Scott tours Marco Island Academy; school leaders push for funding

MARCO ISLAND, Fla.- Gov. Rick Scott honored teachers from Marco Island Academy on Friday as the charter high school desperately pushes for more funding.

Marco Island Academy is the only high school on the island and it’s not run by the Collier County School District, but by a nonprofit organization.

It was Patric Michel’s freshman year at Lely High School when he realized he might need to attend a smaller school.

“I could not focus on education,” said Michel. “It was just the social aspect and
I was all about that.”

So, Michel enrolled at Marco Island Academy.

“It was a smaller atmosphere and I could get one on one with the teachers.”

Now a senior, Michel has excelled. He’s already been accepted into six colleges. Principal Melissa Scott says he’s just one example of the dozens of exceptional students.

“They are the heart and soul of this campus,” said Scott.

Marco Island Academy is now an A rated school and Scott says students have top notch test scores and GPAs. She adds the school only receives about half the amount of money per student as traditional public schools because they don’t get a share of local property tax dollars.

“It’s absolutely not fair,” said Scott. “They deserve every single thing and resource that any student would have in the state.”

Resources, like permanent buildings. Right now, the students are being taught in modular units. Just a couple of weeks ago, birds ate several holes through the roof. That’s why founder Jane Watt, placed plastic owls around the campus to scare them off.

“If we can do what we’ve done with next to nothing, imagine what we can do
as we move forward if we got a little more funding,” said Watt.

It’s a message she passed on to Governor Rick Scott who toured the school and honored several teachers for their work. Administrators hope he and the legislature will take action. So does Michel, who’s now crediting the school with guiding him towards a very bright future.

“I plan to be a CEO of some great company and just be successful,” said Michel.

We asked Governor Scott if he was going to push for more funding for charter schools, although he said his budget is already in place, he does favor school choice.

A spokesperson for the Collier County School District says “Charter schools receive operational funding through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) formula based on the same per pupil funding as the District. The Florida Education Finance Program was enacted by the Florida Legislature as the method for funding public education on an equitable basis throughout Florida.”