to homeschool a year.

The impact? With waiting lists for every grade, The Rock School should be at or near capacity in the fall, no matter what the pandemic has in store.

Even in these trying times, McKenzie and his PreK-12 school are holding their own. They’ve found creative ways to relentlessly emphasize all the things, beyond academics, that make The Rock distinctive and desired. Faith. Family. Identity. Community. To date, that has made the difference.

Transitioning to a virtual education reality “wasn’t necessarily easy for parents, but what they appreciated was they stayed connected,” McKenzie said. “Whether we’re on campus or we’re online, we are The Rock. That’s been our motto.”

“No matter the circumstance, you’re still our community,” McKenzie continued. “That community can still exist, even in the middle of COVID-19.”

The hopeful situation at The Rock School may appear to be at odds with dire concerns about private schools across America. It would be tragic to see it that way. Private schools face real challenges in the months ahead. Many are worried about bleeding enrollment. Dozens have already closed. Their plight, the prospect of equitable relief, the negative repercussions for public schools – none of that has received the attention it deserves.

But The Rock School still offers lessons, both to private schools struggling to maintain enrollment and to other audiences who may better see the value that private schools bring to families and communities – and by extension, to all of us.

“A lot of times Christian schools get caught up in what I call me-too branding,” McKenzie said. “Oh, you know, the big public school’s doing this. Oh, me too. Oh, you’re teaching Latin. Oh, me too. Oh, you’re starting a lacrosse program. Oh, me too. Oh, you’re giving every kid an iPad. Oh, me too. We copy in an effort to keep up.”

“The problem is, I don’t have the resources to copy what the large public school systems in our area can do. So instead I have to look for ways to differentiate myself. I have to look for things … that would be hard for my competitors to copy but are a meaningful difference for the people that we serve.”

“There’s a lot of people that can deliver reading and math academic content in an online format, as good or better than I did, right?” McKenzie continued. “So, the piece that differentiates my school … is this idea of community.”

About a third of the 435 K-12 student at The Rock School use state choice scholarships, including 108 who use the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for lower-income students and 15 who use Gardiner Scholarships for students with special needs. (Both programs are administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.) Having a high percentage of non-scholarship parents makes the school more vulnerable to economic turbulence. Being in Gainesville, a college town that is more recession-resistant than many places, makes it less so.

An example of a daily schedule to keep students at The Rock School connected with community activities

The Rock School had a good academic reputation long before the pandemic, and in the wake of school closures it quickly built a quality distance learning program. Its “TRS Online” was geared to flexibility with a personal touch. Core academic content was delivered via videos, so students and parents could work them into schedules that were best for them. Teachers could be reached by Zoom daily. Staff checked in with families at least once a week.

But that was just the basics.

What The Rock did beyond the basics endeared it even more to its students and parents. It didn’t shrink its events calendar. It expanded it. It made sure there was something to keep everyone in the school community engaged – and to pique the interest of prospective parents and others who might be on the outside looking in.

McKenzie joked that he felt like “the cruise director of the SS Rock School.”

On a field outside town, the school hosted a dance party for its high school students, complete with DJs and glow sticks to help make the social distancing tolerable. The school broadcast the event on facebook live. Ditto for chapel, book readings, lessons in art class. Ditto for a talent show, where McKenzie sported a red-and-black tux. Ditto for gym, where Coach Jones and Coach Ken became celebrities, with some of their classes getting 1,000 views. The Rock’s pet show reached 7,000 people. Its last-day-of-school parade made news.

An end-of-year parade kept members of The Rock School community connected.

“We felt like there was still a way to provide students this meaningful experience,” McKenzie said. “Where most people’s default was, ‘Well, because of Covid, I guess we’ll have to cancel everything,’ you know, we said, ‘Well, how can we do it differently? How can we translate what we have done to a virtual context that works in the midst of a pandemic?’ ”

McKenzie won’t fit snugly in anybody’s box. He started college as an engineering major, fell in love with teaching, ended up earning a master’s in education from the University of Florida. He’s partial to bow ties. He’s as comfortable quoting marketing gurus as he is as citing Bible scripture. Over the past 10 years, he helped triple The Rock’s enrollment and made it even more racially and economically diverse. (The school is 42 percent non-white.)

In a TEDx talk last year, he pitched a revolution for public education, suggesting lost relevance in an era where millions of current students will work in jobs that don’t yet exist. “Critics will say our education system needs to be reformed. No,” he said. “Our current educational system needs to be re-imagined. We need to stop doing things better. And start doing better things.”

It’s not hard to find folks who predict the pandemic will springboard big change. But in the meantime, thousands of little private schools need to survive it. McKenzie thinks they can better their odds by better telling their own stories, and better highlighting what makes them special. (Get McKenzie’s in-depth take on that subject in this webinar here.)

In that virtual town hall, McKenzie didn’t shy from telling The Rock’s parents about the uncertainty ahead. But he also asked them to compare their pandemic experience with the parents at other schools.

“I think we have proven to be a proven and trusted guide in the midst of a crisis,” McKenzie told them. “And so if the COVID-19 crisis isn’t going away any time soon … isn’t it worth knowing that if things escalate again in our community, that you have a school that you know can manage the crisis again?”

In front of hundreds of screens in the school’s orbit, heads nodded.

June 3, 2020 0 comment
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Coronavirus / COVID-19CustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedNewsSchool ChoiceStudent spotlightVirtual Education

Florida Virtual School likely to be ‘new normal’ in Sunshine State and beyond

Scott Kent May 13, 2020
Scott Kent

Florida Virtual School student Maya Washburn, pictured here in Lofoten Islands, Norway, has been able to keep up with her classes from anywhere in the world with her MacBook Air and a reliable WiFi connection.

When she was a junior in high school, Maya Washburn spent six weeks of her fall semester backpacking around Europe with her mother. From England to Sweden, Norway to Slovakia, the Czech Republic to Austria, the Fort Lauderdale teen never missed a day of class back home.

Her classrooms were trains, ferries, coffee shops, restaurants, hotel rooms, and even cabins at campsites. All she required to maintain her studies were her MacBook Air, a reliable WiFi connection – and Florida Virtual School (FLVS).

“It’s been amazing,” said Maya, 17. “I love making my mark on school and on the world. It’s brought out so many passions that I don’t think I ever would’ve discovered or tapped into if I was not a member of this school.”

FLVS may sound like a recent technology, but it dates to when “Seinfeld” was still the nation’s most-watched TV show. Founded in 1997 as the country’s first statewide K-12 virtual public school, Orlando-based FLVS operates as its own school district.

Over its two decades, FLVS students have successfully completed nearly 5 million semester courses, and not just in the Sunshine State – it has served students in all 50 states as well as more than 100 countries and territories around the world. Today, FLVS offers more than 190 courses, from core subjects such as English and Algebra to electives such as Guitar and Creative Photography. FLVS is available to full- and part-time (or “Flex”) students from public, private, charter and homeschool backgrounds.

Because FLVS’s funding is determined by successful course completions rather than time spent in a seat, students, teachers and parents have the flexibility to customize instruction to each student’s needs. Its graduates perform as well as or better than other students in Florida and the nation in most Advanced Placement course exams.

Unlike the scores of students who were forced by COVID-19 to become online learners, Maya went the virtual route willingly – she has been a full-time FLVS student since ninth grade. She will graduate this month with a 4.2 grade point average and has been accepted to the Florida International University Honors College, where she will pursue a pre-law curriculum.

For Maya, it was all about finding the right fit.

She initially attended a public elementary school but was miserable by third grade from being bullied. She transferred to a private school, which was terrific — until it wasn’t. In middle school, she became an outsider in a cliquish environment, and again was bullied.

“I never really fit into any box,” Maya said. “I’ve always marched to my own beat.”

Homeschooling, her first choice, was not an option – she’s the only child of a single mother who was working full time outside the home. So, she took the initiative to research Florida Virtual School. Mother and daughter agreed to give it a try.

Four years later, it has proved to be the right choice.

“FLVS was perfect for me,” Maya said. “I’m very self-disciplined, and FLVS has broadened my horizons in the sense that I directly apply what I learn in my courses to my everyday life, which I live outside of the clear-cut class times that I might have to stick to at a traditional brick-and-mortar school.”

She considers the flexibility and opportunities for growth provided by FLVS the perfect atmosphere for success.

“The learning environment has never been stagnant,” she said. “It’s ever-evolving.”

Maya experienced the usual jitters about adjusting to a new concept of learning. A friend who joined FLVS at the same time soon dropped out and returned to a brick-and-mortar school.

“She needed someone to sit next to every day, I completely get that. We had different learning styles,” Maya said. “It’s not for everyone.”

She acknowledges there was a bit of a learning curve, but otherwise says the transition was “pretty seamless.”

“The teachers are so encouraging and supportive and helpful,” she said. “It’s the best education I’ve ever received.”

Maya Washburn will graduate from Florida Virtual School this month with a 4.2 grade point average.

Although she attends an unconventional school, Maya still enjoys the conventional trappings of a high school social life. She’s belongs to six of the more than 50 clubs FLVS offers: Student Council, Mega News Network (which she helped found), National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, Virge Literary Arts Magazine – oh, and she just started Glee Club this year.

Students meet online and face to face. Student Council hosts Shark Week, which includes a daily virtual event – trivia day, costume day, contests – before culminating on Fridays with an in-person get-together. Maya’s favorite FLVS event is the annual Club Awards Day in Orlando, where students get to celebrate their clubs and be recognized for their accomplishments.

“That’s just a little taste of what we do,” Maya said. “We do a lot of connecting students to each other, and to students and administrators.”

The first day of Maya’s senior year began on a bus from Prague to Berlin last summer, when she and her mother returned to Europe for a three-month backpacking tour. She used her finely honed time management and prioritization skills to complete a dual-enrollment humanities class through Polk State College, while checking internet signals and time differences to ensure she could lead student council meetings despite being thousands of miles away.

Because Maya’s education has not been defined by the system she attended or by where she lives, she and her FLVS classmates already were surfing the wave when COVID-19 closed brick-and-mortar schools across Florida and sent teachers and students scrambling to institute a new, unfamiliar form of learning. In fact, FLVS stepped into the breach, providing 100 digital courses – core curriculum, electives, Advanced Placement, and career and technical education – free of charge to all K-12 Florida schools through June 30.

It also quickly ramped up its server capacity, from the 215,000 students it served last year to accommodate 320,000 students by March 31, to 470,000 by mid-April, to 2.7 million by May 4.

Alaska took notice and contracted with FLVS to provide online learning to about 150 students. FLVS also will train Alaska teachers how to lead online courses themselves, and then license its digital curriculum for use by the new Alaska Statewide Virtual School.

That was a swift reaction to a rapidly changing landscape with an eye on the future.

Among plans being bandied about for re-opening schools this fall is an option for continued learning at home for students from high-risk groups, such as those who live with elderly people and those with compromised immune systems. Other students who got a taste of remote education and enjoyed the flexibility it offers might opt to continue that route either full time or part time.

Maya already has felt the impact. When the student council met the Friday after the virus shut down Florida schools, members were told that the usual end-of-school-year officer elections was being postposed to the beginning of the next academic year because FLVS expects a lot of new students in the interim.

“FLVS is growing,” Maya said, “and it will become the new normal for a lot of students.”

May 13, 2020 0 comment
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Blog GuestCatholic SchoolsCommentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19Education ChoiceEducator spotlightFeaturedPrivate School ScholarshipsSchool Choice

A parent and educator shares her ‘new normal’ during COVID-19

Special to redefinED May 5, 2020
Special to redefinED

The Capezza family: Jennie and Louis Capezza, seated; and their children, Kate, Luke and Abbey.

Editor’s note: redefinED guest blogger Jennie Capezza is director of campus ministry at John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce, Fla., and mother to three John Carrol students. She writes here of her efforts to juggle caring for her students as well as for her children during the COVID-19 crisis.

Even pre-COVID-19, our family routine was hectic. Raising three teenagers and juggling our careers required my husband and me to hold family meetings on Sunday evenings in an attempt to get a handle on the week ahead: which children had practice games, which work- and school-related meetings must be attended, and last but not least, which evenings could be set aside for family dinners with everyone at the table.

Even our best intentions to make it all work sometimes resembled a glorified fire drill.

Everything intensified five years ago when I took a giant leap of faith and left my job as a second-grade teacher to become an English teacher at John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce. That move required both a professional and personal adjustment, but it’s a decision I’ve never regretted.

Our school serves roughly 400 students in grades 9-12. We are the only Catholic school within a one-hour radius of Fort Pierce. Since 2012 when we began accepting students who are eligible for a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, a program that provides the means for families with limited financial resources to attend private schools, our student body has become more representative of our community. We currently serve 77 tax credit scholarship students, as well as three students who qualify for a Gardiner Scholarship for students with unique abilities. Two students attend on the new Family Empowerment Scholarship, which extends support to middle-income families.

(All three scholarship programs are administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.)

In my years at John Carroll, I have become fully vested in our school’s mission to inspire students in the pursuit of educational excellence, foster character formation, develop a commitment to serve and affirm the dignity of each student entrusted to our care. Certainly not a small undertaking, but one that our administration, faculty and staff embrace wholeheartedly and without reservation.

In my role as director of campus ministry, I’ve observed students, families and teachers consumed with their daily routines. Now that we’ve been unexpectedly pulled away from the school we love due to COVID-19, things are different for my colleagues and friends, and for my own family as well.

At the outset of this time of isolation, we discussed what our days would look like. We decided that the kids’ weekdays would be filled with Zoom classes, practice tests, essay revisions and vocabular reviews. My husband, who is a financial adviser, would work from home. I would continue to explore creative ways to stay connected to my students. At the weekends, we would enjoy fishing, playing tennis, trying new recipes, working in the yard, and praying together.

We’ve been able to stay true to this intention. But along the way, I’ve begun seeing our three teenagers in a different light as we’ve engaged in conversations we’ve never had before. Conversations about their dreams and the lessons they’ve learned in self-defining moments. Meanwhile, my husband and I have had the chance to share more about our life experiences than we ever have.

We all are realizing there is value in setting aside time to talk, to think, to reflect. To reminisce about the past and to set goals for the future.

This realization in turn has led me to begin thinking about what drives our lives as a family. My husband and I have always wanted the best for our children. Additionally, I’ve maintained a focus on doing whatever I can to create the best environment for my students. But it’s occurred to me that perhaps we’ve been so focused on staying busy that we’ve lost opportunities for spending and enjoying quality time with each other – time for self-expression and honest communication.

None of us know when our lives will return to “normal,” but I do know this: The opportunity to fully engage as a family over the past month has been a priceless gift. It’s one I intend to cherish and carry into whatever comes next.   

May 5, 2020 0 comment
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Education ChoiceEducation Savings AccountsFeaturedGardiner ScholarshipHomeschoolingSchool ChoiceSpotlightsStudent spotlight

Gardiner Scholarship brings hope, healing to blind teen

Lisa Buie March 18, 2020
Lisa Buie

Sarah Clanton, blind since birth, works twice a week with therapist Lisa Michelangeo, owner of Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center. The center has been an approved Gardiner Scholarship provider since 2016.

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — The teenage girl in the bright pink helmet sits astride the dark bay horse with the poise of an experienced equestrian.

“Sarah, can you tell your horse to go?” the physical therapist asks. Sarah gently taps the top of Cappy’s head, and the 1,000-pound beast negotiates the ring at a gentle trot.

For half an hour or so, Sarah and Cappy move as one. Sarah experiences the horse’s movements, which are similar to the human gait. Sessions like this are helping Sarah learn to walk. They’re also helping the 13-year-old, who was born blind, learn balance and coordination.

The therapist guides her through a routine that includes raising her arms, then reaching for a plastic ring and grabbing it. Sarah’s mother, Yvonne Clanton, watches from just outside the fence.

“Yvonne said we were her last hope,” said Lisa Michelangelo, who has worked with Sarah for nearly two years. “She has improved tremendously.”

Sarah uses a bareback pad so she can feel the motion of the horse beneath her.

Sarah was non-verbal and didn’t want to be touched when she first arrived at Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center, carried in her brother’s arms.

Now, each therapy session ends with Michelangelo asking: “Sarah, can you hug your horse?”

Every time, Sarah leans forward and wraps her arms around Cappy’s neck.

***

Before her adoptive parents named her Sarah, this daughter of a Russian army soldier was named Victoria. But the workers at the Ukraine mental institution where she was sent shortly after her birth never used her name. They never cuddled her. They kept her head shaved.

Born with Peter’s Anomaly, a rare genetic condition that involves thinning and clouding of the cornea, she spent the first five years of her life strapped to a bed.

Yvonne and her husband, Jon, pastor of a local church and chaplain at a nearby state prison, already had two children, but they were captivated by a photo of Victoria that they saw on an international adoption website. Yvonne initially planned to launch a fundraising campaign and encourage a family to adopt Victoria.

“That lasted about three days,” Yvonne said.

Within eight weeks, the Clantons had initiated adoption proceedings and were off to Ukraine to bring their daughter home.

Yvonne recalls seeing Victoria for the first time sitting in a wheelchair in the institution’s foyer. The child could barely move and was unable to hold her body upright. She weighed only 18 lbs. and wore infant-sized clothing. 

For the next two-and-a-half months, the couple made daily visits to feed and play with her. They changed her name to Sarah, which means “princess” in Hebrew.

After each visit, a worker would return the child to her small cot and apply three straps, one across her chest, one at her waist and one across her thighs.

“They told us she was mentally retarded, that she would never walk or talk,” Yvonne said. “They said, ‘She’s always going to be a vegetable.’ ”

The staff’s attitude changed when the Clantons brought their son Sam to visit. Born with the same condition as Sarah, as well as cerebral palsy, he had learned to walk.

“It’s like they began trusting us more,” Yvonne said.

***

Back home, the family’s challenges were just beginning. Their pediatrician told them Sarah was only months from dying when they rescued her.

After they got her stabilized, they enrolled her in the Hernando County School District’s hospital homebound program for medically fragile children, but it wasn’t a good fit. Then they learned that both Sarah and Sam were eligible for the Gardiner Scholarship, which helps Florida families individualize education plans for their children with certain special needs.

Created in 2014, the scholarship currently serves more than 13,000 students. It differs from other state scholarship programs in that it provides an education savings account that parents can use to direct money toward a combination of programs and approved providers. Approved expenses include tuition, therapy, curriculum, technology and a college savings account.

The Clantons used Gardiner funds to send Sarah and Sam to a small private school. But Sam got sick and had to be hospitalized, so Yvonne opted to homeschool both children.

Meanwhile, the family experimented with many therapies to help Sarah gain more independence. Her strength improved, but she still had no motor control. And because she was blind, she had trouble orienting herself. Therapists told the family she probably would never walk. Invest in a handicap-accessible van, they suggested.

As Sarah grew, it became more and more difficult for Yvonne to carry her and to lift her in and out of the bathtub. Then she remembered seeing an Emerald M flier at Sarah’s former private school, and she made what turned out to be a life-changing phone call.

Sarah’s therapy includes movement exercises that have improved her agility both on and off her horse.

The 20-acre center nestled in the rolling hills of eastern Hernando County has been providing horse therapy to veterans and special needs children for four years. Among its offerings is hippotheraphy, a modality used by physical, occupational and speech therapists to utilize the movements of a horse to assist clients with motor and sensory impairments. Luckily for the Clantons, Emerald M has been an approved Gardiner Scholarship program provider since 2016. They were able to use their scholarship funds to pay for Sarah’s twice-a-week horse therapy.

“It’s been tremendous in servicing our families who may not be able to afford this type of therapy for their child,” Michelangelo said, noting that not all health insurance providers cover horse therapy.  

But even with the financial burden lifted, the therapist knew Sarah would have challenges given what she endured in Ukraine.

“She had no concept of where the placement of her feet were,” Michelangelo said. “The legs were crisscrossing and scissoring, her knees were giving way, her hips were buckling. Her pelvis was all over.”

Residual traumatic stress caused Sarah to fear noise and touch. She balked at getting close to the horse’s face. Michelangelo positioned her on a bareback pad so she could better feel the horse move beneath her. Within weeks, the therapy team started seeing improvements. Sarah’s core strengthened. She became more aware of her movements. She began maneuvering better.

The team then had her touch the horse’s face and feel its breath. Michelangelo put her hand over Sarah’s, guiding her to make the horse move forward by tapping it twice. Now Sarah can command the horse to move on her own.

“It just blows my mind because … she’s never seen a horse,” Michelangelo said. “She has no idea what it looks like, but she trusts that he’s here to help her.”

***

Sarah’s mother, Yvonne, sees weekly improvement in her daughter thanks to the Gardiner Scholarship.

Sarah’s progress extends beyond the ring at Emerald M. Her sessions there, combined with more traditional physical therapy, have made it possible for her to get in and out of the bathtub with only a handhold from Yvonne. She can move from one couch to another in the family’s living room and can navigate the van on her own.

She’s also developing verbal skills, saying “yeah” and making an “n” sound for no.

Yvonne, who still carries with her the photo of Sarah at age 5, wishes her daughter’s former caregivers could see her now, benefiting from equipment purchased with Gardiner funds including a record player, rocking toys for vision-impaired children and an indoor foam slide.

“Here’s this little kid who was tied to a bed in Ukraine, and she’s in my living room throwing herself down the slide, just like any other kid would do,” Yvonne said.

She credits the Gardiner Scholarship for giving Sarah a second chance.

“Gardiner is an incredible thing to have in our family, and we are so completely grateful for it,” she said. “It has changed our lives.”

 

March 18, 2020 0 comment
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Education ChoiceFaith-based EducationFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsSchool ChoiceSpotlightsStudent spotlightVouchers

Florida Tax Credit Scholarship eased journey for college-bound high school senior

redefinED staff March 3, 2020
redefinED staff

Carlos Escobar noticed a difference in his attitude and academic performance almost as soon as he transferred to Classical Christian School for the Arts.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. – Carlos Escobar, a popular and successful senior at Classical Christian School For The Arts, will be graduating in May. But his walk across the stage won’t begin to describe the twisting road he traveled to get there.

Carlos was born in Puerto Rico and entered the U.S. as an infant in foster care. He was moved from home to home with his little brother and recalls feeling hopeless.

The two were finally adopted when Carlos was 4 years old and his brother just a year younger. But not long after, his parents dropped a bombshell on him: The family was moving to Florida, uprooting him from friends in Massachusetts. “I didn’t like it at all,” he says.

School didn’t help either. He entered a public middle school where he says the classes were too big and too rowdy. He was unable to focus and do his work. He felt like the teachers didn’t really care about him. The result was academic failure.

“It was horrible,” says Carlos. “I was failing every class. I didn’t want to be in Florida.”

Classical Christian School for the Arts provides instruction in all subjects from a Christian world-view.

When the time for high school came around, Carlos and his mother were afraid things were only going to get worse. They knew he needed something new and different. So the family took a chance and scheduled a tour of the school at Classical Christian School For The Arts in Pinellas Park.

Kim Merrigan is the school’s executive director and remembers the meeting well.

“They were concerned about the public school system and really wanted a private school education for their boys,” says Merrigan.

The family knew they would need some kind of financial aid to make attendance possible, so they were pleased to learn about Step Up For Students and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for families with limited financial means. They anxiously applied and learned that both of their boys were eligible.

Carlos noticed a difference immediately. Even as a freshman, he started to improve his grades and his outlook on the future. But he was way behind in his subjects, and his challenge was enormous.

School director Merrigan was impressed with Carlos’ ability to focus through his adversity, including some struggles at home.

“Because of the resources that were available to him here through the Step Up For Students program, he was able to reach out to the staff and his fellow students here at school, and get back on the right track,” she says.

Francesko Cekrezi, the school’s athletic director and Carlos’ soccer coach and geography teacher, agrees. He saw Carlos push himself in the classroom and become a leader on the basketball court and the soccer field.

“I have seen him grow so much,” says Cekrezi.

Slowly, after all the F’s in middle school, Carlos’ grades began turning to C’s and B’s. As a senior, he is tackling Algebra 2, English 4 and physics in the classroom, as well as pursuing online courses in economics and statistics.

Carlos gives credit to Classical Christian.

“Private school is different,” he says. “The classes are smaller. There’s not one teacher that doesn’t care here, and I’m proud to say I’ll be graduating in 2020.”

Carlos Escobar enjoys the combination of a brick-and-mortar curriculum and online classes.

In turn, Cekrezi gives credit to Carlos.

“His has been a wonderful journey. The journey has not been without road bumps, a lot of road bumps but a lot of joy, because when I see where he was and where he is right now, I feel pride on that because he worked so hard to achieve that.”

After graduation, Carlos plans to stay close to home and go to a local or community college for his first two years. He hopes to continue playing basketball but also plans to study in the one field that he feels helped him most along his way.

He wants to become a teacher.

March 3, 2020 0 comment
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CustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedHomeschoolingParent EmpowermentSchool ChoiceSpotlights

Hispanic homeschoolers on the rise

Ron Matus February 27, 2020
Ron Matus

Convinced she could provide her children with all their educational needs, Evelyn Reyes turned to homeschooling eight years ago and realized she could combine education time with family time. Watch the video at the end of this post to see how it all comes together. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – Inside Evelyn Reyes’s ranchette, the dining room doubles as classroom. While black bean soup simmers on the stove, Reyes uses flash cards to work on letter sounds with Nathaniel, 4, and Abigail, 2, while Jordan, 13, does Bible study; Alysson, 11, works on reading; and Matthew, 15, logs into a coding class through Florida Virtual School.

The dining room is only one piece of the Reyes education program. But a family learning together in its own cozy digs gets to the heart of why Reyes, who is Cuban-American, and her husband, who is Nicaraguan-American, decided to leave traditional public schools eight years ago and go the home school route.

“I only have 18 years to train them, and build good character, and build in forgiveness and kindness and service,” Reyes said. “I understand the order of (traditional schooling), but it wasn’t something for us. The things that were the most important to the school system weren’t the most important things to me.”

The Reyes family is the face of a trend.

Jordan Reyes, 13, has turned his passion for nature into an entrepreneurial venture, raising chickens and selling eggs from the Reyes’ home as part of his homeschool curriculum. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

According to the latest federal numbers, the number of Hispanic homeschooled students rose from 265,000 in 2012 to 444,000 in 2016, a 68 percent increase that far exceeds enrollment growth of Hispanic students in public schools. Over that span, the percentage of homeschooled students who are Hispanic spiked from 15 percent to 26 percent.

Home education parents in Florida have noticed the change. When Reyes first started home schooling, she didn’t see many Hispanic families at the annual convention of the Florida Parent-Educators Association. Now she sees hundreds.

“I don’t feel like the only one anymore,” Reyes said. “More Hispanic families are thinking, ‘I can do this.’ ”

“The interest is there,” said Jennylina Duperon, another homeschool mom in the Tampa Bay area. She’s been homeschooling her 7-year-old twins, Andres and Andrea, for three years. “The Hispanic communities are starting to explore the idea more.”

Why isn’t exactly clear. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, said he is unaware of any studies or surveys exploring the reasons behind the uptick.

Hispanic home school parents interviewed by redefinED cited many of the same factors as other home school parents. Safety. Negative influences. Too much testing. They said Hispanic families want more flexibility to balance school and family. They want more emphasis on character and faith. (Interestingly, the most recent federal surveys also showed a dip in the percentage of homeschool parents who find it important to provide religious instruction.)

It helps a lot, the Florida parents also said, that they don’t have to go it alone. They noted the growth of co-ops and other resources that can orient newcomers and supplement their educational programs. Once a week, Reyes drives her children to a co-op site in a neighboring county so they can take classes ranging from anatomy and personal finance to music and painting.

But are there reasons that might be more Hispanic-centric?

Matthew Reyes, 15, engages in project-based learning as part of the homeschool experience, growing and transplanting milkweed with an eye toward selling the seedlings. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

“We are such family-oriented people. We are all about being together,” said Duperon, who is Dominican-American and whose husband is Puerto Rican. “My mom can home school my kids on days I have doctor’s appointments. They get that time with their kids. It’s beautiful. If there’s a rise (in Hispanic homeschoolers), I think that’s part of it.”

Ray with the research institute said there might be something to that. “I don’t know research on Hispanic family ‘closeness,’ “ he wrote in an email, “but I hear it and experience it.”

The homeschool trend lines sync with others involving Hispanic parents and education choice.

In Florida, one of the most choice-friendly states, the number of homeschooling families rose to 97,261 last year. The state doesn’t track demographics behind homeschooling. But the number of Hispanic students using the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, the nation’s largest private school choice program, climbed to 39,475 last year, up from about 22,000 five years ago. (The program is administered by nonprofits like Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.) Over the same span, the number of Hispanic students in Florida charter schools grew from 87,656 to 134,220.

This is not an aberration. In last year’s Education Next poll, Hispanics were more likely than white or black respondents to support charter schools (53 percent for, 26 percent against); tax credit scholarships (67 percent to 18 percent); and vouchers for low-income students (69 percent to 26 percent). When it came to “universal” vouchers for all students, black and Hispanic respondents both showed lopsided support, with 62 percent for versus 29 percent against.

Demi Leyva, a former public school teacher in Miami Lakes, is homeschooling her sons, William, 9, and James, 6. She said another factor for Hispanic and black homeschool families might be that they’re more likely to be zoned for schools they feel are underperforming and unsafe.

“Hispanics tend to be overprotective,” said Leyva, who is Cuban-American. “And guns, and shootings, and bullying, and violence, is out of control in some areas.”

Alysson Reyes, 11, practices her measurement skills by making different varieties of slime and is learning business skills by selling it. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Leyva said in her case, the big reason for homeschooling was “real education” with family.

“Homeschool allows you to have time with your family to explore the world,” she said. “If you’re rushing, rushing, rushing (with education), it takes a lot of the family life out of your life. My kids can help me load the dishwasher. They can take a break and go fish in the lake. They have time to do that in a regular life.”

Back in Tampa Bay, Reyes said kids’ learning shows on TV gave her a false expectation that traditional schooling would include a lot of hands-on science, field trips, outdoors fun. But in her experience, that wasn’t the case. At home, her three oldest work on long-term science projects that hew to their interests. (See the video for more.) For breaks, they head to the pond out back to identify wading birds and look for baby alligators.

With Mom in on the adventure, they’ve even had close encounters with a couple.

“How are they going to learn,” Reyes said, “if they don’t explore?”

February 27, 2020 1 comment
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