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Wimauma Academy Embarks on Expansion Program
By Melody Jameson melody@observernews.net
May 1, 2008 - 8:26:29 PM

Melody Jameson Photo With Luis Fernando Garcia (foreground left) on the tinkling triangle, and Jordan Ortiz providing a soft rhythm on the bongos, Wimauma Academy second graders practiced a South American lullaby this week in preparation for a musical Mother’s Day tribute May 9 at the school. Dressed in their school uniform - red shirts over navy blue pants or skirts - the youngsters’ current rehearsal hall is the central deck linking their nine portable classrooms on their campus adjacent to the Beth El Mission on U.S. 301 south. A successful capital campaign will give them a designated music classroom for the first time.

WIMAUMA - When a small group of Mennonites resolved in the mid-1960s to help migrant youngsters in the farm fields of South Florida, it’s not likely they imagined the long range results.

That in less than a half century, their efforts would blossom into a non-profit, non-denominational organization with a statewide presence serving needs of some 8,000 at-risk children through two charter schools and 70 learning centers.

Or, that very early in the next century, that organization’s small, elementary grade level academy in an unincorporated corner of Hillsborough County would produce an artist whose work is coveted by collectors, would send graduates on to study in the performing arts, would prepare some to enter college, would be rated “Grade A” by the county school district.

This, though, is the history of the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA) and its Wimauma Academy, in a nutshell.  And, from the vantage point of  RCMA leaders, it’s only the beginning. 

On Earth Day, RCMA formally launched a $1.6 million capital campaign to underwrite expansion of the academy, a Hillsborough County District charter school, to include three more grade levels, creating an elementary and middle school.  The first contributions came from diverse sources - $125,000 from Jay Taylor, partner in the Palmetto tomato packing operation, Taylor and Fulton, $50,000 from the Community Foundation of Greater Sun City Center, $35,000 from the inaugural committee of Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a former RCMA board member.

It is hoped the campaign will allow groundbreaking in time for the 2009-2010 school year of a 9,300-square-foot “green” permanent structure on the academy campus adjacent to the Beth El Presbyterian Mission on U.S. 301, a short distance south of the S.R. 674 intersection, Mark Haggett, academy director, said this week.

Established in 2000, the RCMA Wimauma Academy’s student population currently is 175 youngsters in 10 classes, pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, Haggett said.  About a third of the students migrate with their farmworker families.  Those classes are housed at this time in nine refurbished portable classrooms on the campus.
The expansion will allow addition of sixth through eighth grades and will provide seven new classrooms, Haggett said.  The expansion also will allow for a cafeteria and for a media center, he added.   The student body is expected to increase to a total of 255.  

The academy curriculum includes classes in reading, math, science, social studies, health, physical education and music, the director noted, taught by a faculty of 13.   In addition, in keeping with the academy objective of giving students a wide variety of cultural and educational experiences, he said,   students are entitled to an “elective” class of their choice once a week.   These choices have ranged from cooking – the last time they prepared brownies, to tennis – taught by Haggett, a dedicated tennis player, to computer animation. “They want to play softball,” the director noted, “so, we’re looking for a real field layout we can borrow.” 

 Both music and art also are part of the academic schedule. An arts and crafts class always is a big draw, Haggett said, and a keyboard class providing basic instruction in piano keyboarding is a popular feature.   Art instruction covers the whole range of mediums - from oils on canvas to sculpture in different materials.  In fact, not long ago a fifth grader sold a sculpture created with recycled materials to an admiring attorney in Tampa, Haggett said. “He’s a very talented youngster.”

 Such talent, though, is not the academy exception, the director asserted. At least half of the graduating fifth graders this year probably will go on to the closest magnet middle school in Progress Village where the focus is on the performing arts.  They will take with them a foundation built at the academy where they have practiced and presented numerous programs over the years celebrating holidays and special occasions.  But, it will not necessarily be easy for the new middle school students. “Some of them will take two buses to get there,” Haggett noted, in order to make use of an opportunity important to them.   

Melody Jameson Photo

The Wimauma Academy also has participated in an exchange arrangement with the Montessori Preparatory School in Temple Terrace, the director added.  Students from each facility have visited the other, each soaking up new knowledge from the other in the cultural exchange experience. 

Then, there are the field trips, each designed to open young minds to new possibilities.  One of the recent treks was to hear the Florida Orchestra in concert, Haggett recalled.

Wimauma Academy, while a charter school whose mission is to provide an educational foundation, offer exposure to life outside the small agriculturally-based community and give opportunity to explore other cultures to children of rural working poor, it also is a public school open to any student.  And there are youngsters in the student body who are there to take advantage of a situation not necessarily existing in other public elementary schools, Haggett summed up. 

“Our classes are small with everyone knowing everyone else,” the director pointed out, which means that students get individual attention and usually know their new teacher before they arrive in his or her classes. Plus, the faculty is multi-cultural and bi-lingual – Caucasian, African-American, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban.  In such an environment, a youngster initially speaking only one language, often quickly picks a second, leading to a bi-lingual student body able to learn about cultures beyond his or her own.

None of that was envisioned 40 odd years ago in the Redlands farming area  of Dade County.   Taylor, however, recognized it in presenting his family’s donation to the capital campaign.  “RCMA makes a great difference in the education of farmworker children,” he noted, “and these are our future leaders.”

©2008 Melody Jameson



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