By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Family and school community members were on site to celebrate with Hillsborough County school officials and educators the dedication of Dorothy C. York Innovation Academy in Apollo Beach, which held its grand opening in August.
Among the hundreds of people in attendance April 15 at the PreK-8 school were two women who have a unique bond, as they both have schools named after a parent. York is named for the mother of Liz York-Cohen, a former school principal and district administrator in Virginia, and the school is headed by principal Catherine “Missy” Lennard, whose father is the namesake of Lennard High School in Ruskin.
Linda Chion Kenney photos
Liz York-Cohen, on stage with family and friends, holds the portrait of her mother, Dorothy C. York, namesake of York Innovation Academy.
“Both of us have parents who have schools named after them, and we both miss those parents very much,” Lennard said, about Earl Lennard, who died in 2019, and York, who died in 2012. “We’re so proud to be a part of that legacy that they have brought to our community.”
Earl Lennard, a lifelong member of Riverview United Methodist Church, entered the Hillsborough County public school system as a first-grader at Palm River Elementary and retired as its superintendent of schools in 2005. Born in 1942 to a large farming family, Lennard stayed true to his roots even as he rose through the ranks of the Hillsborough school system, including stints as a social studies teacher, ag teacher and supervisor of agricultural education. Under Lennard’s leadership tenure, Hillsborough grew from the 11th largest to the eighth-largest school district in the nation, which necessitated the addition and renovation of more than 90 schools.
Meanwhile, York, a talented writer and author, taught most of her career in Hillsborough, as an English teacher at Blake and Hillsborough high schools, at the University of South Florida’s Project Upward Bound and as an adjunct professor at Hillsborough Community College. The school board’s unanimous 7-0 vote Feb. 22 sealed the deal for York’s name to grace the 1,600-student, five-building complex, which sits on 15 acres in the Waterset master-planned community.
“This school is named after a wonderful woman who dedicated her life to students for more than 45 years,” said school board member, and former school principal, Henry “Shake” Washington, who said he knew of York as a student at Middleton High, and later, as a friend of his wife and as an active community member. “Miss York treated strangers like friends, and she treated friends like family,” Washington said. “She was a great, great woman, and I just know she’s looking down smiling now.”
Within her gaze would have been not only tributes from speakers but also performances from students, including the York seventh-grade band, presentation of colors from the East Bay High School JROTC, sixth-grader Kyler Jones singing the national anthem, student-body president Oliver Bush leading the Pledge of Allegiance, seventh-grader Ja’Siera Feliciano reciting a poem, seventh-grader Tamara Yasin singing “What a Wonderful World” and soloists Eli Radebaugh and Ma’at Scott performing with the fifth- sixth- and seventh-grade chorus. Seventh-grader Landen Syrus provided sound technician services. And in singing “The World Is Ours,” chorus members hammered home the point of learning, with the lyrics, “Dare what you dare to dream and everything in between.”
York Innovation Academy Principal Catherine “Missy” Lennard, with fifth-grader Kevin Bullard, who said his school is a place of knowledge and “a place where I can feel like myself.”
Prior to the ceremony’s being kicked off, principal Lennard, before a gathering of York family members, friends, AKA sorority sisters and more, including school board members Nadia Combs, Lynn Gray, Stacy Hahn, Patti Rendon and Washington, said she was excited to announce an annual $5,000 college scholarship for a York student headed to college. With enrollment by choice, the magnet school features an International Baccalaureate program and STEAM focus, which blends science, technology, engineering and mathematics with the arts. The school is for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 8.
“This is a very special school for us, and Dorothy was a very special person,” said Jonathan Graham, president of HORUS Construction Services, who with Scott Olthoff, president of CORE Construction, answered interview questions about the scholarship. “I know who Dorothy York is and what she’s meant to the community. Also, she’s an African-American leader, and because we buy into making sure there’s inclusion everywhere and in everything we do, we wanted to do this.”
York Innovation Academy Assistant Principal Dustin Robinson and his wife, Emily, pose with York staff members at the dedication ceremony. The school has a nautical theme, and its mascot is the Admirals.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, with the dedication officially declared by Hillsborough deputy superintendent Terry Connor, York’s friends and family members, including grandchildren and great grandchildren, gathered on stage to pose for pictures. Liz York-Cohen held her mother’s portrait.
In an earlier interview, York-Cohen spoke of her ongoing involvement with the school, calling the school “a very special place” where “great things happen.” The staff, she added, provides “a first-class education every day under the leadership of Missy Lennard.”
“I’m here all the time,” York-Cohen said. “I always have a seat at the table when things are happening at the school. That’s very important, to be able to come back and visit and interact with the kids, because it’s more than just my mother’s name on the building. It’s her story and her life.”
