Florida School Boards Association
Together, those parents cobbled together about 200 students, earning the faith of locals wanting to keep their kids closer to home. “We had no academic record at that point, and the finances were like hand-to-mouth,” said George Abounader, the school’s current and founding principal. Today, about 450 students attend the school, one of Florida’s best.…
Welcome to Florida’s new era of charter schools. It’s brought to you by some of the same folks who inflicted on Florida a scandal-ridden voucher system and initiated the mania for high-stakes testing that has done so much damage. One of the architects of this new era is Jim Horne, chairman of the Florida Charter…
NAPLES, Fla. — On the verge of seeing his charter school shut down because of academic failures, Archbishop Clarence Davis resorted to bargaining. In three out of four years, Davis’ Imagine Charter School in St. Petersburg received an “F” grade for academic performance from the state, results so poor they warranted closing the school. With…
NAPLES, Fla. — At the end of his tour of Cambridge Christian School, a private academy in northwest Tampa, first-grader Giovanni Scanio had a question. “How long will the school be open?” Giovanni asked, according to his mother, Lisa. Giovanni wanted to know because a few weeks earlier, in July 2012, the charter school he…