Kat Crowell-Grate was leading Sunday school classes in her hometown of Ocala, Fla., when she discovered many of her students couldn’t read. So the retired accountant started a tutoring program.
That led to a substitute teaching job where she caught the eye of a local principal, who told her, “You missed your calling.’’
The principal spoke too soon. Nearly a decade later, the ordained minister runs Kingdom Christian Academy, an inner-city private school for 33 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Most can’t afford to pay anything, and almost all have some sort of learning disability or behavioral disorder.
“It is so easy to accept the child with the perfect pony tails and the boy with a clean haircut,’’ said Crowell-Grate, who has a grandson with special needs. “But it takes a real teacher to reach down and pull the uncut diamond in the rough and polish that diamond.’’
That means reminding her students every day to tuck in their uniform shirts, offering to tutor them on Sundays after church, or helping their moms and dads get high school diplomas. “We educate the entire family, making them more self-sufficient,’’ Crowell-Grate said.
Across the country, school choice has become the mantra of students and parents in search of a better way to learn. But customization offers plenty of opportunities for educators, too. More options bring freedom from a one-size-fits-all mentality that dictates curriculum and schedules, and even which students to serve.
To Crowell-Grate, that’s what school choice is all about: Finding the kids who need the most help and doing what needs to be done.
During a recent visit, “Mrs. C,’’ as her students call her, sat outside the tiny concrete-block school, where filing cabinets separate classrooms and the kitchen is a make-shift shed out back. Wearing her red school polo shirt with a strand of pearls, her hair pulled back in an elegant up-do, Crowell-Grate talked about how she got started.
One of 12 children, she was born 59 years ago to an Army dad and a mom who is an ordained bishop with a city street named for her. Crowell-Grate remembers vividly what it was like growing up in the segregated South, when black families like hers didn’t have choices.
When it came time to integrate Marion’s white public schools, Crowell-Grate was sent to a two-story red-brick building surrounded by Victorian homes. The neighborhood kids threw rocks at the smart little girl from the other side of the tracks and ripped her books. Some called her the N-word.
The memory still makes her eyes tear and her voice crack. But it instilled in the mother of four and grandmother of 12 a conviction that all children should be able to learn.
After starting the tutoring program, Crowell-Grate signed up as a substitute for the Marion County school district, then became a full-time teacher. A few years later, she got custody of her 9-month-old grandson, who was asthmatic, and took a leave of absence to care for him. When he was old enough to start school, she opened one in her home that catered to children with special needs.
“You cannot pick your students like they are fresh strawberries or bananas,’’ Crowell-Grate said. “You have to take the children you are given and give them the best of yourself.’’
At Kingdom Christian Academy, every student receives an individualized lesson plan that’s aligned with Common Core State Standards. There’s a special focus on STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – and the Bible.
“They need a higher power to give them a source of hope,’’ said Crowell-Grate, because that hope is what inspires them to do better.
Students also take up to two online classes through Florida Virtual School. Academic progress is measured by the Stanford 10, ACT, and Accelerated Christian Education Diagnostic Test, among others. Breaks are frequent – a must for the kids with hyperactivity and other behavioral issues. Strong perfumes and chemicals aren’t allowed to help the ones with allergies and respiratory issues.
Crowell-Grate reaches out to parents, too, especially young mothers. She offers an adult high school program to help them get their high school diplomas. That’s because she has walked in their shoes, married and pregnant as a senior in high school.
“It was hard,’’ said Crowell-Grate, who raised four children while attending night school for her business degree.
The academy relies on the McKay Scholarship for students with disabilities, and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for low-income students, to provide the bulk of the school’s operating budget (The latter is administered by Step Up For Students, a nonprofit that co-hosts this blog).
“As far as I’m concerned, we have a zero operating budget,’’ Crowell-Grate joked. Funding mostly goes to pay the school’s five teachers, including Melissa Jones, who has two children at the school.
“They love it here,’’ said the science teacher. “It’s a family atmosphere. Everybody is concerned about everybody’s well-being. You can ask for whatever you need. And I like the values.’’
Extras come from yard sales and the kindness of others. Recently, Crowell-Grate received the key to a 15,000-square-foot building – soon to be the new home of her little school. The building’s owner, Maria Tripodi, met with the principal and toured the school before deciding to let her move in free of charge.
“I saw the passion that she has for human beings and special needs children,’’ said Tripodi, whose grown daughter was born with a brain tumor and is severely disabled. “I went through a lot with my daughter. I didn’t have the help I needed. When you have someone like (Crowell-Grate), you appreciate her so much.’’
Now there will be plenty of room for more students who need her.
“People say miracles don’t happen,’’ the principal said as she stuffed the key in her pocket. “They’re lying!’’
