Saturday, June 12, 2010

“Local Christian school evicted, must find new home” plus 1 more

“Local Christian school evicted, must find new home” plus 1 more

Local Christian school evicted, must find new home

Posted: 11 Jun 2010 12:52 PM PDT

By MICHELLE BEARDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2010

TAMPA - WANTED: New digs for Tampa Christian Community School.

Summer may be a time for school staff to take a little break, but not Melissa Walker.

As founder and principal of Tampa Christian Community School, she's on a mission with a pressing deadline.

"We need a new home by August," says Walker, who founded TCCS eight years ago. "We trust the Lord will provide. He always has so far."

A church in Lutz offered to give the school a temporary home for a year. But Walker says after two moves in eight years, it's time to find a permanent home and put down roots. That means finding a building with a minimum of 14 classrooms, plus office space and a large space for chapel and community meetings.

For 2009-2010, some 130 students from pre-K to 10th grade were enrolled in the school's hybrid program, which combines two days of homeschooling and three days of on-site group learning. When it opened in 2002, the school met in a space provided by Tampa Covenant Church; for the last five years, it has operated at Tampa First Church of the Nazarene.

The church informed Walker in January that TCCS, which was only paying operating costs and not rent, would have to move out at the end of the school year. In late May, students and teachers spent a day packing boxes and moving them to a storage unit.

"This is like being part of a family, a big family," says Alan Jones, associate pastor at First Baptist Church of New Tampa. His three children are students and his wife is a teacher at the school. Like Walker, he's confident they'll find another site within two months.

Apparently, so are other parents. So far, some 70 students are enrolled for the upcoming school year.

Two of Michele's Seidel's kids attend TCCS, and a third will begin in the fall. Seidel, a Navy veteran with an electrical engineering degree, used to teach astronauts and mission control staff with the international space program. She retired when she and her husband started their family.

Public school wasn't an option. The couple wanted smaller classes and an atmosphere that stressed Christian values and strong morals. When she learned about TCCS, which is accredited by Christian Schools International and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, she knew it was the right place for their children.

What she likes best about the school is its dual approach to learning, in splitting homeschooling and group classes. TCCS is just one of five schools in the state that use this system, and the only one in the Tampa Bay area.

"Any time you get parents involved in education, it's going to be good for the kids," she says. "But I know I couldn't do this completely on my own. I like having the kids come to the school three days a week. It's good for them academically and socially."

In December, Walker pursued Seidel to come out of retirement to teach science and math to middle-school-age students.

Compared to her previous profession, "It's a different kind of challenge," she says. "But that's another reason this school is special. We can tailor the program to meet the needs of each individual. You don't have that flexibility in the public school system."

Because the school doesn't have its own building with a mortgage, tuition is relatively low. The cost ranges from $2,000 a year for pre-K to $2,900 for high school students.

To keep tuition costs affordable, Walker says taking on a mortgage is not an option at this point. A group of TCCS supporters found a former day-care center with a 13,000-square foot building on six acres near Sickles High School that is now owned by a bank. Appraised at $2.4 million, the price is out of reach.

"It's got everything we need, plus a perfect location," she says. "But we're going to need to negotiate a better deal and then find benefactors to make it possible."

Because the school only needs the building on a part-time basis, Walker envisions making it available to other programs that need affordable space: Christian counseling, karate classes, small group meetings and seasonal events. She would even be willing to share space and expenses with a start-up church that couldn't afford its own building.

Last year, the students adopted the American eagle as the school mascot. Walker thinks that was a symbolic choice, given the circumstances.

"Right now, the TCC Eagles may be nestless, but don't count us out," she says. "We know that eagles soar high and they have the wind beneath their wings. They're strong and they can soar. And that's what we're counting on to get us through this uncertain time."

Staff and parents share what makes their school special in Michelle Bearden's "Keeping the Faith" segment Sunday at 9 a.m. on WFLA-TV. For more information on the school and how to help, go to tampacss.org. Michelle Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613.

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Jessica had to find her own way

Posted: 11 Jun 2010 02:44 PM PDT

For Jessica Kennedy, the youngest of four sisters, there was the added pressure of success.

Then there was the shock that came with going to a bigger, new school.

Somewhere between changing environments both at school and at home, she learned the hard way that she wasn't like all the other kids.

"I just kind of stopped going to school," she said about her 9th grade year. She added that she became increasingly anxious being around hundreds of students and lost focus on homework and studying for tests.

Her parents, John and Vicki Kennedy, were confused about their daughter's sudden resistance to school. They weren't sure what to do. With moving across town and a death in the family, they thought she just needed time.

"They understood where I was coming from. They hoped that I would wake up and change my mind," she said.

But she didn't change her mind.

Her parents ended up giving in and Jessica Kennedy stayed home — a decision Vicki Kennedy later regretted.

"It was frustrating as a mom, you see your kids going off to high school. This has been a different road," Vicki Kennedy said.

At the end of her 9th grade year and while the rest of her peers prepared to take the next step of their high school careers, Jessica Kennedy began to see problems arise from time spent away from the classroom. She had failed most of her classes and wasn't on track to graduate.

"I kind of screwed up my whole high school career," she said. "I gave up on myself and gave up on school."

Jessica Kennedy said she began losing hope that she'd graduate at all, let alone on time. She tried completing courses through the Central Kitsap School District's Off Campus program, similar to homeschooling, but she still couldn't find her focus and she wasn't able to catch up.

"It was looking pretty bleak there for awhile," Vicki Kennedy said.

Then, she found New Frontiers, a 7th through 9th grade alternative school in the district with small classrooms and few students — just what she was looking for.

"There was a lot of people that were just concerned for me," she said of the teachers and advisers at New Frontiers.

After completing enough credits to move on, Jessica Kennedy attended Eastside Alternative High School, her soon-to-be alma mater.

The perception that alternative schools were for the bad kids, the ones who made poor decisions, didn't bother Jessica Kennedy. She said Eastside was the only place she felt comfortable learning and had the one-on-one support she needed.

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