Charter seeks to add pilot school for horticulture By BRENDA EGGERT BRADER bbrader@heartlandnewspapers The Lake Wales Charter Schools Bok Academy (middle school) has a more than 400-student waiting list. Some Bok students are asking for agriculture-related instruction. Solution — another school. Not quite that simple, but close, the just launched idea by the Lake Wales Charter School was announced at the LWCS retreat on Monday at the Lake Wales Senior High School. Clearly, it will take years to plan and institute, said LWCS Counsel Robin Gibson and Schools Superintendent Jesse Jackson as they shared the information. Plans for another method to alleviate the need for middle school student room, “is planned out, so the emphasis shifts” Gibson said. “Bok Academy has a waiting list of more than 400 students. Those kids want a middle school education that has become an issue.” Bok Tower (Gardens) is a “terrific education opportunity” for the science of horticulture and agriculture, right next door to the Lake Wales High School. “The Polk County School District owns the land beyond the high school girls’ softball field,” Gibson said. “The surrounding area there is a conservation and agricultural easement that protects Bok Tower Gardens and the endangered plant species at Bok. Now with the waiting list and a terrific program in horticulture and agriculture it doesn’t take too many large leaps to see where this takes us. We have no plans yet, no agreements, and the Polk County School District would have to be consulted, but we want to provide the pilot school for this program.” With the LWCS creating and designing a new school, it has the student body interest for the agricultural program supporting the local economy. With no property cost, the program would benefit the overall program. The LWCS Foundation foresees a two-year time line with one year planning the school by a task force made up of people from the current affected schools, Bok Tower, the Warner University and others. “This goal now would be to facilitate and expand career opportunities for students and be a feeder into the high school.” In other business, alternative education was discussed with a new plan hatched for the next school year explained by Eugene Kendrick, LWHS assistant principal academic enrichment and social development. Currently, the Care Center in Lake Wales has been helping with community service for suspended high school students. Beginning in the next school year, a new approach will involve teaching and working where suspended students in the program will work a half day in community service and on academics the other half. “The goal is not to send them home because they will get into more trouble,” Kendrick said. “These students have not been taught basic things at home,” Superintendent Jackson said. “Teachers expect correct behavior but behavioral problem students never learned correct behavior at home. You don’t want to just send them home, but you can create a situation and teach them correct behavior.” “I would like to see these kids win something,” Kendrick said. “These students need to achieve something.” In other business, with declining revenues for the school district, the board has decided it needs a developmental office and developmental specialist, with both self-supporting. “We need a person funded by resources as a self-supporting position,” said Brian Fisher, LWCS CFO. “It needs to be a grant writer taken to a whole new level.” Some other retreat highlights included creation of the 2013 goals and presentations: Accountability, Financial Outlook, Handbook Updates and Surveys via DIME Systems school ratings.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:48:48 +0000
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