BY MICHAEL BUTLER
NNB Student Reporter
Remedy Harris, 12, says Academy Prep helped “make my brain get bigger as I got smarter.”
ST. PETERSBURG – Even in the Internet age, most schools are still made up of brick and mortar, books and pencils, classrooms and playgrounds.
Academy Prep Center of St. Petersburg is not that different.
But it is also made from donations, volunteers and the dedication of mostly single-parent households. And students like a boy named Remedy Harris.
Instantly engaging beyond his age, Remedy, a 12-year-old fifth-grader at Academy Prep, is excited about the opening of a new STEM lab on the campus. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, and Remedy’s favorite subject is science.
Whenever he talks about robotics, he breaks into a timid smile.
“I was in robotics last week and we built a robot that was like a submarine and a boat,” said Remedy. It went underwater and would go right back up like a boat. We tested them out at the YMCA and we had a race with everybody else. Our team was best, but we came in third place.”
That kind of positivity and optimism can be hard to come by outside the boundaries of this campus, which serves youngsters in grades five through eight.
The school is at 2301 22nd Ave. S in the Midtown area, where less than 50 percent of the adult residents have a high school diploma and a private school education is out of reach for most families.
Jocelyn Lister, Academy Prep’s development manager, says the average cost per student is about $16,000 per year, including meals, computers and once-a-month field trips.
Jeff and Joan Fortune, who had sold their TradeWinds Islands Resort on St. Pete Beach, founded Academy Prep in 1998 with the help of retired educators Bob and Barbara Anders, who shared the Fortunes’ vision for a school for students in at-risk neighborhoods.
The school is supported entirely by donations from corporations and private individuals who believe in the mission. It was designed for students whose families live below the poverty line.
“We are looking to break the cycle of generational poverty” in the predominantly black neighborhoods around the school, said Lister.
Students attend classes six day a week, 11 hours a day, 11 months of the year.
Parents and families must commit to volunteer service to the school for up to 40 hours each year. They get credit for attending evening workshops on subjects like home ownership, managing finances and raising strong, confident girls.
At first, only boys attended, but a girls’ class followed in 2000. Most classes are still taught by gender. “It just helps the students to focus and there weren’t so many distractions,” said Lister.
The program is modeled on three pillars: a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, enriching extracurricular activities such as karate or chess, and ongoing support during the eight years – both high school and college — following graduation from eighth grade.
“If one of our students gets accepted to a school in Boston, we make sure that student has a winter coat to wear in Boston,” said Lister.
The classes are small, with a maximum of 15 students per class in core academic subjects. Each student gets the use of a Chromebook computer donated by Tech Data Corp. Each classroom has a Smart Board, a large, interactive multi-media touch screen capable of displaying videos, homework or demonstrations, also donated by Tech Data.
“All of our teachers at the beginning of the school year give their personal cellphone number out to our students, and the students are allowed to call them until 9 o’clock at night, every night, for homework help,” said Lister.
On a recent afternoon, the students were wearing uniforms sporting the school colors of blue and green. Their green fleece pullovers bore the school insignia of an oak tree positioned in front of a rising sun, creating a small star of light piercing the branches.
The school has a current enrollment of 94 students. Between classes they mindfully navigate the walkways, often stopping to introduce themselves, looking visitors squarely in the eyes and shaking hands.
Integrity and character building make up a large part of the day at the school. Each day begins with the students greeting faculty with a handshake and reciting the school pledge:
“Standing in this room
Are the greatest,
Most committed,
Most responsible people
This world has ever known.
If it is to be,
It is up to me.
Yes, I can!
Yes, I will!
Yes, we can!
Yes, we will!
I am,
We are
The greatest! The greatest!
The greatest!”
The students don’t seem to mind the longer hours here. Remedy remembers his days before Academy Prep.
“Here we learn a lot more than the other school I went to. And so it gave me a better opportunity to make my brain get bigger as I got smarter.”
A siren screams outside.
“When I grow up, I want to be an engineer, then a firefighter, because I like to build robots and other different types of stuff. So when I’m a firefighter, as I get older I’m going to use my inventions to help out,” said Remedy.
Without the education provided by the school, he might have had significantly fewer options.
According to school data, less than half of the adults in this community have a high school diploma. Figures cited by tampabay.com put the high school graduation rate for black students in Pinellas County in 2013 at about 54 percent. For white students that figure was closer to 77 percent.
“For the last seven years, 100 percent of our kids have graduated on time from high school,” said Lister.
One hundred percent provides many more options, like science, engineering or firefighting, for a boy like Remedy.
Information from the Tampa Bay Times was used in this report.