Endless Possibilities in Education
The Humanities and Fine Arts Charter School is a first in Lake County
Written by Blair Townley
A groundbreaking step in the field of education will be taking place in Leesburg with the opening of the first charter school with interest in humanities and fine arts.
Humanities and Fine Arts Charter School will open on August 23 with registration open to the public starting March 1st.
The charter school is a first in its field as there are no other recorded schools in Lake County, much less in Florida, that combines academics with humanities and fine arts.
“We say here (in our brochures) that we will have the same standards (of academics as public schools) plus the state’s benchmarks of humanities, music, art, theater and dance from the Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and Benchmarks,” says Dr. Shelia Smalley, the school’s founder.
The school will be able to accommodate 162 students in three different classes for Grades K through 2, adding grade levels each year up to fifth grade for the start of the 2013 school year.
Inside the School
Students will wear uniforms and have an extended school day, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., filled with classes on core school subjects as well as an hour of humanities or fine arts and a 90-minute reading block. There will also be 30 minutes of physical exercise and nutritional meals to keep the children active and healthy.
One requirement of students is to have a major picked while at the school, chosen from the curriculums of music, art, drama, dance or oration. The major can be changed throughout the student’s years at the school.
The major will be determined through an aptitude test the student takes as well as agreement from their teachers and parents on what major would work best with their skills.
“I want kids to have the notion that they’re going to college or vocational school and they’re going to have a career,” Dr. Smalley says.
“The beauty of this school is I will staff the major with volunteers from the community of Lake County. I will be asking violinists to come and teach violin. I will be asking people who write plays to work with the kids. On Wednesdays, they will have 50 minutes to work with a person in their declared major.”
Their academics will also play a part in the shaping of their major as students will learn facts and formulas in subject classes and then use what they learned in their humanities and fine arts classes.
“In this instance, their major will be directly linked to what they learn in the classroom. If the kids are learning about fractions in the classroom and then go to a one-hour humanities or fine arts class, the art will be fractions. The music will be in beats, pulling that fraction in. When they are dance class, it will be two steps this way or that,” Dr. Smalley states.
“All of it will be tied and repetitive where instead of it just coming from the textbook, the teacher will teach the lesson and whatever the theme was in the classroom, it will go right into their humanities and fine arts class.”
Involvement from Home and Community
Parents will also be brought into the education of their children with their attendance in parent-leadership training, a program that teaches strategies to make a stronger learning environment at home.
Dr. Smalley will teach the training herself and bases the five two-hour classes on research results from a previous class taught in Orlando.
“What the class did was turn the parents and community around,” says Dr. Smalley, who has also published several articles of research on parental involvement.
“Parents that were disengaged, who didn’t like school themselves, who had difficulties themselves were asking to become the PTA president or be in charge of something. We saw that the class empowered them and they started seeing school as a good place where people work together.”
Parents can also take part in a new program for the school called the P3 Parent Partnership Program which encourages parents to volunteer for a certain number of hours at the school.
As for the community, Dr. Smalley hopes the area will embrace the school by offering their volunteer and financial support.
“I believe in the idea that it takes a village, parents and community, to educate a child and this would be a real village mentality. We are responsible for the children that will come forth to take our positions and what we put into this is what we will get out.”
A Woman with a Dream
Wanting to start a school of her own had been a dream of Dr. Smalley’s since the age of 16, fostered by the example created at her alma mater, Bethune-Cookman University, and founder Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.
“She said ‘one day I will have a school of my own.’ She then went on to create Bethune-Cookman College and I said to fellow freshmen that one day I would have a school of my own for all children,” Dr. Smalley recalls.
With a bachelor’s degree from B-CC in Psychology, a master’s degree from the University of Florida in Early Childhood/Elementary Education and doctoral degree from UF in Special Education, Dr. Smalley embarked on a 30-year career in education.
She was even given a principalship after getting one school’s test scores up after one year as their assistant principal and retired in 2002 as an associate professor for Exceptional Student Education at UCF.
Yet the dream to open her own school was still alive and 40 years after deciding to pursue the dream, Dr. Smalley will see the Humanities and Fine Arts Charter School become a reality.
Though who will benefit most from the school will be the students, as they form friendships, explore their creativity and embrace a higher level of thinking.
“We need to build the children of tomorrow and we owe it to them to help them to become productive citizens and to maximize their potential to be critical thinkers and independent learners,” Dr. Smalley says.
For more information on the Humanities and Fine Arts Charter School, visit their Web site at www.humanitiesandfacs.com .
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