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florida and charter schools

Charter school network prepares to return formerly struggling North Florida schools to local control

Lisa Buie February 9, 2021

Somerset Academy, Florida’s largest charter school network, operates schools throughout the state, including Somerset Academy K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 in Jefferson County.

Nearly five years after taking over operations of Jefferson County’s struggling school system, Somerset Academy, Inc. is preparing to return control to the local school board.

“I’m super proud of how far we’ve come,” said Cory Oliver, who has served as principal of the combined K-12 campus since two district schools were turned over to the South Florida based charter school network. “It’s a completely different school.”

Oliver, whose office sports a Superman theme, has a lot to feel good about.

The percentage of students receiving passing scores on state standardized tests, which once were in single digits, are now between 35 and 45% in most subjects. Disciplinary referrals are down by 80% since the start of the 2020-21 school year. The district, which earned D’s in the two years prior to Somerset’s arrival, has improved a letter grade.

The high school graduation rate rose by almost 20 percentage points this year, though state officials caution that may not be accurate as many students were not required to retake graduation tests due to the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, enrollment, which was a little less than 700 in 2017 and represented only about half of all eligible students who lived in the district, has increased to about 779.

The improvements go beyond academics. Somerset installed a new kitchen and added a culinary arts program and built a recording studio. It renovated the gym and refurbished the weight room. Band members got new instruments and football players no longer had to share shoulder pads.

The JROTC program, impressive before Somerset took over, continues to be a shining star. Trophies hidden away in closets are now displayed in trophy cases. Classrooms got technology upgrades. Students got new uniforms.

“It’s like night and day. These kids have been in poverty and living without for so long,” Oliver said. “We want them to see what’s possible and feel like this is home and that they deserve to be here.”

Oliver’s philosophy was reflected in the school’s motto for 2019-20: “Whatever It Takes!” to Somerset officials, it took everything they had to improve what had been the lowest performing schools in the state.

“When we got here, the staff was exhausted and overwhelmed,” Oliver said. “The staff is still exhausted and overwhelmed, but they’re seeing results. They’re seeing what’s possible when they work as a team and know they are going to be supported.”

Residents of Jefferson County, a 637-square-mile area with a population of about 15,000, once were proud of their schools, which were a model for other districts, according to comments Jefferson County School Board member Shirley Washington made at a State Board of Education meeting in 2016.

“We used to be the flying Tigers,” Washington said, referring to the school’s Tiger mascot. “We had other schools come to our county and see what we were doing. We’re going to get it back there. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

But to state officials, the Jefferson County schools looked more like the crash-and-burn Tigers. Florida Department of Education officials came to visit and did not like what they saw.

More than half of the students at Jefferson Middle-High School had been held back two or more times. Just 7% of middle schoolers scored at grade level on 2016 state math assessment. To put that in perspective, 26% of students were performing at grade level in the state’s second-lowest performing district. Enrollment had dwindled for years as more families sent their students to private schools or district schools in neighboring counties. Finances also were a mess.

After rejecting the three turnaround plans that district officials submitted, the Board of Education took an historic vote to make Jefferson County schools the state’s first district run by a charter school provider. The solution mirrored education reform in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina decimated the schools.

Somerset Academy, Inc. won the bid to assume control.

Somerset staff arrived to discover complete disarray: crumbling buildings, graffiti-covered walls, old equipment stacked against classroom walls and no enforcement of discipline.

“It was way worse than we ever imagined,” said Todd German, chairman and treasure of Somerset’s board of directors. “These did not look like places anyone would want to come to learn or come to work.”

School board members pledged to cooperate with Somerset but later said they were “coerced” into accepting the arrangement. The superintendent at the time told WLRN Public Radio that the Department of Education “played in places they shouldn’t have.” Education Commissioner Pam Stewart countered, stating it was “very clear that the Department acted within their authority.”

The charter network fired about half the staff and recruited new teachers. Teacher salaries were raised to $43,800, compared to $36,160 teachers in neighboring Leon County earned. The network hired additional security officers at the schools, where fights had broken out almost daily. One brawl, which occurred just a few months after Somerset came on board, resulted in 15 arrests.

“It was like the wild West,” German recalled, while acknowledging the problems were caused by a small percentage of students. “Cory improved security and put in some zero tolerance policies.”

Oliver said staff from Somerset arrived to find a culture of apathy. Students were allowed to loiter in the halls or outside when they should have been in class.

After the takeover, he said, even the maintenance staff pitched in, alerting administrators when they saw anyone who didn’t belong on campus. Custodians engaged students who looked stressed to make sure they were okay.

“We were de-escalators, not enforcers,” said Oliver, who also hired mental health specialists and started a mentoring program for younger students.

Slowly, the culture began to change. Community members, including the Rev. Pedro McKelvin of Welaunee Missionary Baptist Church, began to support the new leadership. Before the takeover, he said, the district “was on the brink of collapse.”

Christian Steen, a senior, credited Oliver with boosting morale and observed that things had improved significantly.

“The students are more focused in class and now there’s not much skipping,” said Steen when he spoke before a House Education Committee three months after the takeover.

As they enter the last year of their contract, Somerset officials want to prepare to hand the district back to local officials. They already have begun working with a newly elected superintendent to meet that goal. Somerset has offered to let a new principal hired by the school district shadow Oliver before he leaves.

“I have a lot of feelings about leaving Jefferson,” said German, Somerset’s chairman. “I hope we can set (the schools) up to succeed.”

February 9, 2021 0 comment

Charter Schools Customization Education Equity Education Savings Accounts Parent Empowerment Parental Choice School Choice

Charter schools and the unbundling of K-12 education services

Doug Tuthill November 8, 2019

Doug Tuthill

Step Up For Students president Doug Tuthill

Editor’s note: This post is an edited version of a talk Step Up For Students president Doug Tuthill delivered in October to the Florida Charter School Conference in Orlando.

Products and services in many industries are in the process of being unbundled. Thirty years ago, we had to buy albums to own our favorite songs. Now we can buy individual songs and bits of songs online.

Classified newspaper ads used to be a cash cow for daily newspapers. But no more. Craigslist’s unbundling of classified ads is a key reason daily newspapers are dying.

The demise of cable TV may be next as streaming services such as Netflix unbundle programing. Shopping malls are closing as Amazon unbundles retail shopping, and banks are responding to the unbundling of banking services by licensing unbundled banking applications in a new business model called “banking as a service.”

Now the process of unbundling public education services has begun. Thus far, this unbundling has included magnet schools, charter schools, dual enrollment, virtual schools, course choice, micro-schools, home schooling, workspace, and scholarships and vouchers to help families pay for private schools.

But the real game changer will be Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). ESAs are going to accelerate the unbundling of public education services.

ESAs are publicly-funded financial accounts that families use to purchase state-approved education products and services for their children. Instead of a school district spending a student’s public education dollars, through ESAs state government allows a student’s family to spend these dollars.

About 18,000 Florida students will have ESAs this school year through two programs — the Gardiner Scholarship for students with special needs/unique abilities, and Reading Scholarship Accounts for struggling readers in district elementary schools. These students’ families will use their ESA funds to purchase products and services, such as public and private school courses, afterschool tutoring, physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, education hardware and software, summative and formative assessments, curriculum material, and books. Over the last two years, Florida families have used ESA funds to purchase products and services from over 10,000 education providers.

The number of families using ESAs will probably increase in the future. In six years, Florida could have 200,000 families spending $1.5 billion annually through their ESAs. This much purchasing power in the hands of families presents opportunities and challenges for Florida’s charter schools.

There will be competition to serve these families. Charter school companies in other states are exploring coming to Florida with offerings beyond schools. Some are planning to open charter and private schools with robust afterschool and summer programs. Others are planning to sell onsite and online courses, and one is exploring partnering with ride-sharing services to help transport students to in-school, afterschool, and summer programs. Think “Uber for Kids.”

Home schooling is the fastest growing education choice option in the country. Charter schools could be selling this population access to classrooms, computer and science labs, afterschool and summer programs, and onsite and online courses.

With the possible exception of Miami-Dade, most Florida districts will be slow to offer services to ESA families. Florida charter schools could help fill this void.

Dayspring Academy charter school in Pasco County moved quickly to create an afterschool tutoring program after the Reading ESA became law. It is now one of Florida’s top providers of ESA-funded tutoring services. (Dayspring founder and chief financial officer John Legg is a board of directors member for Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.)

Other charters could follow the Dayspring example. Entrepreneurial Urban Leagues across Florida are also moving quickly to develop afterschool and summer reading programs for families with reading ESAs.

The unbundling of products and services inevitably leads to innovative ways to rebundle them. Spotify is a good example of a company facilitating rebundling in the music industry. Spotify empowers and enables music listeners to organize songs from diverse artists into customized playlists and share these lists with others. Spotify empowers customers to have a greater sense of ownership over their music since they now control how their “albums” are assembled. They also have access to the diverse playlists of millions of other music fans.

We need to replicate an appropriate version of the Spotify experience in public education. Educators need to be empowered and enabled to rebundle their services and products so that families can purchase highly effective customized instruction for each child with their ESA funds.

The unbundling and rebundling of education products and services is coming. Charter schools can help drive this train or follow the example of daily newspapers and get run over by it.

It’s their choice.

November 8, 2019 0 comment

2020 Presidential Election Charter Schools Homeschooling Parental Choice School Choice Testing and Accountability

The state of school choice in the U.S.

Patrick R. Gibbons September 25, 2019

Patrick R. Gibbons

Charter schools and home schooling are experiencing major growth. Meanwhile, there were no significant differences between students in charter schools and traditional public schools in average reading and mathematics scores on national tests in 2017.

Those are two of the key findings in the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) latest report, “School Choice in the United States,” which updates the national changing landscape for school choice with changes in enrollment data, academic performance updates, and parental satisfaction surveys. Nationally, charter public schools and district schools increased enrollment while private schools declined.

Overall, there were around 57.8 million K-12 students in the United States, up from 53.8 million in 1999. Based on figures from the USDOE, the market share of district schools fell from 87 percent of all students in 1999 to 81.8 percent of students by 2016.

From 1999 to 2016 the share of students attending their assigned neighborhood public schools dropped from 74 percent to 69 percent. Public school choice option, including charter schools, magnet schools and open enrollment programs, grew from 14 percent of the student body in 1999 to 19 percent. Charter schools alone grew a staggering 571 percent from 2000 to 2016, enrolling over 3 million students by 2016.

Private school options fell from 10 percent to 9 percent, while home education grew from 2 percent to 3 percent by 2016.

Unlike most of the nation, however, Florida has seen private school enrollment bounce back. In 2000, 348,000 students enrolled in nonpublic schools, comprising 12.5 percent of the total PK-12 student body. Thanks to the help of several private school programs, including the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, private schools in the Sunshine State continue to grow. In 2018-19, the latest data available, 380,000 students enrolled in nonpublic schools, though the market share has declined to 11.8 percent of Florida’s total PK-12 student population.

Catholic schools remain the top choice among private school parents, enrolling more than 2 million students in 2016, more than double any other denomination.

District schools enrolled 94 percent of all public school students, with charters enrolling the other 6 percent. District schools were more likely to enroll white students, and less likely to enroll black or Hispanic students, than charters. According to the USDOE, 57 percent of public schools were 50 percent or more white, while just 33 percent of charters were. Charters were more likely to be 50 percent or higher black or Hispanic, however.

Enrollment in charter options varies greatly among states, though one important pattern emerges just in time for the Democratic presidential primaries: Important swing states Florida, Arizona and Michigan have large charter school populations.

Meanwhile, the USDOE reports “no measurable difference” between the average district students and charter school students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams in reading in math in 2017.

Charter school students, including black, Hispanic and free and reduced-price lunch students, saw higher raw NAEP scores in fourth-grade reading than in traditional public schools, and were no different on eighth-grade reading. White, black and Hispanic students attending charters also saw higher raw scores on eighth-grade math, and were no different on fourth-grade math.

According to the report, 1.7 million students attended a home school setting in 2016. Home school students were more likely to live in a rural setting or small town than be urban or suburban. Homeschooling was also more common in the South and West than in the Northeast.

Home school parents had various reasons for choosing the option, according to the USDOE. About 34 percent of home education parents chose home schooling over public schools due to concerns about a school’s environment such as safety, drugs or negative peer pressure. Seventeen percent were dissatisfied with instruction, and 16 percent wanted to provide religious instruction.

Choice also played a significant role in parental satisfaction. Sixty percent of parents choosing a public school option were satisfied with the school, compared to 54 percent of parents with students at assigned public schools. Seventy-seven percent of parents enrolling children in private schools reported being satisfied with the school. A similar pattern emerges regarding satisfaction for academic standards, school discipline and regarding interaction between staff and parents.

September 25, 2019 0 comment

Charter Schools School Choice

‘No excuses’ charter school network’s migration to Tampa Bay gets a jumpstart

Donna Winchester September 12, 2019

Donna Winchester

IDEA Public Schools’ headquarters in Weslaco, Texas, features an irrigation pond to help maintain plant life and a quarter-mile walking trail.

IDEA Public Schools’ goal to expand to the Tampa Bay area got a boost this week with the pledge of a $5 million gift from the Vinik Family Foundation.

The gift will help launch new schools in Hillsborough, Polk and Pinellas counties and follows the Hillsborough County School Board’s unanimous approval in May for IDEA to begin operating schools in the area starting in 2021.

IDEA Public Schools, a network of tuition-free, college preparatory public charter schools, serves nearly 53,000 college-bound students in 96 schools across Texas and Louisiana. The program’s founders chose the name IDEA, an acronym for “Individuals Dedicated to Excellence and Achievement” and the motto “No Excuses!”

IDEA’s vice president of growth Dan Fishman told redefinED in a July interview that the company is expanding into Florida due to the state’s need for more educational options for low-income students.

Tampa Bay will be IDEA’s first region in Florida, according to IDEA regional communications manager Jennifer Flores. The network plans to launch four new schools in the area in 2021, eventually growing to 20 schools at 10 campuses in Tampa Bay by 2028. At full scale, IDEA will serve almost 15,000 K-12 students in Tampa Bay annually.

For more than a dozen years, 100 percent of IDEA Public Schools’ graduates have been accepted to four-year colleges and universities, and IDEA alums graduate college at five times the national average, according to Flores.

Julene Robinson, executive director of IDEA’s Tampa Bay region, said in a prepared statement that while Florida has made great strides in improving educational choice, accountability and opportunities, much remains to be done.

“In several communities, a disheartening number of schools have earned a D or F grade for at least three of the past five years,” Robinson wrote. “IDEA Public Schools will provide an additional education option to close the opportunity gap and increase levels of achievement for students and families in Tampa Bay.”

The Vinik Family Foundation is a private foundation created and managed by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and his wife, Penny. The foundation has donated more than $100 million to nonprofits working in the areas of education, human services, healthcare and the arts since it was founded in 1997.

The Viniks have described their $5 million gift as “the most important investment we can make.”

September 12, 2019 0 comment

Education and Public Policy Education Legislation Education Politics Podcast School Choice

podcastED: New Florida Board of Education chair Andy Tuck on school choice, teacher pay and Florida’s progress

Ron Matus July 30, 2019

Ron Matus

SEBRING, Fla. – When it comes to public education, Andy Tuck, the new chair of the Florida Board of Education, is an all-of-the-above kind of guy. His wife is a district schoolteacher. His children attended district schools. They had the option of enrolling in an International Baccalaureate program he approved as a district school board member.

But Tuck doesn’t think it makes sense to limit educational choice to district options. Charters. Vouchers. Education savings accounts. Giving more parents more access to all of them, he said, is “critical.”

“I felt like my children got a first-class education at Sebring High School … Our choice was to leave our children in the traditional public school. But don’t think for minute I wouldn’t have had a different choice had I needed to,” Tuck, 49, said in a podcast interview with redefinED. “We need to continue to expand options. I don’t think that’s something we ever need to stop.”

Tuck is an orange grower in Highlands County, where the biggest city has 10,000 people and the school district and Walmart are among the biggest employers. He grew up a free-and-reduced-price lunch kid. He was the first in his family to earn a college degree.

He’s got a good story about why he became engaged in education issues. He’s got another about why he became a fan of school choice. We could tell you, but sitting in Cowpoke’s Watering Hole on U.S. 27, Tuck tells it better himself.

Tuck doesn’t fit neatly into anybody’s box. He views educational choice as nonpartisan. He thinks rural areas could use more of it (despite the prevailing narrative that choice won’t work there). And while it’s unclear where Florida is headed on boosting teacher pay (intriguing hints here), he’s all for finding ways to do that now.

“We have a world-class education system here, and we’re going to need to show that in our compensation,” Tuck said.

Enjoy the podcast.

July 30, 2019 5 comments

Charter Schools School Choice School spotlight

Siblings find safety, inspiration and second family at charter school

Geoff Fox July 13, 2019

Geoff Fox

Dylan Stanton refers to educator Glenn Goodwin as “The God of Teachers.” Once bullied, Dylan has thrived at Renaissance Charter School at Tradition.

Editor’s note: Throughout July, redefinED is revisiting stories that shine a light on extraordinary schools. Today’s spotlight, first published in August 2018, relates how a third-grader who experienced bullying was able to thrive after enrolling in Renaissance Charter School at Tradition in Port St. Lucie.

Dylan Stanton was routinely bullied at his former school. A boy in his third-grade class hit him, pushed him off benches, stole his money. Once, he rammed Dylan face-first into a fence.

At the same school, another student once held a sharp metal file to the throat of his older sister Kaitlyn.

Not surprisingly, they did not thrive there.

But now, Dylan, 11, and Kaitlyn, 13, are safe and learning on an accelerated path, thanks to Renaissance Charter School at Tradition. It’s a K-8 charter school in Port. St. Lucie, Florida, which they’ve attended for two years.

“My friend kept telling me about this school, the tutoring and after-school programs and all the extra help,” said Jennifer Stanton, their mother. “I contemplated for a while, but the bullying at the other school helped me make up my mind.”

“We’ve been very happy here. They’re just easier to work with. They’re open to ideas and parent involvement.”

Accessing a new school did more than help the Stantons overcome bullying.

A few years ago, Dylan was diagnosed with dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At his former school, he struggled in math and was reading below his grade level.

Renaissance placed him in an online after-school reading program called Reading Plus, which develops a student’s silent reading stamina and fluency, while building vocabulary and comprehension, increasing their confidence and expanding their interests.

Thanks largely to his reading gains, Dylan’s grades have soared – along with his self-confidence. He loves science fiction and imagines a space-traveling future.

“I want to be the first person to step on Mars – to colonize Mars,” he said, adding he wants to pilot the rocket that takes him there.

Kaitlyn Stanton used to hate going to school, until she attended Renaissance Charter at Tradition, where her reading scores soared.

Kaitlyn, an eighth-grader, exhibited some of the same learning difficulties as Dylan, but not as severe. Her mother said the turbulent environment at her old school made her anxious. She, too, struggled most with reading, but Reading Plus has benefited her, as well.

But now “she’s now well above where she needs to be,” said reading teacher Andrea Ortega.

That has “made everything much easier” academically, Jennifer Stanton said.

“She used to hate school and hated to read,” she said. “I think this has given her the confidence to push herself in school.”

Kaitlyn is a dancer who specializes in ballet, jazz, acrobatic and lyrical dancing (but “hates” tap). While she hasn’t settled on a possible future career, she knows she wants a job that will someday enable her to buy a Range Rover.

This fall, she’ll attend St. Lucie West Centennial High School. It’s a district school where she was accepted into the Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education Program, which offers challenging college-level classes for high school students.

Kaitlyn spoke of her future between classes, while students wearing red, white or blue polo-style Renaissance shirts passed by in orderly, single-file lines.

The charter school is located in a rapidly developing area of Port St. Lucie, on Florida’s east coast between West Palm Beach and Vero Beach.

The 64,466-square-foot, two-story facility opened in 2013. A tuition-free public charter school, it’s governed by Renaissance Charter Schools, part of the Charter Schools USA network. The district recently renewed it for 15 years. In 2016-17, the state rated it a B academically.

Principal Stacy Schmit said the school strives to make the personal connections with students and parents that are key to student success. She credited Stanton for having high expectations for her children and working in tandem with their teachers.

“She very much empowers the kids to be drivers of their own education,” Schmit said. “She’s a great mom and she pushes them.”

Renaissance also has a Cambridge program. It’s available to third- through fifth-graders and aims to develop critical-thinking skills and encourage collaboration. Last year, Stanton urged Dylan to apply, and he was accepted.

“There are more projects and it’s an accelerated class,” said Glenn Goodwin, Dylan’s fifth-grade teacher. “Dylan’s definitely in the upper range of where he needs to be. He’s gone up in (every subject) over last year, but he’s had the most gains in reading and science.”

Dylan calls Goodwin “The God of Teachers.” Stanton credits him for engaging Dylan’s interests.

At 5-foot-7, Goodwin, 42, is powerfully built, with a large tattoo on his left arm and an upbeat personality to match his youthful energy. He’s well-known for enhancing classroom studies with real-life stories from his globetrotting life. For years, he lived and traveled in Thailand, Ecuador and South Korea, among other countries, where he taught English with his wife.

During a recent lesson on animal behavior, he described what happened when he and his wife got off his motorcycle in Thailand to feed monkeys.

While Renaissance has helped Dylan and Kaitlyn flourish academically, it’s also helped with needs beyond the classroom.

Jennifer Stanton’s mother and uncle both recently died, and she was diagnosed with a heart condition. In December, as the family was heading to Renaissance for “Breakfast with Santa,” their car was totaled in a multi-vehicle crash.

A single mother who works as a nurse, Stanton couldn’t afford Dylan’s hyperactivity medication for a month as she searched for a new car. The other challenges made it difficult for her to juggle her kids’ schedules.

Kaitlyn has dance classes a few days a week and played on the school’s volleyball team. Dylan participates in wrestling, baseball, football and tae kwon do.

Stanton turned to her best friend, Karla Nelson, who’s also the school nurse. When Stanton’s mom was hospitalized for extended periods, Nelson and her husband, who have three kids of their own, stepped up to care for Dylan and Kaitlyn.

“It truly takes a village to help raise children,” Stanton said. “This school is like family.”

About Florida’s charter schools

Florida is home to more than 650 public charter schools, enrolling more than 280,000 students. Sixty-two percent are black or Hispanic; more than half qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches. As of September 2017, the state classified 171 charter schools as academically high-performing.

July 13, 2019 0 comment

Charter Schools School Choice Student 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

Charter Schools School Choice Student 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