If anyone needs more proof that the future of education is in Florida, take a look at the winners of Thursday night’s Yass Prize Awards. Six Florida-based providers, including two finalists who took home $250,000 each, were among the 23 honored for their innovative and scalable programs.  

One of the finalists, Pepin Academies, is a charter school network with three campuses in the Tampa Bay area. It offers students with learning disabilities in grades three through 12 an inclusive environment where academics and essential therapies happen together in real time.  

“I have always rejected the principle that we have to think outside the box for students with disabilities,” said Jeff Skowronek, executive director of the 25-year-old network. “A truly inclusive society is one that understands how to make the box bigger.”  

Pepin stands out for its small class sizes, ESE-certified teachers, and onsite specialists, including mental health counselors, social workers, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, ESE specialists, and registered nurses, according to Yass Prize offices. This ensures their children receive individualized attention throughout the entire school day. In addition to its schools, Pepin operates a transition program for young adults ages 18-22.  

According to Yass Prize officials, the award empowers Pepin Academies to serve students earlier, expand their transition program, and bring their therapeutic model to more families seeking a school that understands and supports exceptional learners at every stage. 

The other finalist, WonderHere, is a network of child-centered microschools that focus on play-driven, project-based learning and personalized education to let children learn at their own pace. 

“We are so excited and grateful to the Yass family and the Center for Education Reform for selecting WonderHere as a finalist,” said Tiffany Thenor, who opened the first campus in Lakeland after spending seven years in the public education system. She opened WonderHere to challenge the norms of schooling and prove that learning can be more joyful, flexible, and deeply human. A second location opened later in Anderson, South Carolina, and a third is planned for Davenport, Florida, near the original location. 

Thenor said the prize money will help her find a permanent location for the Davenport campus and create more space for families to experience the “project-based, family-centered, wonder-filled learning environment” that WonderHere offers. 

The following Florida providers were named semi-finalists and received $100,000 each: Archimedean Schools of Miami; Space Florida, Merritt Island; Ecclesial Schools, Oviedo; and GuidEd, a Tampa-based bilingual program that provides free, unbiased information about educational choices to help families determine the best fit for their children.   

 “GuidEd looks forward to using our Yass award money to enhance our call center capabilities to provide more sophisticated and personalized 1:1 support for families and to reach new families who may be entering the education freedom marketplace for the first time," said Kelly Garcia, who founded GuidEd with her brother-in-law, Garrett Garcia.  

The Yass Prize, often called the “Pulitzer of Education Innovation,” began in 2021 to recognize innovative educators who delivered top-tier learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Philanthropists and education choice champions Jeff and Janine Yass established the award and continue to fund the program.

The top winner takes home a $1 million prize. This year, it went to Chesterton Schools Network, a national network of classical high schools rooted in Catholic values. Though headquartered in Minnesota, Chesterton has Florida schools in Orlando, Pensacola, Sarasota, and Vero Beach, with a fifth set to open in 2027 in Melbourne. Primer Microschools, which began in Florida and has expanded to other states, won the grand prize in 2024. That year, it announced the establishment of Primer Fellowship, which provides paid training for edupreneurs seeking to open Primer Microschools in their communities.

TAMPA, Fla. – It was July 2024, and Jack Canterbury celebrated a birthday. His 14^th. That led to a question he had been waiting a while to ask his mother.

“Can I get a job?”

Maria Canterbury had promised her son he could start working when he reached that age, and Jack had some employment opportunities in mind. Making subs at a sandwich shop. Busing tables at a restaurant. Playing in the NBA, but he knew he was too young for that.

Well …, said Maria.

Jack, who has Down syndrome, was about to enter the seventh grade at Morning Star School. He attended the K-8 Catholic school in Tampa for students with learning disabilities on a Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA), managed by Step Up For Students.

Morning Star does not have a cafeteria, so the only food available to students and staff during the day is whatever they bring for lunch.

After some thought, mom and son had what Maria described as a “bright idea.”

How about a vending machine at the school that sells healthy snacks and drinks? They have a close family friend who is in the vending machine business. Surely, he could help them out.

“Jack loved it,” Maria said.

But would anyone else? Would Morning Star Principal Eileen Odom go for the idea? Would parents, ever mindful of what their children eat, allow them to buy a snack out of a machine?

The answer to both questions was a resounding yes.

Odom knew of an empty space in a mid-campus hallway that was just the right size for a vending machine. Her maintenance staff agreed, saying they would do whatever it took to make it work.

“The spot couldn’t have been more perfect,” Maria said. “It was just waiting for a vending machine. It was meant to be.”

The family friend gave them a deal on a used vending machine, and SNacks by jACK 321 opened for business early in the 2024-25 school year.

“It’s been a nice treat for our students,” Odom said. “We started small, because we didn’t know how parents would react to snacks at school, but it just took off.”

Maria said the whole family came up with the name of Jack’s business – She and her husband Jason, Jack and his sister, Kate.

The capital letters spell “snack,” and 321 is for Trisomy 21, which is the medical term for Down syndrome. Also, March 21 (3/21) is World Down Syndrome Day.

SNacks by jACK 321 is stocked with Funyuns and Sun Chips. Skinny Pop and Barnum’s Animal Crackers. Gatorade, iced tea, sparkling water, and lemonade. And Diet Coke, but that’s only for the teachers.

The snacks and drinks cost between 50 cents and $1.25, and customers can pay with coins, credit cards, and Apple Pay. Jack donated 10% of the proceeds to Morning Star.

Jack is learning about running a business one box of animal crackers at a time. He has to track inventory and handle money. On weekends, he and his parents head to Sam’s Club for supplies. Jack and Maria restock the machine at least once a week.

“I think this is an amazing thing for Jack,” Odom said. “He has a real entrepreneurial spirit.”

Vanessa Florance, who taught Jack last year at Morning Star, said Jack’s side hustle turned into a learning experience for his schoolmates. She watched students learn to count change before making a selection and learn which number on the number pad corresponds with which snack. There was also a writing pad on the wall opposite the machine where students could leave suggestions for additional snacks, which they did.

“It was all these little lessons for everybody,” Florance said.

Jack said his first year as an entrepreneur was fun.

“And I like spending time with my mother,” he added.

Jack is one of the more personable students at the school. Also, one with deep faith. He carries a copy of the Ten Commandments in the small satchel he wears at all times, and while not Catholic, he participates in school-wide mass and is very inquisitive about the Bible verses he learned in religion class.

“He always made sure to greet me in the hallway, saying ‘Good morning,’ or ‘Good afternoon,’” said Morning Star teacher Jennifer Almedia. “And if I didn’t see him for some reason, he would make it a point to come and find me and make sure I saw him. He never misses an opportunity to greet his teachers.”

Maria and Jason have not treated Jack differently because he has Down syndrome. He’s expected to do his share of chores around the house and is allowed to dream as big as he wants. One of Jack’s dreams is to be an NBA superstar.

“We anticipate him going through high school, going to college of his choice, with specific programs,” Maria said.

They have already looked into ClemsonLIFE, a program at Clemson University for students with intellectual disabilities.

“He knows expectations are for him to further his education outside of high school,” Maria said. “Now, if you ask him, he wants to drive, join the military, get married, and have kids. Not sure he'll be able to do all of those things in that order, but that's what he envisions himself doing, and we don't tell him any differently.”

One thing Jack won’t do, though, is graduate from Morning Star, the school he attended in the sixth and seventh grades.

Because the school only goes through grade eight, Maria and Jason would have to look for a high school that can accommodate Jack’s needs. In the spring, they entered a lottery for a charter school near their Wesley Chapel home, and, to their surprise, Jack was accepted. The school is grades 3-12 and has a post-high school transition program.

“We absolutely love Morning Star,” Maria said. “We wish they went through high school, but unfortunately, they do not at this moment in time.”

Jack will remain on the FES-UA scholarship, using the education savings account to pay for his therapies.

While Jack will no longer attend Morning Star, his vending machine will remain. Jack and his mom will stop by every week to check the inventory, keep it stocked, and check the notepad for any suggestions.

“Jack’s not technically leaving,” Odom said.

“SNacks by jACK lives on.”

 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  – Zori Brown was in the sixth grade when she made a plan for her future that was concise and to the point:

• Attend an Ivy League college.
• Major in finance.
• Become a chief financial officer.

“I don’t know of any sixth-graders who have a life plan,” said Zori’s mom, Endea Mathis.

Endea said she was raised in a home where education was stressed above all else, and she passed that on to her only child.

“It was taught to her at a young age that you're a student first. We pride ourselves on that,” Endea said. “But she took it to a whole other level.”

Six years later, the plan is still in play.

Zori, 17, is set to graduate in May near the top of her class from St. Thomas Aquinas High School (STA) in Fort Lauderdale. She will continue her education at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she received a volleyball scholarship. She will major in finance.

The end goal hasn’t changed – become a CFO, possibly on Wall Street.

“She’ll be something someday, that’s for sure,” Lisa Zielinski, STA’s volleyball coach, said.

 

Ambitious goals like these and the means to reach them are what attracted Zori to STA. She attends the academically and athletically competitive private Catholic high school with the help of a Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO). The scholarship is managed by Step Up For Students.

“If it wasn’t for Step Up, she wouldn’t be able to attend St. Thomas, her dream school, because I couldn’t afford it,” Endea said. “The scholarship has been tremendous for us.”

Zori attended a charter school near her home in Pembroke Pines, which is a half hour south of STA. She enjoyed her time there and felt she was pushed academically. But for high school, she wanted something more.

Athletically, Zori joined one of the top volleyball programs in Florida. She finished her high school career as a captain of a team that won back-to-back state titles. As a senior, Zori was team MVP and first-team all-Broward County. She was also named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association's third team.

In volleyball, college coaches recruit players from the AAU national circuit. Zori gained attention playing for the Wildfire Volleyball Academy’s national team, playing weekend tournaments in Atlanta, Kansas City, and Indianapolis, as well as Orlando and South Florida. Dartmouth coaches first approached her when she was in the ninth grade.

“Volleyball has impacted my life a lot,” Zori said. “It’s brought so much joy into my life, and I’m going to a great college through volleyball. I'm so grateful for it.”

Her academic life is equally important. She pushes herself just as hard in the classroom as she does on the volleyball court.

Athletically, Zori joined one of the top volleyball programs in Florida. She finished her high school career as a captain of a team that won back-to-back state titles. As a senior, Zori was team MVP and first-team all-Broward County. She was also named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association's third team.

In volleyball, college coaches recruit players from the AAU national circuit. Zori gained attention playing for the Wildfire Volleyball Academy’s national team, playing weekend tournaments in Atlanta, Kansas City, and Indianapolis, as well as Orlando and South Florida. Dartmouth coaches first approached her when she was in the ninth grade.

“Volleyball has impacted my life a lot,” Zori said. “It’s brought so much joy into my life, and I’m going to a great college through volleyball. I'm so grateful for it.”

Her academic life is equally important. She pushes herself just as hard in the classroom as she does on the volleyball court.

“I have to get a high mark, I just challenge myself,” she said. “There may be a class I don't really know much about, but in X amount of months, I'm going to walk out of here, and I'm going to know as much as I can.

I think what keeps me going is thinking about the future and how I want to be successful in life, and I feel by challenging myself academically, that's going to help me get there.”

Zori's play on the court, where she is an outside hitter, drew the attention of the coaches at the Ivy League universities Yale, Brown, and Princeton. She was also recruited by Georgetown University, Stony Brook University and Davidson College.

As a senior, Zori was team MVP, all-Broward County first team, and a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association's third team. (Photo provided by Zori Brown

In addition to her athletic prowess, Zori brings leadership and a high moral character to the team, which, Coach Zielinski said, enables her to be successful.

“Once in a while, you get a player who has it all,” Zielinski said. “I know the Dartmouth coaches are going to be happy to have her, because she’s going to contribute to that school and that program. She’ll make a difference. She’ll thrive in that academic setting.”

Endea, who is slowly changing her wardrobe from STA’s blue and gold to Dartmouth’s green, is not surprised her daughter is headed to an Ivy League school, though she was quick to add, “I brag all the time.”

“She’s always been confident, always been competitive,” Endea said. “She always wanted to do well, always wanted to be first in everything. That’s from her upbringing. I always pushed her to be the best she could be. She always wanted more out of life.”

Zori doesn’t feel she would be heading to an Ivy League college without the education she received at STA. The faculty helped her lift her academics to a higher level. That, combined with her competitive nature and her laser-like focus on her future, means she will trade sunny South Florida for some New England winters.

“I know this is really cliché, but you only live once,” Zori said. “I think about that all the time. You have to work hard in this life because you don’t get another one. You have to take advantage of the opportunities you have. The decisions you make now affect your future.”

 

LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla.— Khyla Beaujin’s first fashion show as a designer was over, and she described the backstage chaos to her mother.

Where are the models?

Where are their shoes?

Who has the jewelry?

Khyla was frustrated at times and overwhelmed at others because the designers shared models and the models shared shoes, and confusion reigned. But she maintained her composure and pulled everything together, and the models strutted the catwalk with quiet poise, wearing Khyla’s spring collection.

It was a proud night for Khyla, then 12 years old, because she worked hard creating her collection during the months leading up to the event.

Khyla recounted all this to her mom post-show in a breathless monologue.

“The look on her face, the smile, I'm like, ‘Oh, I love this for you.’” Sheyla Bens Beaujin said.

Year One as a student at the South Florida Fashion Academy (SF/FA) ended that night for Khyla, and Sheyla knew her daughter was where she needed to be, attending a school that would nurture her love for fashion design.

Khyla is now a seventh grader at SF/FA, a private Pre-K-12 school in Lauderdale Lakes that incorporates fashion design, cosmetology, nail technology, barbering, skin care, business, and entrepreneurship with core classes. Khyla attends the school with the help of a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship managed by Step Up For Students and funded by corporate donations to the nonprofit.

“This is her passion,” Sheyla said, “so finding that school was really a life-saving experience. She’s found so much joy and purpose there.”

While Khyla was involved in a number of extracurricular activities and sports at her previous school, Calvary Christian Academy, her interest always returned to fashion design.

It’s something Khyla picked up from her mom at an early age, when Sheyla started her own children’s clothing line – KHYKOUTURE – and used Khyla as a model. Khyla enjoys walking the runway but not as much as she enjoys finding a top and a blanket at a thrift store and using her imagination, a sewing machine, and all the tools in her sewing kit to turn them into a dress or gown.

“I guess seeing my mom make all those outfits for me when I was little inspired me to do the same,” Khyla said.

Sheyla learned of SF/FA on social media when Khyla was in the fifth grade. She and Khyla toured the school, which is a 30-minute drive from their Hollywood home. All Khyla had to see was Room 117, which is filled with mannequins and sewing machines, and she was sold.

“Best room in the school,” Khyla said.

She enrolled in the sixth grade for the 2023-24 school year, eager to see what the world of fashion was all about.

Now Khyla talks about attending a fashion school in New York City and having her work featured during Fashion Week in Paris, London, and New York.

“That's why I'm glad I'm going to this school so I can work on my skills,” she said. “I think I'm really going to do this. I'm really going to pursue this dream and stick to it till the end.”

***

In 2018, Taj McGill started a fashion program for students in South Florida that met in a one-room building on Saturdays. By 2021, she realized there was enough interest to start a dedicated school. SF/FA now has 75 students, many of them with dreams as big as Khyla’s.

McGill, who grew up in South Florida, has a degree in fashion design and merchandising. She has worked in various careers within the fashion industry for more than 20 years. She’s attending Fashion Week in those far-off cities. Her students are introduced to a cross-section of people from the fashion industry.

“South Florida isn't really known as a fashion capital although it is beginning to develop. I am intentional about exposing our students to the various careers within the industry and introducing creatives to professionals that inspire them to dream,” McGill said. “They can actually have a job in these specific career fields that we cater to here at SF/FA. They can flourish in those industries.

“If there were a school like this when I was a child, oh, my God, I would have been in heaven. If I was able to complete my core academic classes and then have classes in fashion or beauty or business, it would have been so great for me. So, I essentially created what I wanted as a child.”

In addition to the sewing lab, there is a room with barber chairs for hairstyling and another for nail technology and cosmetology. Students can dually enroll in the fashion program at Saint Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Miami Fashion Institute, or the University of South Florida.

“You don’t get this kind of experience anywhere else,” Khyla said.

Every student is involved in the end-of-the-year fashion show, from the designers to the models, to the cosmetologist to the hair stylist. The photography, video, social media, red carpet, and marketing are all done by students.

***

In nearly two years at SF/FA, Khyla has emerged as one of the school’s top students, with a 4.0 GPA. Her designs allow her to stand out, as well.

“She's determined,” McGill said. “She works really, really hard, and it's important to her to be a leader to her peers.”

 

Last year, Khyla designed three outfits for the fashion show. This year, it could be as many as seven. It will feature a rainbow of princess gowns inspired by the movie “Inside Out 2,” where the emotions of the main character, a teenage girl, are represented by characters of different colors. Anger is red. Envy is green.

“It was a little confusing at first because I knew I wanted to do the theme, but I didn't know what I wanted to make it,” she said. “So, I was like, ‘OK, let me just do princess dresses,’ and I can just do them with the ‘Inside Out’ colors and incorporate them into the designs.”

Sheyla has never seen the movie, so she’s not sure what Khyla is trying to accomplish. But that’s the case with all of Khyla’s concepts.

“When she tells me about them and I don’t get what she’s trying to do, she tells me, ‘Wait till you see where it’s going,’ and then I see the final product and I’m amazed,” she said.

Sheyla took a sewing class in Miami before starting her children’s line. She was the only adult in the class. The rest were students who were homeschooled.

“That stuck with me because I wanted my children to have the same opportunities,” she said.

Now a detention sergeant with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Sheyla can give Khyla the educational opportunity she wished she had, thanks to Step Up For Students.

“Without Step Up, Khyla would have never gotten the opportunity to be in this school,” Sheyla said. “So, it's a wonderful thing that kids like Khyla can have an opportunity to let their talent flourish while focusing also on her academics.”

At SF/FA, McGill serves as a role model, as do the guest lecturers. The students feed off each other’s creativity and dreams. Khyla talks about attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and having her designs featured at all the big shows in Paris and London.

“That makes me proud,” Sheyla said, “and it allows me to encourage her because I know those dreams are attainable.”

 

Tiovanni Johnson squirms in his chair and lowers his head. His grandmother is telling a story about his kindness toward strangers, and he wishes she would stop. In fact, he asked her to stop.

“This is embarrassing,” he said.

She continued.

The previous day, Angela brought two Slim Jims with her when she picked up Tiovanni from school.

“I love Slim Jims,” he said.

They stopped at a light on the ride home. Tiovanni noticed a man panhandling at the intersection. He appeared hungry, so Tiovanni leaned out the window and gave the man his favorite snack.

“He does this all the time no matter where he is,” Angela said. “He’s so thoughtful.”

At a skatepark a few days earlier, Tiovanni spent most of his time helping younger kids who had trouble staying on their skateboards.

Tiovanni appeared as if he would rather be anywhere else than in the conference room at his school, Academy Prep Center of St. Petersburg, listening to his grandmother brag about him.

But there are some things a boy can’t stop.

And when asked about the praise, Tiovanni reluctantly admitted, “It makes me feel good.”

Tiovanni, 12, is in the seventh grade at Academy Prep. This is his second year attending the grades 5-8 private school located three miles from the Gulfport home he shares with his aunt and uncle, Tricia and Ralph Huckeba. They became Tiovanni’s legal guardians after his mom, Deborah, died unexpectedly when he was 6.

Tiovanni attends Academy Prep on a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, made possible by corporate donations to Step Up For Students.

Year 1 was a feel-good story for Tiovanni. He made the honor roll, joined Academy Prep’s swim team and began the 2024-25 school year with a 4.0 GPA for his work over the summer.

Tricia and Ralph, along with Angela, wanted Tiovanni to attend a school that would challenge him academically and help guide him through the tricky middle school years.

“Everybody here is so caring, truly caring,” Tricia said. “This school is very accommodating for the students, very loving, God-fearing people.”

Tiovanni tells his teachers that when he grows up, he wants to do something “magnificent.” He’s not quite sure what that means other than it will include a college education.

“I’m going to make sure I get straight A’s so I can go to college,” he said.

He’d like to study music, he said. He’d also like to learn to play the drums.

“They speak to me,” he said.

He wants to fly in a plane.

And learn to do an “ollie” with his skateboard. That’s the move where the rider jumps in the air with his feet still on the board but without using his hands. Tiovanni is working on it.

And he wants to travel.

Tiovanni wants to take Angela back to her birthplace, Cairano, a dot-on-the-map city in the mountains of Italy.

His life will be epic. Tiovanni is sure of that.

“I want to do something wonderful so my aunt and uncle don't have to work, so they can go on vacation somewhere,” he said.

He writes poetry.

I'm cool, but sometimes I act like a fool.

He described himself as “short” and “fast” and “energetic.”

“I can be a little annoying sometimes,” he added.

Tiovanni likes to be challenged academically, as evident by this year’s class schedule filled with honors courses. He’s in the right academic setting for that since Academy Prep is designed so students get the most of their educational opportunity.

He can also be more of a deep thinker than someone his age.

The family attends BridgePoint Church in St. Petersburg. Tiovanni often takes notes during the service and shares them with everyone at lunch afterwards. Tiovanni said he’s writing down “wisdom.”

“It’s just amazing some of the things that he thought about, because it would be his interpretation of what the pastor said,” Tricia said.

Tiovanni is reluctant to talk about his mom.

“That’s a sensitive topic,” he said.

It’s a sensitive topic for Angela, as well. She gets emotional when talking about her youngest daughter, who passed in 2019.

“She’s gone, but she left a special gift,” Angela said, nodding toward Tiovanni.

Brittany Dillard, Academy Prep’s Assistant Head of School, has known Tiovanni and his family since her son and Tiovanni were first-grade classmates. That was the year Tiovanni’s mom died and Tiovanni, whose father is not in his life, went to live with Angela. Dillard had the first-graders make cards for Tiovanni.

“Tiovanni has always just been spontaneous and optimistic and just a joy to be around,” Dillard said. “He's inquisitive. He asks a lot of questions, and he is just, honestly, a person that you want to have around if you're having a bad day, because he's going to find some way to cheer you up and just bring some sort of joy into your life.”

Like handing his afterschool snack to someone who looked hungry.

“I felt in my heart that that's what I needed to do,” Tiovanni said, “and that’s what I did.”

 

MIRAMAR, Fla. – William Ivins moved his family to South Florida ahead of his retirement from the United States Marine Corps and enrolled his children at Mother of Our Redeemer Catholic School, hoping they would reap the same rewards as he did from a faith-based education.

But, as William and his wife, Claudia, would soon learn, that was easier said than done.

A lawyer for much of his 20-year career in the Marines, William needed to pass the Florida Bar Exam before he could enter the private sector. It was a long process that left him unemployed for 19 months.

“It was a struggle,” he said. “My retirement income was not enough to pay for the cost of living and tuition for my children.”

William and his wife Claudia faced a few choices: continue with the financial struggle, homeschool their children, send them to their district school, or move out of state. None were appealing to the Ivins, and fortunately, they didn’t have to act on any.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship made possible by corporate donations to Step Up For Students allows his four children to attend Mother of Our Redeemer, a private K-8 Catholic school near the family’s Miramar home.

“It was a perfect storm of having to retire from the Marines and not really having a job lined up,” William said. “The transition was more difficult than I thought it would be. The income just was not available for us to continue our kids’ education in the way we wanted. Had the scholarship not been there, we would have been forced to move out of state or homeschool them or move them to (their district) school.”

In July 2020, the Ivins moved to South Florida from Jacksonville, N.C., where William had been stationed at Camp Lejeune. William contacted Denise Torres, the registrar and ESE coordinator at Mother of Redeemer, before making the move. She told William the school would hold spaces for his children. She later told him about the education choice scholarships managed by Step Up For Students.

“That was a big relief for him,” Torres said.

At his mother’s urging, William began attending Catholic school in high school.

“That was a life-changer for me,” he said.

He converted to Catholicism and vowed if he ever had children, he would send them to Catholic school for the religious and academic benefits.

Rebekah graduated in May from Mother of Our Redeemer. She had been an honor roll student since she stepped on campus three years ago.

“Rebekah likes to be challenged in school, and she was challenged here,” Claudia said.

Rebekah, who received the High Achieving Student Award in April 2022 at Step Up’s annual Rising Stars Awards event, is in the excelsior honors program as a freshman at Archbishop McCarthy High School.

“She's an amazing, amazing student,” Torres said. “It’s incredible the way she takes care of her brothers. She's very nurturing. Every single teacher has something positive to say about her.”

Rebekah’s brothers, Joseph (sixth grade) and Lucas (third grade), do well academically and are active in Mother of Redeemer’s sports scene, running cross-country and track. Nicholas, the youngest of the Ivins children, is in first grade. He was allowed to run with the cross-country team while in kindergarten, which helped build his confidence.

William had been in the Marines for 20 years, eight months. He served as a judge advocate and was deployed to Kuwait in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom, to Japan in 2004, and then to Afghanistan in 2012 for Operation Enduring Freedom.

He retired in May 2021 but didn’t find employment until December 2022. The Florida Bar Exam is considered one of the more challenging bar exams in the United States. He took the exam in July 2021 and didn’t learn he passed until September. It took William more than a year before he landed a position with a small law firm in Pembrook Pines.

Claudia, who has a background in finance, works in that department at Mother of Our Redeemer Catholic Church, located next to the school.

“They have really become part of our community,” principal Ana Casariego said. “The parents are very involved and are big supporters of our school and church.”

In Mother of Our Redeemer Catholic School and Church, Willian and Claudia found the educational and faith setting they wanted for their children.

“It is a small community environment where you know all the teachers and staff by first name,” William said. “My kids have received a wonderful education in an environment where they don’t have to worry about bullying, and they can really strive to grow and do their best academically.

“The scholarship kept us in the state and kept our kids in the school system that we wanted them to be in. It’s been a great blessing to us.”

LEESBURG, Fla. – The first tangible evidence of a new private school opening in town were the 1,500 fliers printed at Staples and handed to parents as they left a Publix supermarket.

That’s how Darryl Reaves and his wife, Anette During, hoped to attract students to the K-8 school in Leesburg they planned to open for the 2022-23 school year. They canvassed strip mall parking lots.

“We lived outside the stores the whole summer,” Reaves said.

The couple watched a mother exit a store, a child or two in tow, and ask if she was interested in sending her kids to a school with small class sizes that was committed to helping children who didn’t have the means to a quality education receive one and reap its benefits.

Enough of them said yes to put Reaves’ plan in motion.

“We had 12 students and no building,” he said.

That problem was solved when Mt. Calvary Baptist Church offered rooms that could be used for classrooms, and in August 2022, First Trinity Academy opened its doors. There were 22 students, most in the lower grades.

Enrollment doubled in 2023-24 and is up to 76 this year, marking a remarkable growth that has Reaves already searching for a larger building.

Each student receives either the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship or the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options. Both are managed by Step Up For Students.

“The students who come here are from families that could never afford a private school without those scholarships,” said Reaves.

Tuition is $8,000 for grades K-3 and $7,500 for grades 4-8. There is also a $150 registration fee per family.

Students are required to take the Stanford 10, a Nationally Standardized Achievement Test. New students take the Let's Go Learn Diagnostic Test to evaluate their skill set so teachers have a baseline to measure the student’s progress.

Beacons of hope

There are eight teachers on staff at First Trinity Academy. During is the chief administrative officer. Reaves is headmaster, though he joked to a recent visitor that he’s also the janitor and dishwasher.

He wasn’t kidding. Before each lunch period, Reaves swept the dining room floor, cleaned the tables, and placed the students’ lunchboxes on the tables. He heated whatever lunches they brought that needed heating and cleaned whatever bowls needed cleaning.

“You have to be everything here,” he said. “We’re a small school, so we can’t offer the thrills.”

Reaves was raised in Miami by parents who were teachers. His dad served in the Florida Legislature. Reaves, who has a journalism degree from Florida A&M and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Florida, served in the Florida House of Representatives.

A Democrat, Reaves served in the Florida House alongside Tom Feeney. Feeney was Speaker of the House from 2000 to 2001 and shepherded the creation of Florida’s first tax credit scholarship bill. Though Reaves had left the legislature before the law’s passage, students at First Trinity Academy now benefit from it.

He said he thought of running a private school as far back as when he was in middle school. And, after spending several years as a teacher in the public school system, he decided to do just that.

“I learned from my parents that all children want to learn,” he said. “It's just a matter of giving them the opportunity. I have this philosophy that once you make children believe they can do the work, they will do the work.”

Reaves sees education as the means for families to break the cycle of poverty. He called it “the Civil Rights movement of our times.”

“It’s repetitive,” he said. “The parent doesn't graduate. The child is a parent. The daddy goes to jail. The son goes to jail. The grandsons go to jail. Drugs. Jail. Drugs. The community goes down, down, down.

“And somewhere along the line, there have to be beacons of hope that say, ‘Oh, you can be smart.’ We’re treading upstream, but that's our purpose.”

‘Be better than us’

Le’Shaun Gray considers himself one of those beacons.

A product of Florida State University, where he majored in interdisciplinary studies, Gray teaches science, social studies, and reading at First Trinity Academy.

“I wake up in the morning with a fire within me, because what an opportunity not only we have as educators, but our students have,” he said.

Gray was raised in Brooksville and attended district schools. He knows how easily a student can become overwhelmed at a big school. Some won’t ask questions because they are intimidated, and what was unclear to them remains unclear. First Trinity Academy’s classes are capped at 12 students; most are smaller. Gray can interact with every student every day.

“I can literally stop at each one of their desks and say, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ We can slow down. We can speed up however we need to,” Gray said.

His goal is to teach his students how to think and understand a topic, not just memorize material to pass a test. That’s how teachers can make a difference in a student’s life, Gray said.

“I feel it's our responsibility to pass on a knowledge of legacy to the generation behind us,” he said. “The goal is for them to be better than us.”

Going in the right direction

Alejandra Ortiz had been scouting private schools in Orlando for her daughter London during the summer of 2022. That would make for a long roundtrip commute from Leesburg every day, but Ortiz was committed to finding a better education setting for her only daughter.

Then one evening, while shopping for dinner at Publix, she was approached by Reaves in the parking lot. Ortiz was interested in what Reaves had to offer, and London became one of the original 22 students.

“We were thinking the same way,” Ortiz said.

London arrived as a first-grader, two grades behind her class. In nine weeks, she was promoted to the second grade, and by the start of the 2023-24 school year, she had advanced to her grade level.

“I saw a 180-degree turnaround halfway through that first year,” Ortiz said. “Things that she was struggling with before, she was no longer struggling with. The discipline, the communication, and the academics are definitely there in the school. She's definitely going in the right direction.”

London said she loves going to First Trinity Academy. She likes her classmates and the teachers. She likes how math teacher Jodi Porter compared fractions to slices of a cake.

Even with all the fliers and the canvassing of parking lots, word-of-mouth is still the best recruiter for Reaves. Parents talk to parents, and the students talk to their friends. When asked what she would say to a friend whose mother was thinking of sending her to First Trinity Academy, London said, “I would say you should definitely come because it's a good school and the teachers will understand you and you will have a lot of fun understanding and learning about new things.”

The vision

Three years in and Reaves is already scouting for a bigger location for his school. There is an empty former CVS nearby. In another part of town sits a building that used to house a furniture store. Both offer enough space for First Trinity Academy to continue its growth.

“We've proven that we can expand at a rapid pace, and I'm looking forward to expanding, perhaps even to 400 [or] 500 students,” During said.

That’s ambitious, yet Ortiz thinks it’s realistic.

“I feel like they're progressing nicely, honestly, especially in such a short amount of time,” she said. “My experience has been really good as a parent because I have that safety net where I know I could drop my daughter off and I'm going to pick her back up. I've been very happy with the results because they take that time out to get to know the child.”

Ortiz’s feelings sync with the vision Reaves and During had when they began distributing fliers outside Leesburg-area supermarkets.

• Every child can excel academically.
• Develop the whole child through education.

“That’s our vision.” During said. “Helping students that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to or would not be given the opportunity to succeed academically.”

 

 

SARASOTA, Fla. — It was time for the valedictorian to address the assembly, so Emma Howey rose from her seat in the front row of the auditorium, left her walker behind, and, with the help of her favorite teacher, made her way to the edge of the stage.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she remembered thinking last May as she graduated from CES Academy of Bradenton.

Emma was born with cerebral palsy and has used a walker since she was 3. But, two years earlier, at the end of her sophomore year, Emma set a goal of walking across the stage at graduation.

Emma’s only concession was that CES Academy teacher Charlie Stephenson would walk beside her holding her hand to help her balance. The rest would be all Emma, the result of 24 months of carefully planned occupational and physical therapy.

Also, determination.

And grit.

Emma’s walk of a lifetime required her to climb the six steps to the stage, turn left, and then walk 25 steps to the podium.

“I gotta do this,” she remembered thinking when she reached the foot of the staircase.

And she did.

The audience clapped, and someone shouted, “EMMA!” as she marched before them. She smiled as her goal became reality.

Emma’s voice grew with confidence as she read her speech that ended with this message:

“Graduates, always remember to keep focused, don’t lose hope, and never give up.”

A few minutes later, Emma made the trip again, this time to receive her diploma.

“It was,” she would tell her family afterward, “the best night of my life.”

A big idea

Emma, now 19, attended CES Academy with the help of the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities. Managed by Step Up For Students, the scholarship functions as an education savings account (ESA), which gives families more flexibility in how they spend their students’ funds. Over the years, Emma has used the ESA to purchase a therapy swing, an exercise trampoline, and an iPad. It paid for her hippotherapy, a type of equine-assisted therapy.  The ESA also covered tuition at her private K-12 school that serves children with educational exceptionalities.

“I really learned to be on my own there,” she said.

Emma, who lives in Sarasota with her mom, Jennifer, attended her district school through the fifth grade but struggled with the large class sizes. Navigating hallways was difficult given the number of students trying to get to classes. Opening doors can be a chore for Emma, and her schoolmates weren’t always eager to lend a hand.

CES Academy could better accommodate her needs, especially when she met Charlie Stephenson.

“He always focused on what I could do, instead of what I couldn't. That was something different,” Emma said.

Emma thrived in CES Academy’s academic setting. She was an honor student who tutored other students and was a star in the school’s Mighty Knights program, where juniors and seniors were paired with K-3 students.

“Emma was awesome working with those little kids,” said Mike Van Hoven, who was CES’s principal last year and now teaches science at the school.

Emma was born prematurely and suffered a brain injury at birth, that led to cerebral palsy which affects most of her muscles. She also has neuromuscular scoliosis. She’s had surgeries to lengthen her legs and to correct fatigue in her eye muscles. She wears braces on her legs while using her walker or crutches.

She also plays the piano and can speak Spanish, Italian, and sign language. Among the items on her bucket list are trips to Paris and Italy.

She loves to swim.

“I can walk in the pool. I still don't understand that,"” she said. “How can I get on land and not do it? It's like the reverse Ariel, like the Little Mermaid.”

Emma is currently in vocational rehab as she looks for a job. She’s applied for positions to work the front desk at a hotel, the reception desk at a nursing home, and for a position at a library.

“I’m a people person,” she said.

Emma refers to herself as disabled but won’t let that define her.

“I don't let that limit me (trying) to be the best of my ability,” she said. “There’s stuff I can't do, but I try not to let that get in the way.”

One thing that does get in the way is her walker when it comes to climbing stairs. She always stood in front of the stage when she received awards at school while her classmates walked across the stage.

In 2019, Emma’s brother Jonathan graduated from high school. She watched him walk with his class and had an idea.

‘This is going to happen’

Ouida Wellenberger was a physical therapist and Sharon Yadven was an occupational therapist at Kidspot in Palmetto. They worked with Emma for years.

Emma told them about watching Jonathan walk with his class.

I want to do that,” Emma said.

“Let’s go for it,” Wellenberger said.

“This is going to happen,” Yadven said.

In 2022, the three began working toward that goal.

Emma’s mom, Jennifer, knew it was an ambitious quest. Could her daughter physically reach such a demanding goal? Possibly. After all, this is the same girl who spent one summer learning to hit a pitched baseball from Jonathan after she learned she was the only player in her age group in the Miracle League of Manasota still hitting off a batting tee.

“She's always been very strong-willed and determined,” Jennifer said. “She’s done a lot of things in therapy that she did not like, but she knew she had to do it, so she did it.”

“No matter what we threw at her, she accepted it, worked on it, and did it,” Wellenberger said. “The neat thing was that it was her goal, and it wasn't someone else’s.”

Team Emma immediately went to work on increasing Emma’s strength and stamina with incredible attention to detail. They walked the city block from Kidspot to the old Palmetto library to build Emma’s tolerance. They used the stairs in front of the building to strengthen Emma’s legs so she could lift them high enough to clear a step.

Once Emma decided Stephenson would walk with her, Yadven walked alongside Emma with her left hand at the same height as Stephenson’s so Emma was used to holding her right hand at that height.

Emma practiced letting go of Stephenson’s hand so she could turn and receive her diploma with her right hand.

A few months before graduation Emma learned she was valedictorian. That threw a wrench into the plans. Now Emma had to build endurance so she could stand for three minutes, which was the allotted time for her speech.

And walk across the stage – twice.

 

 

The number of Jewish schools in Florida nearly doubled over the past 15 years, boosted by parents using state school choice scholarships and the migration of families from New York, according to a new report from Teach Coalition and Step Up For Students.

Student enrollment between 2007-08 and 2022-23 rose 58 percent, from 8,492 to 13,379, while the number of Jewish day schools and yeshivas grew from 40 to 74, the report shows.

Over the same span, the percentage of Jewish school students using choice scholarships increased from 10 to 60 percent.

The growth of Jewish schools in Florida is historic and unmatched anywhere else in America. The analysis is also likely to understate the trend lines, given it does not cover the 2023-24 school year, the first year every student in Florida became eligible for a choice scholarship. (The data for 2023-24 is not yet available.)

On a cautionary note, the report also points to increasingly pressing issues that could limit future growth – and not just for Jewish schools.

The vast majority of newer Jewish schools are on the smaller side, with fewer than 175 students. That’s not a function of parental preference, the report suggests, but the result of challenges schools face in navigating restrictive local zoning laws to find adequate and affordable facilities.

“With Florida’s existing Jewish schools at or near full capacity, more effort is needed to source suitably sized school buildings,” said Danny Aqua, director of special projects at Teach Coalition. “Without legislative and regulatory action to reduce the hurdles to opening new schools, the lack of school building space may throttle growth in Florida’s Jewish day schools.”

Full report here.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Benjamin Crump, one of the most prominent lawyers in America, aka “Black America’s attorney general,” obviously could send his daughter to any school he wanted. So, it says everything that he and his wife, Genae Angelique Crump, chose a little private school that’s known as the place “where three-year-olds learn to read.” 

This gem is Brownsville Preparatory Institute. It was founded 20 years ago by Rita Brown, a retired businesswoman, former homeschool mom, and force of nature who taught her own kids to read by age 3. 

Brownsville Prep is “excellence personified,” Crump says in an audio recording on the school’s website. “And that’s why we chose to send our little princess … to be a proud student at Brownsville Preparatory Institute. And I would encourage you to send your brown, Black and beautiful little children to Black excellence.” 

In school choice-rich Florida, about 140,000 Black students – fully one in five across the state – now attend a charter school or use a state-supported choice scholarship to attend a private school. That’s according to data from the Florida Department of Education and Step Up For Students, the nonprofit scholarship funding organization that administers nearly all of Florida’s K-12 school choice scholarships. 

For context, 140,000 Black students in non-district choice schools is more than 31 individual states that have Black students in public schools.   

Schools like Brownsville Prep are among the reasons why. 

Rita Brown began her journey in education entrepreneurship in 2003, running a learning pod in her home for six kids in preschool. Now Brownsville Prep serves 80 students in PreK-3 – with more than 200 on a waitlist. All the students in K-3 use choice scholarships. 

“We don’t advertise. You know how we advertise? These children,” Brown said from her tiny office at the school, which may be smaller than Harry Potter’s Cupboard Under the Stairs. “The other parents hear them talk – and they know. They know something is happening here that isn’t happening in other places.” 

Brown is the daughter of a New York City police officer and a homemaker. She owned a beauty salon and beauty supply business in Rockland County, New York, before she and her husband, also a New York City police officer, retired and moved to Florida. 

Early literacy is something she emphasized with her own children, using a phonics-based program to get them started. When her oldest began soaring past grade level in public school, Brown decided to homeschool. Today, all three of her children are Florida A&M University graduates. Her sons are the CEO and CTO, respectively, of the tech company Breakr. Her daughter is an international business consultant. 

“It’s all because they were able to read early,” Brown said. “When you can read early, you become a self-taught person. Information is available. You just have to be able to read it and digest it.” 

Besides early literacy and core academics, Brownsville Prep emphasizes Black history and culture. It’s important, Brown said, for her students to see people who look like them finding success at the highest levels in every realm. 

At the same time, she said, parents know if a school is truly putting its students on that path. 

“They’re sending their kids here because of the level of academic excellence,” she said. “They couldn’t care less about the Blackness if their kids weren’t learning.” 

Brown didn’t set out to create a buzz. 

Until 2010, her operation served only children in pre-school. But year after year, the parents of more and more of her former students grew frustrated, their kids no longer accelerating academically as they had at Brownsville. So, Brown decided to expand into the early grades. She moved to bigger digs in an office complex, and then, in 2019, expanded again, this time leasing space from a church. 

Florida’s private school choice programs are key to Brownsville Prep’s mission. It has helped the school become an anchor for the whole community, Brown said, because it gives families from all walks of life the opportunity to access a high-quality option. At Brownsville, the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers sit side by side with the children of working-class and lower-income families, and nobody knows the difference. 

Kindergartner Kyree Thomas has attended Brownsville Prep since he was 3. His grandmother, Michelle Melton, said she chose it over his zoned school because it had the features she knew would help Kyree succeed: Smaller class sizes. A family-like atmosphere. No distractions with behavior issues. And more than anything, the highest expectations. 

“I was like, ‘You expect them to write at 3? And read at 3?’ ”said Melton, a former home daycare operator who now works as a delivery driver while she cares for her mother. “Guess what? He did it, and he’s excelling.” 

Every day, Melton continued, the school sends the message that the sky’s the limit. 

“It doesn’t matter how much money you have,” she said. “You can do anything. You can conquer anything.” 

Brownsville Prep has had its challenges, mostly in meeting demand. 

Brown has been looking to expand again, but she’s had trouble finding a facility within the predominantly Black neighborhoods she serves. 

Moving elsewhere isn’t an option. 

“These neighborhoods need it more than other places,” Brown said. One way or the other, “we’re going to find a way to meet the needs of the people we serve.” 

For more on Black families in Florida migrating to school choice options, see our 2021 special report with Black Minds Matter and the American Federation for Children.