New School For Brooksville Dropouts

A potential new charter school in Hernando County is making big waves.
At Tuesday's school board meeting, Superintendent Wayne Alexander informed board members of the first charter school application submitted to the district in years: Hernando County Mavericks High D. Wade's Schools, or "Mavericks High," for short.
Named for the famed Miami Heat basketball player, Dwayne Wade, the school would serve as many as 550 local students, ages 15 to 21, who have either dropped out of school or are at risk of dropping out. With a particular focus on reaching students in Brooksville, the likely site for the school is inside the former Brooksville Regional Hospital building on Ponce De Leon Boulevard.
Mark Thimmig, a spokesperson for the company, Ft. Lauderdale-based Mavericks In Education, said the school would save the district "millions of dollars" by leasing an existing building. The company would use allocated funds from the district's budget to lease and manage the school, as is protocol with charter schools.
As a public school, the alternative school could glean as much as $3.3 million dollars in per-student state funding from the school district's budget, finance director Deborah Bruggink said.
However, it could also generate more funding by drawing students back into the system who have dropped out, she said.
Four local officials are on the local governing board representing the company in talks with the district: County Commissioner Diane Rowden; Hillsborough Community College coordinator Linda Prescott, who ran against school board member Pat Fagan four years ago; Bishop Herman Shriven, a teacher at Hernando High School; and Pat Colbert, a former guidance counselor at Hernando High.
Rowden - who is running for re-election - referred a request for comment to Thimmig, who said all of the governing board members volunteered for the board because they "have a passion for education."
"They saw that there was a population of students that are not fitting into the traditional school system and are not able to be successful. They saw students who need job skills and need to make a living," Thimmig said.
According to the application, the school's students would either find their own transportation to school or take public transportation, instead of using school busses.
But there's one problem: While the application was submitted to the district's charter committee July 16, school board members were not informed until Tuesday night. Since officials typically are given only a 60-day window to review the plans, longtime board member Jim Malcolm voiced concern about not having ample time to review the school's application. At more than 500 pages, it is not a quick read.
"I am being left out of the loop, and I have a problem with that," Malcolm said.
But curriculum specialist Dave Schoelles, spokesperson for the charter review committee, explained that a committee is put together to review any application when it is received. The committee will make a recommendation to Alexander, who will make a recommendation when the project comes before the board at a workshop on Sept. 2.
"We've agreed to a slight extension of 63 days," he said. "We didn't want to rush it past the board, and (board members) would have received the documents next Monday or Tuesday for the workshop."
The final vote on the project is set for the regular board meeting on Sept. 16.
The district's charter review committee is slated to meet with governing board members this afternoon to ask for clarification of issues addressed in their application. Schoelles said Wednesday that he was not prepared to discuss the committee's specific questions.
Thimmig said Wade has not donated money for the project, but instead is working with the company as a role model for the school's students. The name "maverick" serves the same purpose, he said.
"What we're saying, with the name of the school, is that we don't think kids are the problem (if) they have a problem," Thimmig said. "Instead of being losers, they can be winners. They just may be mavericks, or unique people."
The company plans to open other Mavericks High D. Wade schools throughout the state, and has put in applications in seven other counties. However, Hernando would be the first one, he said.
A charter school is a public school that operates independently of a district but follows certain state regulations. Charter schools receive per-student funding from the state the same way districts do, and are also eligible for capital outlay funds. Officials may also apply for grants to help with programming.
Currently, Hernando County has one charter school: Gulf Coast Academy of Science and Technology. However, the school district is currently tied with other districts in a legal battle with the state to gain exclusive control over charter schools, with no resolution in sight - a fact mentioned by Malcolm.
Others expressed various other doubts, including the potential loss of district teaching positions.
"Any time we bring programs into the district, we need to make sure they're not cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all, but rather something that's unique and specifically for Hernando," Hernando Classroom Teachers' Association union president Joe Vitalo said. "A lot of times, programs or schools might look good at the beginning, but we have to look at the financial cost and see how we can endure the loss of general revenue."