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Student spotlight

CustomizationEducation choiceEducation equityFeaturedGardiner ScholarshipParent empowermentSchool ChoiceStudent spotlight

Even out here, education choice for Eli

Ron Matus December 4, 2019
Ron Matus

Eli Conner, shown here with his mother, Stephanie Conner, and his sister, Madeline, benefits from the flexibility offered by the Gardiner Scholarship, Florida’s education savings account for students with special needs. The Conners have crafted an education regimen that includes therapy, home school and private school for Eli. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Editor’s note: To learn more about Eli and to hear his story in his mother’s words, please watch the video at the end of this post.

LaBELLE, Fla. – In his family’s backyard, Eli Conner, 13, wobbled across a 20-foot tightrope, pretending to be the hero in a rescue scene from a “Despicable Me” movie.

Using foam hand grips hanging from another rope, he pulled himself toward a big oak at the end of the line. “You’re getting closer,” encouraged his mom, Stephanie Conner. “Now touch the tree.” Eli finished with a triumphant tap.

“One handed,” said Mom. “Nice.”

Eli, who communicates mostly through sign language, has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and other developmental delays. A few years ago, he was scared and struggling in a traditional school. A few weeks ago, he couldn’t do the tightrope.

Now he can.

And now, thanks to a cutting-edge education choice scholarship, his family is confident they will see his growth continue to accelerate.

Even in this remote town near the Everglades, there are more educational resources than meet the eye. It just takes the right tool to assemble them. The Conner family did that with the Gardiner Scholarship, Florida’s education savings account for students with special needs. It gave them flexibility to devise an education regimen – therapy, home school, private school – that was just right for Eli.

The scholarship, Stephanie Conner said, “changed everything.”

The Gardiner Scholarship has allowed Eli to gain a year’s worth of knowledge in a year’s worth of time for each of the past three years. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Stephanie Conner describes herself as a stay-at-home mom. She is a former public and private schoolteacher. Her husband, Joel Conner, is a graphic artist and adult education teacher from a family of educators, including his father, a former superintendent of the local public schools. The Conners have four children, three of them adopted. All four use education choice scholarships.

Eli and his sister, Madeline, 9, use the Gardiner Scholarship, the largest education savings account program in America. Created by the Florida Legislature in 2014, it now serves 13,112 students, including 449 in rural counties. Three thousand more are on a wait list. The Conners’ 5-year-olds, Meizi and Gideon, use the new Family Empowerment Scholarship for working- and middle-class families. Created by the Legislature this year, it’s already reached its cap of 18,000 students.

Without intending to be trendsetters, the Conners are using the Gardiner Scholarship in a novel way that underscores the potential for schools to unbundle their services – and better serve families. (More on that in a sec.) Their experience also shows the upside of giving parents more power to shape their children’s educational programming – even in rural areas – where myths about education choice not being viable persist despite this, this and this.

LaBelle, pop. 4,640, is not postcard Florida. It’s laid-back, fringed with cabbage palms, a pit stop between Lake Okeechobee and Fort Myers. It’s also the county seat of Hendry County, a patch of farm country blanketed by sugar cane that holds fewer humans per square mile than Kansas.

The Conner kids are fourth-generation Hendry County. They have plenty of family nearby, which is why, pre-Gardiner, the Conners were on the verge of a heart-breaking decision. Family? Or therapy? To be closer to the therapists Eli needed, they kept thinking they’d have to uproot to the city. “It was always a terrible feeling to have to even consider giving up one or the other,” Conner said. “Family support, when you’re dealing with special needs, is indispensable.”

Thanks to the scholarship, they never had to make that choice. This is Eli’s third year using the Gardiner Scholarship, and the first for Madeline, who has been diagnosed with bilateral congenital deafness.

The combination of therapies, home school and private school have been the perfect combination for Eli. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Like growing numbers of parents with education savings accounts, the Conners are “customizers.” They use the funds to mix and match educational products and services in addition to, or beyond, school. In their case: home school materials; therapy sessions and equipment (for speech, occupational and sensory integration therapy); and partial tuition at International Christian Academy, a private school a block from their home.

Several times a year, Stephanie Conner takes Eli to Orlando for three weeks of intensive therapy. The rest of the time, she does daily therapies with Eli and Madeline, many involving tools purchased with Gardiner funds. “Peanut balance balls” help them both improve motor skills. A microphone helps Madeline better enunciate words. An array of spoon-like tools helps Eli with his speech, with Mom using them to strengthen muscles in his mouth.

For Eli, the positive effects spill over into academics. Depending on the subject, his proficiency ranges from a first- to fourth-grade level. He reads at a third-grade level. But over the past three years, he’s gained a year’s worth of knowledge in a year’s worth of time.  And sensory integration therapy has made it possible for him to learn in more settings, from field trips to classrooms. “His ability to sit still and not be overwhelmed by sights and sounds … has allowed him to participate,” Conner said.

The private school piece is key. So is the way the school offers its services. The youngest Conners go full time. Eli goes for PE, lunch and a science/social studies class. Madeline goes for PE. For the older siblings, the school charges partial tuition. It has unbundled its services in a way that more and more parents will appreciate and other schools, public and private, would be wise to consider.

“If someone wants to be part of our school, I’m going to let them,” said International Christian Academy founder and principal Tracy Co. “I thought it was a good fit for them and it’s worked.”

The school serves 80 full-time students in K-12. More than half are non-white. More than 80 percent use state scholarships. (Sixty use either the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for lower-income students or the Family Empowerment Scholarship. FTC, FES and Gardiner are administered by nonprofits such as Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.)

Eli has been warmly welcomed. During a recent kickball game, his classmates erupted in cheers when he booted a low liner up the middle. At first base, he fist bumped the coach.

The boost to Eli’s social skills is also bolstering his academics, giving him more confidence and more ability to focus and learn, Conner said. Between therapies, home school and part-time private school, she said, “this has just been the perfect combination.”

Perfect combinations really are possible. Even out here.

 

December 4, 2019 0 comment
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Magnet schoolsSchool ChoiceSchool spotlightSpotlightsStudent spotlightVideo

Look what can sprout when school districts embrace education choice

Ron Matus November 7, 2019
Ron Matus

Christopher Bermudez and Peyton Ecklund, both 17, engage in a classroom-based citizen science project at BioTECH High in Miami. The school allows students to pursue authentic scientific research studies that may result in publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presentations at local, national and international conferences. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

MIAMI – Christopher Bermudez likes plants. Like, really likes plants. The thought of reviving a droopy sprig of mizuna inspired the 17-year-old to riff: “When you kind of have faith in the plants, and you keep taking care of it, and you see it spring back up to life, that’s one of the biggest fulfilling feelings ever.”

How gratifying for Bermudez that he gets to pair that infatuation with real-world research. Among other projects, he and his classmates at BioTECH High School are helping scientists with a mammoth, years-long venture to determine which cultivars of edible plants will make the best crops for – no joke – space travel.

“Our research helps supplement their research,” said Bermudez, who’s aiming for a career in experimental horticulture. “You’re kind of helping the future of our species.”

BioTECH and its lovable science geeks make for a compelling narrative. So does the back story.

First pan to Florida, which has expanded charter schools, private school scholarships, education savings accounts and other varieties of educational choice as much as any state in America. Then zoom in to Miami-Dade County, home to a forward-thinking school district that chose to surf this “tsunami of choice” rather than fight it. The result is a rich, evolving, educational ecosystem where a slew of new educational cultivars are vying to find their niches.

If the theory holds, ever more students will choose from ever more options – including district choice options like BioTECH – to find the one that fits their needs and fuels their passions.

Daniel Mateo is principal at BioTECH High, the nation’s only high school specializing in conservation biology. To hear an interview with Mateo, click on the video link at the end of this story. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

“Choice is very important in human nature, right? And I think that for students, choice is of utmost importance,” said BioTECH principal Daniel Mateo, a chemist by training. “When you force a child to do something, it never really works out quite the way you think it’s going to work out. But when you give them the flexibility of choice, you allow them to select what it is they want to do based on that natural affinity that they have for that particular subject. It’s a given. They’re going to perform.”

BioTECH, all of five years old, is a magnet school and the nation’s only high school specializing in conservation biology. Its aim: to develop successive generations of researchers who will apply their ingenuity and training to the conservation of life on Earth.

Heady stuff. Which makes it all the more remarkable, maybe, that BioTECH has no entrance requirements; serves a student body that is mostly low-income; and shares a campus with a once-struggling middle school.

Richmond Heights Middle, 14 miles southwest of gleaming downtown Miami, was perpetually C-rated by the state. Over the years, scores of school choice options mushroomed around it – and parents responded accordingly. Enrollment fell by half.

In turn, the Miami-Dade school district responded accordingly. It considered what academic programming students and parents wanted; what college degrees and jobs were hot; what community partnerships it could forge or strengthen. With help from a $10 million federal magnet schools grant, BioTECH was born.

The middle school is home base. But BioTECH’s 400 students spend big chunks of time doing research at three partner institutions: Zoo Miami, Everglades National Park and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Their lab equipment is college-caliber. Half their teachers are working scientists. They’re expected to shoot for publication in a scientific journal by the time they graduate.

Andrea Medina, 17, a senior at BioTECH High, wants to pursue a career in the medical field when she graduates from college. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Some of BioTECH’s “junior scientists” are studying the intestinal flora of spider monkeys to develop diets that make captive monkeys less prone to stomach problems. Others, like Bermudez, are doing research for Growing Beyond Earth, a partnership between Fairchild and NASA. Still others work in micropropagation labs at Fairchild, growing rare orchids that can be reintroduced into slices of South Florida where they once thrived.

“Who thought plants could be so fun?” said senior Peyton Ecklund.

Ecklund, 17, who plans to pursue botanical research in college, chose BioTECH over other high-performing schools in Miami-Dade. She liked that it was “trying to do something special” and emphasized student-driven learning.  “We have to make the projects from scratch. And we have to figure out what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “If you learn how to be independent and figure it out on your own now, who knows what you can do in the future?”

Judging by demand, BioTECH is a smash. Last year, it reeled in 600 applications for 150 seats. So far this year, it’s on pace for 1,000 applications for 100 seats.

It’s no surprise the school took root in Miami. Miami-Dade has the highest rate of charter school and private school students of any urban district in Florida. It has one of the highest rates of students exercising district choice. More than 60 percent of Miami-Dade students are now enrolled in hundreds of district options, from magnet schools and career academies to international programs and K-8 centers.

“We recognized … the choice tsunami was upon us,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in April. “And I was not going to do what lot of my colleagues did. Which is, ‘Let’s hope and pray it doesn’t hit us.’ “

BioTECH earned an A from the state this year. (Richmond Heights earned a B.) Its demographics mirror the district’s. Eighty-nine percent of its students are non-white (it’s 93 percent for the district). Sixty-three percent are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch (it’s 66 percent for the district). Forty-two percent, meanwhile, receive special education services or accommodations.

“That’s 100 percent by design,” Mateo said. “It’s not about having elite students … If you have a passion (for science), we can cultivate that.”

The district does not provide transportation to BioTECH. That’s not a plus for equity. But HVAC repairmen and nursing assistants find a way to get their kids there just like radiologists and military officers do.

Daniella Lira, 17, a junior at BioTECH, said her parents left poverty in Peru for a better life in the U.S. A love for animals and a desire to be a veterinarian led her to the school. Diving into hands-on science has her considering other possibilities.

“Being part of the research and being treated as an actual scientist has opened my eyes,” Lira said.

BioTECH should open some eyes, too. There’s no end to the variety that can sprout in choice-rich soil.

November 7, 2019 0 comment
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Florida Tax Credit ScholarshipPrivate SchoolsSchool ChoiceSpotlightsStudent spotlightStudent VoicesTax credit scholarships

A school choice scholarship saved Elijah’s life – and allowed him to be who he is

Ron Matus October 3, 2019
Ron Matus

Elijah Robinson, 18, was relentlessly bullied in his prior school because of his sexual identity but is back on track emotionally and academically thanks to The Foundation Academy, a private school where he’s found a safe haven. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Every day, they cut him with slurs. Almost every day, they tried to block him from the boys’ locker room. For Elijah Robinson, a soft-spoken kid with mocha skin and almond eyes, the harassment at his high school was cruel punishment for his sexual identity.

It started in ninth grade and continued through most of 10th. It eventually turned physical, with boys pushing and kicking him, hoping to provoke a fight.

At some point, Elijah said, the bullying made him too “scatterbrained” to focus on academics. His A’s and B’s fell to F’s. But bad grades were the least of it.

To hear Elijah’s story in his own words, click on the video link at the end of this story. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

The bullying led to depression. Depression spiraled into a suicide attempt.

Once Elijah got out of the hospital, his mom decided to take him out of the assigned public school that had become his nightmare and send him to a place called The Foundation Academy. A friend assured Elijah’s mom that the eclectic little private school was warm and welcoming – to all students.

To pay tuition, the single mother and nail salon worker secured a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for lower-income students. Funded by corporate contributions, the scholarship is used by 100,000 students statewide, two thirds of them black and Hispanic and typically the ones who struggled the most in their prior public schools.

Without it, Elijah’s mom said, she wouldn’t have been able to afford the school.

Without it, Elijah said, he wouldn’t be alive.

“If I had stayed at my previous school,” he said, “I honestly think I would have lost my life.”

Elijah is 18 now, and a senior. The bullying is behind him. His academics are back on track.

The students and teachers at The Foundation Academy “didn’t see me as a label. They saw me for me,” he said. “I definitely am in a better place.”

Elijah’s story would be compelling any time, but it’s especially poignant now as there has been increased criticism of the scholarship program and religious schools with policies adhering to their faith.

According to the most recent survey from GLSEN, 72 percent of LGBTQ students in public district schools said they experienced bullying, harassment and assault due to their sexual orientation, compared to 68 percent of LGBTQ students in private, religious schools. For bullying, harassment and assault based on gender expression, the corresponding rates were 61 percent and 56 percent.

Those numbers speak to an urgent need for more awareness and action across all types of schools. But in the meantime, this fact cannot be ignored: The growing availability of choice scholarships has given more students like Elijah the ability to find a safe haven.

Elijah learned about The Foundation Academy’s drama program from a friend. He values the opportunity the program has given him to express himself and credits it for making him a better actor. PHOTO: Lance Rothstein

Elijah is tall and thin, with a shock of hair that makes his mixed-race features even more striking. He likes to jog. He likes to read. He likes “Call of Duty,” and salmon sashimi, and fishing with his uncle. He exudes a quiet confidence that sometimes comes to those who have endured so much, so young.

Elijah thinks he was harassed in his prior school because he liked to wear girl’s jeans and sweaters and was not “acting like the stereotypical guy.” He said he didn’t fight back. Instead, he did what bullied kids are advised to do: tell the adults in charge. The teachers and administrators said they told his tormentors to stop, but they didn’t stop. Elijah said when he continued to complain, the teachers and administrators told him to “just ignore it.”

The Foundation Academy is 15 minutes from Elijah’s old school, but in terms of school culture it’s on another planet. It serves 375 students in K-12, with 86 percent using choice scholarships. Thanks to those scholarships, the school is remarkably diverse, and has served at least two dozen openly LGBTQ students.

In a 2018 story about another LGBTQ student who found refuge at the school, founder and principal Nadia Hionides noted she has a son, a brother and a niece who are LGBTQ. “We love Jesus, and Jesus loves everybody,” Hionides said. “We must affirm and accept everybody.”

Elijah isn’t sure exactly what he’s doing after graduation, but he’s planning on college and wants to be a nurse like his aunt. He likes the thought of helping people in pain. He already knows a lot about hurt and healing.

October 3, 2019 0 comment
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Catholic educationParental ChoicePrivate SchoolsSchool ChoiceStudent spotlightTax credit scholarships

Perseverance, tenacity sets Florida twins on path to success

Jeff Barlis July 26, 2019
Jeff Barlis

Twins Alan and Axel Escobar-Medina struggled at their neighborhood elementary school in Pensacola and were painfully shy sixth-graders when they arrived at K-8 St. John the Evangelist Catholic School.

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Twin brothers Alan and Axel Escobar-Medina grew up so shy that when their mom took them to playgrounds as toddlers, they preferred to play with each other and wouldn’t talk to anyone else.

Rocio Medina knew this would be a problem when it came to school. She is a firm believer in education choice, but when it came to middle school, she didn’t give her twins one.

She and her husband, Atanacio Escobar, moved from Mexico to the United States in 2000 to start a family and find more opportunity. They get by on his income from construction work but want more for their four kids.

Four years ago, near the end of fifth grade at their neighborhood school in Pensacola, she knew exactly what needed to be done about the C’s and D’s her oldest boys, Alan and Axel, were earning.

“I wanted them to go to private school because they were so shy,” she said. “The public middle school was much bigger. I didn’t want them in an environment with so many kids.”

She knew the right fit was at her Catholic church, St. John the Evangelist. She visited the 145-year-old K-8 school and talked to teachers and administrators. Thanks to a family member who sent her kids there, Rocio knew she could afford tuition with a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship from Step Up For Students (which hosts this blog).

“When they came here, you could barely get them to talk to you,” guidance counselor Caroline Bush recalled. “They struggled in most subjects. There was still a language barrier, because they spoke Spanish at home.”

At 12, the identical twins were painfully aware of their strong accents. Once, a student at the neighborhood school told Alan his voice was different and weird.

Shyness was a defense.

“I didn’t really like talking so much,” said Axel, now 15. “I was nervous and scared that my teachers and classmates wouldn’t understand what I was saying.”

Despite the quiet, teachers noticed perseverance and tenacity. They encouraged the twins while Rocio pushed at home. Teachers tutored every day after school. Bush was there regularly to translate.

“It was incredible,” Bush said. “They were very focused. They never gave up.

“When a teacher sees that in a child, you push them further to see how much you can get out of them. You could see their grades going up, and they grew a lot, too.”

They were socializing, participating in after-school activities like the 4-H Club. They tried out for basketball.

“They had never played before in their life,” Rocio said with a laugh. “Everyone was so encouraging. No one ever said they weren’t good. They always told them to keep trying.”

In seventh grade, they were inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. In eighth grade, Alan and Axel continued to be on the honor roll. They had friends they talked and joked with. They even found a sport that was a better fit, thanks to the PE teacher, Sydney Murphy.

“She told me I was fast,” Alan said. “At first, I didn’t want to join the track team, but she said we should, and she stayed after us, so we did. We both run cross country (in high school) now.”

After graduating from St. John in 2018, a proud and content Rocio gave her boys their choice of high schools. They had figured they’d go to Pensacola Catholic High, but a visit to a district magnet school, West Florida School of Advanced Technology, changed their minds.

They liked the school’s 12 career academies (both chose the Critical Care & Emergency Medicine academy) and, ironically, the size and diversity of the student body (more than 1,300, including about 400 in their freshman class) was now a draw.

“It’s a big high school, but I wasn’t worried because they are more secure than they were before,” Rocio said. “I couldn’t be happier.”

She and her sons give much of the credit to three critical years of development at St. John.

“I feel comfortable,” Axel said. “Entering high school, I told myself I’m going to be a new person. I just go right up to people and start talking now.”

About St. John the Evangelist Catholic School

The oldest Catholic elementary school in Florida was established on the former Pensacola Navy Yard in 1874. Part of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, the school moved into its current building in 1948. The school administers the MAP Growth test three times a year as well as the Terra Nova Spring test. There are 250 K-8 students, including 118 on FTC scholarships. Tuition is $5,200.

July 26, 2019 2 comments
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Charter SchoolsSchool ChoiceStudent spotlight

Charter school grad, aspiring singer hits academic high notes

Geoff Fox July 10, 2019
Geoff Fox

Mercedes Ferreira-Dias basks in a shower of applause at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. A 2019 Presidential Scholar, Ferreira-Dias, 18, will attend Harvard University and Berklee College of Music.

She impatiently waits for the day she can spread herself thin

For the day when her momma says,

“You can do anything you want to if you sacrifice a bit”

        — “I.O.U.” by Mercedes Ferreira-Dias

Notes bounced from an upright bass as Mercedes Ferreira-Dias strode to center stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

The spotlights were trained on her before a full house at a performance for the National YoungArts Foundation, but if the 18-year-old was nervous, it didn’t show.

Nerves aren’t a struggle for Mercedes, 18, who is so academically gifted that she will enroll at both Harvard University and Berklee College of Music in August. A 2019 Presidential Scholar, she was valedictorian of her graduating class at Mater Academy Lakes High School, a charter school in Miami.

She commanded the Kennedy Center stage with the grace of a show business veteran. Smiling and grooving, she soon had the crowd clapping along as she belted out a jazzy version of “No Roots” by progressive pop artist Alice Merton:

I like digging holes and

Hiding things inside them

When I grow old I hope

I won’t forget to find them

‘Cause I got memories

They travel like gypsies in the night

On the song’s final note, Mercedes was showered with applause.

You can view Mercedes’ performance here.

“My dream career is to be a working musician and performer,” she said. “If that doesn’t happen with my own music, I’d like to write for others or manage other artists. I’ve been writing songs since I was about 8. I started with just superficial stuff, but they’ve gotten more complex as I’ve grown.”

Mercedes had a taste of the limelight last year when she was a contestant on NBC’s popular show, “The Voice,” where country star Blake Shelton told her that her voice was “personal” and “unique.” Pop singer Kelly Clarkson said Mercedes had “an angelic kind of style.”

This year, she also performed during “A Salute to the 2019 U.S. Presidential Scholars” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

But academics are as important to Mercedes and her family as the fame and fortune that may come with a big-time recording contract.

The youngest daughter of Venezuelan immigrants Fernando and Maria Ferreira-Dias, she graduated in May from Mater Academy with a stunning 5.47 GPA.

At Harvard, Mercedes plans to major in either history or literature and minor in psychology. She will study songwriting at Berklee, where alumni include music stars such as Branford Marsalis, Melissa Ethridge, John Mayer and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.

Mercedes is as thrilled about her pending move, and the opportunities it will bring, as her parents are anxious about their daughter living on her own in Boston; her older sister Catalina, 19, also attends an Ivy League institution: Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

“Oh my God, I’m going to cry,” said her mother, Maria. “Of course, we’re very proud of her. She’s a very unique person, but she’s more than just a girl going to Harvard and Berklee at the same time. There’s no one else like her. She’s more mature (than most teenagers) and she’s a deep thinker. She can see things from different points of view.”

Mercedes attended her neighborhood school through fifth grade, but when it came time to enter middle school, her parents opted for Mater Academy, where the class sizes were much smaller. A B-rated school, Mater Academy is managed by Mater Academy, Inc., a charter school operator based in Miami; operations are overseen in part by Academica, a charter school service and support organization.

Mercedes’ parents were impressed by Mater Academy’s welcoming, nurturing environment.

“She’s one of the most outstanding students I’ve had in my entire career,” said Ayleen Charles, a history teacher who taught Mercedes in middle and high school. “She’s dedicated to academics. She has great character, she’s very kind, compassionate. Anything positive, that’s what she is.”

At Mater Academy, Mercedes also sang in the choir and held leadership positions in several clubs, establishing the school’s first Women’s Empowerment Club and Gay-Straight Alliance.

Outside school, she has voluntarily performed at countless local government functions and benefit concerts.

Charles even recruited her to sing in her band.

“When I heard her sing in class, I encouraged her to pursue it,” Charles said. “I said to myself, ‘I just want to sing with her.’ She’s outstanding.”

While Mercedes and Catalina, a visual artist, are intensely interested in the arts, Mercedes said her parents are not. Maria was mostly a stay-at-home mom, while Fernando is a banker at BB&T. Maria and Fernando met in Boston after each left Venezuela in their 20s.

Most of Mercedes’ family still lives in Venezuela, a once-prosperous oil-producing country that has descended into political unrest and crime-riddled chaos after the collapse of its economy.

“Although some (of my family) are trying to flee, most of them can’t see themselves living anywhere except the country they spent most of their lives in despite all the turmoil,” Mercedes said.

In Washington last month, she met a man who has often had a lot to say about her family’s homeland: President Donald Trump, who recently said he was exploring the possibility of granting temporary asylum to thousands of Venezuelans who have fled to the United States.

“It was surreal when you see someone you just associate with articles and videos,” she said. “I’m still wrapping my head around the feelings I have. He’s a character.”

In a few weeks, Mercedes will head to Boston to start the next chapter of her life. She spoke of the pending challenge with great excitement.

Like the words to her own song, “I.O.U.,” she can’t wait to spread herself thin.

July 10, 2019 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsSchool ChoiceStudent spotlight

Charter school grad thrives at FSU despite horrific past

Geoff Fox July 3, 2019
Geoff Fox

Zoe Jenkins, pictured with her Great Pyrenees, Lady, overcame a difficult childhood but now looks forward to a promising future.

NEW PORT RICHEY, Florida – Warrior.

That’s the word inscribed on a shaft of arrows Zoe Jenkins recently had tattooed on the inside of her left arm. It perfectly describes the 19-year-old Florida State University student.

“She designed it herself; it reflects the struggles she’s been through and how she’s come out on top,” said Bonnie Hansen, Zoe’s grandmother. “I’m amazed at how well she’s handled everything.”

Zoe is on pace to earn a bachelor’s degree in information technology at FSU by May 2020. Her future wasn’t always so bright. She continues to struggle to heal the wounds of a horrific childhood that left her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

If not for Hansen, who became her legal guardian, and the dedicated educators at Dayspring Academy, an independent New Port Richey charter school where she became its inaugural valedictorian in 2018, her path may have been much different.

On a recent weekday, she reflected on her troubled past, her fulfilling present, and what appears to be a promising future.

“My first year at FSU went pretty good,” she said.

The self-effacing 19-year-old had understated her academic performance in Tallahassee, a roughly four-hour drive from her New Port Richey home.

Zoe Jenkins, right, and her grandmother, Bonnie Hansen, during a visit to Florida State University, where Zoe is on track to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in information technology.

Pressed to elaborate, she said: “I got all A’s and one A-minus. It was just a big change, moving away and not really having anyone there. Eventually, I made two really good friends and have a group of people I enjoy being around.”

This summer, she is taking a brief break from FSU, working part-time in the technical department at Calvary Chapel Worship Center in New Port Richey and spending time with her grandmother. It’s a well-earned breather.

To imply that her childhood was jarring is an understatement on par with Zoe’s academic self-assessment.

She was partially raised in a household marked by chaos and occasional violence.  She has personally seen neither of her divorced parents in ages, although last year she saw her father on an episode of “Live PD,” a popular A&E program that follows police officers from around the country. She watched as her father was pulled over and about to do meth in the crime-riddled Moon Lake community in Pasco County; her younger brother Camryn was in the passenger seat.

Zoe has not seen her mother, who also struggles with substance abuse, in years, although they recently had brief contact.

“I told my mom that if she wanted to have a relationship with me, she has to prove to me that she’s not doing drugs or alcohol,” she said. “She said I should accept her as she is.”

For a brief moment, her voice trembled.

Then, she added: “She clearly didn’t want to see me enough to stop.”

Zoe doesn’t want any contact with her father, and Camryn, 17, has been missing for over a year.

“He’s run away so many times that he’s not a high priority” for law enforcement, Zoe said.

Before living with her grandmother, troubles at home contributed to struggles at her traditional neighborhood school, where teachers told Hansen that Zoe would probably always have academic difficulties, especially with reading.

That’s when Hansen said Zoe’s father did one positive thing: He allowed her to enroll at Dayspring, which she entered in sixth grade.

Zoe was quick to credit her grandmother for much of her turn-around in life, and the educators at Dayspring for providing a nurturing environment where she made spectacular academic gains.

(A pre-K-12, arts-based charter, Dayspring was founded in 2000 by John Legg, a former Florida state senator and representative, and his wife Suzanne. John Legg serves on Step Up For Students’ Board of Directors. Step Up hosts this blog.)

When Zoe graduated from Dayspring in 2018 with a 4.5 GPA, she was taking dual enrollment classes at Pasco-Hernando State College and was one credit shy of earning an associate in arts degree, which she completed last summer.

Her tuition to FSU is paid through the state Department of Children and Families. Zoe qualified for free tuition because she was an 18-year-old student in the custody of a relative.

Hansen, who struggled to cope without Zoe at home during her first year at FSU, is understandably proud of her granddaughter. When the two are separated by over 200 miles of Florida highway, they regularly connect on FaceTime.

Hansen acknowledged that both she and Dayspring educators have helped change Zoe’s life, but added that if not for Zoe’s own fierce determination, she could be in a much different place.

“She still goes back and visits Dayspring sometimes,” Hansen said. “She loves the people there, and she recently spoke to this year’s graduating class.”

It was an inspiring speech delivered by a young woman with a warrior’s spirit.

“Zoe doesn’t quit; she doesn’t ever give up,” Hansen said. “She’ll always succeed. She likes a challenge. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Here is a previous story on Zoe: http://www.redefinedonline.org/2018/06/charter-school-couldnt-change-zoes-past-but-it-changed-her-future-2/

July 3, 2019 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsParent empowermentSchool ChoiceStudent spotlight

This charter school answered prayers

Ron Matus June 29, 2019
Ron Matus

Once struggling in his neighborhood school, Tay’Shaun, pictured with his sister, Shanyla, is now on grade level and poised to soar academically.

TAMPA, Fla. — When Tay’Shaun Holley stumbled at his neighborhood school, his mom, Crystal Fountain, enrolled him in another district school 20 miles away. But that didn’t lead to solid footing either, and the complications of a single mom juggling three jobs, four kids and grueling commutes began to take its toll. Fountain prayed for help.

Then, a friend called. A neat, new school was opening near Fountain’s home. A charter school.

Fountain researched Collaboratory Preparatory Academy, filled out an application, scheduled a visit. Even before meeting the principal and teachers, she had a feeling: This was the one.

“Honestly, I cried tears of joy,” she said.

Seven months into Tay’Shaun’s first year, the joy continues. The 9-year-old who showed up weary and subdued – and sometimes became frustrated and angry – is now a sunny, outgoing third-grader who’s catching fire academically.

“He’s more engaged. He’s willing to learn,” Fountain said. “I’m very confident my son is going to be successful because of this school.”

More than 280,000 students attend charter schools in Florida, nearly triple the number from a decade ago. There’s probably 280,000 reasons why their parents chose charter schools. But many of them have stories like Fountain and her son.

Tay’Shaun is a model of spunky: beaming smile, carefree dreads. He described the difference between his neighborhood school and his new school this way: “One’s fun. One’s boring.” At the former, “You just sit there. They just give you the answer.”

Fountain had other concerns. In her view, basic communication – between teacher and parent, between teacher and student – was lacking. No remedy emerged for Tay’Shaun’s ADHD. The school as a whole struggled, too, with only a quarter of its students reading at grade level.

Fountain used a district choice program to enroll Tay’Shaun in another school. It was better. Tay’Shaun did better. But not better enough. Meanwhile, the juggling hurt.

Fountain has another son, 14, a daughter, 7, and cares for a 14-year-old niece. Her main business, a residential cleaning service, requires travel throughout Tampa Bay. Fountain had to say no to potential clients because of conflicts with the school schedule. That meant less income to give her kids the other things they need.

“You can’t imagine how stressful it was,” she said.

Then the clouds parted.

Collaboratory Preparatory Academy – CP for short – opened last fall on the fringe of industrial east Tampa. It sits in a trim, yellow building on the same 170-acre oasis that’s home to a bustling parish center and a new Catholic high school. (CP is unaffiliated.) The modest neighborhoods that unfurl nearby are hemmed in by Interstate 4, dotted with union halls – and burdened by some of the highest concentrations of poverty in the city.

CP is K-3 for now, with plans to expand a grade a year until it becomes K-8. Ninety-four percent of its 66 students qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch. Eighty-five percent are African-American.

That’s not by accident, said principal Heather Jenkins.

CP’s founder, businessman Trey Traviesa, is a former state lawmaker who focused on education policy. His goal, Jenkins said, is to ensure CP students have everything affluent students have – and can likewise live out their dreams. To that end, Traviesa raises private money to supplement the charter school’s state funding. CP has the latest technology. Neither teachers nor students pay for supplies. Before- and after-school care is free.

Jenkins hails from Michigan, where her gigs ranged from the toniest schools in the ‘burbs to the toughest in the inner city. She once had 45 students in a classroom with 32 desks and no heat, and a kiddie pool in the hallway to catch leaks. Jenkins was considering offers from two prep schools when she sat down with Traviesa. “He said, ‘You’ll do a good job there. But they don’t need you,’ “ Jenkins said. “ ‘This school needs you.’ “

Jenkins took the job and enrolled her daughter.

“I’m all in,” she said. “If this school fails, my kid fails.”

Fountain is as unflappable as Jenkins, with an even keel that borders on steely. She said she never considered what might happen if Tay’Shaun continued to struggle: “Failure wasn’t an option.”

The charter school works for her son, she said, because of smaller classes, more 1-on-1 attention, and constant communication.

The get-r-done mindset works, too. The school district approved CP’s application in May 2017; Jenkins began work in June. Everybody said starting a charter school from scratch in two months was impossible. Jenkins said, “Hold my beer.”

Ditto when Fountain’s car got totaled. Jenkins stepped in for weeks to give Tay’Shaun and his sister Shanyla (a second grader at CP) a ride. At week’s end, she’d take them to McDonald’s for what became a tradition: McFlurry Friday.

The classical music wafting through CP’s lobby belies how hard this is. One student’s dad was sentenced to prison for 15 years. Another committed suicide three weeks into the school year. CP keeps cots for students who don’t get enough sleep, and it’s not uncommon for CP teachers to wash their students’ uniforms.

Jenkins told teachers when she interviewed them: “You’re going to give, and give, and give some more. … You have to know: we will not give up on anybody.”

It’s hard to imagine, meeting Tay’Shaun, that he had issues, too.

Jenkins said in the beginning, he would sometimes act out – by stomping out of class, by sitting on the floor and refusing to get up. Jenkins said she and her staff worked to refocus him, remind him of his successes, restore his confidence. Slowly but surely, all the other ingredients in CP’s special sauce – there’s so many, Jenkins jokes it’s a mole – worked its magic.

Now, Tay’Shaun interacts with his teachers. He raises his hand to answer questions. Science is his favorite. “We do hands-on projects,” he said. “You get to mix chemicals. You get to make slime.” Even though he arrived more than a grade level behind in reading and math, he’s now solidly on grade level, with all trend lines ramping up.

Fountain credits CP. Jenkins credits Tay’Shaun and his mom.

It’s their determination, she said, that will make CP a success.

“We’re a better school because Tay’Shaun goes here,” she said. “Not the other way around.”

Full disclosure: The vice president of the CP charter school governing board is Suzanne Legg, senior administrator of Dayspring Academy charter school in Pasco County. She’s married to former state Sen. John Legg, a member of the governing board for Step Up For Students, the nonprofit that hosts this blog.

June 29, 2019 0 comment
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Private SchoolsSchool ChoiceStudent spotlightTax credit scholarshipsvouchers

Teen rises above spina bifida, earns academic scholarship to Florida Tech

Jeff Barlis June 27, 2019
Jeff Barlis

The Kowalik family on graduation day, from left, Pawel, Skieler, Alek, Tiffanie and Maja.

Tears tumbled down Tiffanie Kowalik’s cheeks as she tried to hold her camera phone steady and focus on documenting her firstborn son, Skieler, reading aloud his acceptance letter to the Florida Institute of Technology.

When he got to the total value of his scholarship – $83,440 over four years – she could hold back no longer, as bursting pride, joy, relief, and memories flooded her mind.

Skieler was born with spina bifida with lipomeningocele. Doctors did not think he would be able to walk or use the bathroom by himself. He endured five surgeries on his lower back, grueling physical therapy, and chronic pain.

From the start, going to school in the Florida Panhandle town of Niceville was problematic. Skieler missed loads of time and felt he didn’t belong. He went to three district elementary schools in three years. He fell behind and needed special arrangements. He was bullied for being different.

Then a friend told Tiffanie about Rocky Bayou Christian School and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship administered by Step Up For Students (which hosts this blog).

Tiffanie and her husband, Pawel Kowalik, were surprised and ecstatic. They had long thought about private school for Skieler but never took the idea seriously.

“A cook and a waitress,” she said, shaking her head. “There was no way we could pull that off.

“But when I see how far he’s come and where he’s going … we’re just so grateful to have the scholarship. It’s been everything to us.”

When he was younger, it was easy to label Skieler as quiet and reserved. Today, it’s clear he is comfortable, content.

When asked about his life, he pauses to compose his thoughts, create an analogy, or paint a picture. Skieler doesn’t try to inspire others. There’s nothing visibly different about him. He doesn’t share his story unless asked. He doesn’t like rehashing the chronic pain (“Like a dagger being twisted in the bottom of my back.”). Instead, he’d rather talk about how it’s shaped him, how it’s given him a superhuman level of empathy.

“I’ve found myself caring more about other people and less about myself,” he said. “I can honestly say that if I could take the pain of everyone in the world and put it on myself, I would.”

Rocky, as the school is affectionately known by its denizens, helped shape Skieler as well. It was where he felt safe, made friends, rebuilt his confidence, and forged a future.

None of that was happening at his previous school.

Tiffanie volunteered at the last neighborhood school as often as possible to watch over Skieler. He had been singled out for abuse because he couldn’t play sports. She saw the bullying for herself. Kids throwing things at Skieler on the bus to a field trip. It was cruel. The last straw was when Skieler took a fist to the face for no reason.

“That’s when I started seeking other options,” she said. “It wasn’t going away, no matter how much I complained. Whatever I did, it seemed like things got worse for him.”

Because of his surgeries and rehabilitation, Skieler was working below grade level when he came to Rocky as sixth-grader.

“I didn’t even know what a subject or a verb were,” he said. “I didn’t know how to do simple division. I barely knew how to do addition.”

Within one school year, he was on the advanced track.

“It was a combination of hard work and my teachers saying I was intelligent,” he said. “They thought I was made for something great. So all of them worked with me and pushed me to be a better me.”

Tiffanie, who got a degree and had moved on from waiting tables to working for an airline, started substitute teaching at Rocky to help with tuition. She became a full-time English teacher there when Skieler started eighth grade.

During ninth grade, Skieler had his fourth and fifth surgeries – one to release a tethered spinal cord, the other to repair a spinal fluid leak. This time, recovery was a different experience. He had good friends visiting regularly. They even snuck him some Dr. Pepper, his favorite soft drink.

Skieler’s determination to keep up with his schoolwork earned him the respect and admiration of Rocky superintendent Michael Mosley, who became a mentor.

“This is my 39th year teaching, and I’ve never had a kid that had to deal with this combination of chronic and acute health issues,” he said. “The fact that he’s never been on Hospital Homebound is actually remarkable, because for half of his high school career, his condition would have warranted that.”

Mosley got to know and grew close to Skieler teaching advanced placement courses. He marvels at Skieler’s strength and maturity. He and his wife, Juliana, a counselor at the school, also shed tears of joy when Skieler got his acceptance to Florida Tech.

“This is an argument in favor of the smallness and the personalized approach to education,” Mosley said. “Their kid’s success feels as great as your own kid’s success. That’s sort of the golden tonic for educators. We get to share in the joy and accomplishment and the hope for the future.”

A future Mosley can just about predict.

Many small private schools offer and tout their family atmosphere. In this case, there is such depth and intimacy that Mosley is certain he’ll attend Skieler’s wedding someday, that Skieler will send his kids to Rocky if he lives in the area.

“Not to be too funny,” he said, “but the sky’s the limit for that kid.”

With Tiffanie recording videos for YouTube, Skieler got his acceptance letter in March and graduated in May. And in August, the 18-year-old will become the first in his family to go away to college. For so much of his childhood spent indoors, he dreamed of learning to program video games.

“Now I want to study computer science,” he said. “I want to make programs that employ scientific and mathematic ideas to help people, to make life better in general for everyone.”

Spoken like a superhuman empath.

About Rocky Bayou Christian School

Established in 1973 with 22 students, Rocky Bayou Christian School has campuses in Niceville and Crestview. The schools serve 760 K-12 students, including 152 on the FTC scholarship. RBCS provides transportation services in Okaloosa, Walton and Santa Rosa counties. The school is accredited by the Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (FACCS). It uses a mixture of curriculum tools, including Abeka, Bob Jones University Press and Saxon Math. It administers the Stanford Achievement Test annually. Tuition is $8,300 a year for grades 1-6 and $9,195 for 7-12.

June 27, 2019 0 comment
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