From left to right, Mario Vazquez, AVA tech, Nicole Rivera, Joselyn Figueroa, and Lori Silloway, staff at Ocala Preparatory Academy, all have family in Puerto Rico. Credit: Ocala Preparatory Academy

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, Joselyn Figueroa was beside herself.

A student aide at Ocala Preparatory Academy, a private school that serves 50 students in Marion County, Fla., Figueroa did not hear from her parents for five days.

She could only wait, listening to news reports, stunned that a historic Category 4, near-Category 5 hurricane wrought havoc on the island she called home for many years.

She described the phone call that she finally received, after days of waiting, as “beautiful.”

“I needed to hear their voice to tell me, they are OK,” she said.

Her mother and father were safe but shaken by the storm. They lost their home. They now struggle to find food, water and medicine. Figueroa’s mother had a kidney transplant and needs to get her monthly medication. They live in the small agricultural town of Yauco. It was founded in 1756 and dubbed “Coffee City." It was once known as the global capital for the caffeinated crop. They don't know how it will rebuild.

“It is so frustrating for me,” Figueroa said. “I hear my mom tell me, 'Everything is destroyed around here.'”

She found support from the school where she works. It's home to several members of Florida's growing Puerto Rican diaspora. Its students and staff have witnessed the island's mounting humanitarian crisis from afar. And now, they are looking for ways to help. (more…)

Students at Ocala Preparatory Academy read Farenheit 451 while outside.

Even with a Gardiner Scholarship in hand, Karen Vega grew increasingly worried as she was unable to find a school for her three young boys who have high functioning autism in Ocala, Fla., a small city in North Central Florida.

Although she looked, no school provided a good fit. One even refused to enroll students with the state scholarship for students with special needs. (Step Up For Students, the publisher of this blog, helps administer that scholarship.)

“We were trying to find a school that did not exist,” said Vega.

But when she couldn’t find the right school, Vega teamed up with another mom, AnnMarie Sossong, to create one.

Vega serves as the executive director of the Outreach Autism Services Network, a nonprofit providing support services to parents and students with autism. She had long dreamed of starting a school. Sossong, a 27-year education veteran and mom of an autistic child herself, shared the same dream.

The two moms' vision for a school aligned, and in August 2016, they founded Ocala Preparatory Academy.

“Serving students” (more…)