BRADENTON -- A local organization entrenched in Manatee County has stepped closer to providing the area with its first all-girls charter school.
Just for Girls has received two nods of approval to establish a charter school.
The committee responsible for sifting through applications recommended approval, confirmed Verdya Bradley, associate director of innovative programs and parental options. School Superintendent Tim McGonegal also recommended approval. One more approval is needed from the Manatee County School Board.
“They really do a good job,” McGonegal said, praising the organization’s reputation with girls in the community. “We were very impressed with the application.”
Becky Canesse, chief executive officer of Just for Girls, learned the good news of the recommendations through a letter from the school district.
“We are so excited,” Canesse said. “The real work is just about to begin.”
Canesse said she and her team will have to hire good staff to make their educational plan a reality.
On Sept. 12, school board members are expected to vote on McGonegal’s recommendation. Originally, Just for Girls filed for a charter along with two other applicants -- Florida Digital Academy and Pembridge Prep Inc. Charter School. But both of those schools have withdrawn their applications, Bradley said. Florida Digital Academy has not returned numerous phone calls to the Herald, and representatives from Pembridge Prep Inc. could not be reached Friday.
If approved, Just for Girls Academy would be a kindergarten through fifth-grade school that would offer a specialized equine-assisted learning program to help children deal with issues that could be troubling them at home.
From there, Canesse said, it’s the goal of the program to “help the girls to become stronger in their leadership skills.”
Just for Girls Academy would be a single-gender school built on the foundation that girls and boys learn differently and that their brains develop differently. Representatives of The National Association for Single-Sex Public Education agree. The association believes an educator trained for same-gender classrooms is better-equipped to teach children according to their individual needs.
The association’s website cites a Stetson University study that followed Volusia County’s Woodward Avenue Elementary School’s same-gender classes.
According to the study, girls and boys enrolled in same-gender classes scored significantly higher on the FCAT than their peers in traditional classes. About 37 percent of the boys and 59 percent of the girls in traditional classes scored at or above grade level.
In comparison, 75 percent of the girls and 86 percent of the boys scored at or above grade level in the same-gender classes, the university study says.
Just for Girls officials hope to open the school for the 2012-2013 school year initially serving kindergarten-third grades. It would start off with about 144 girls, according to the application. It will later build to a student population of more than 200 and serve kindergarten-seventh grade in its fifth year.
