EDUCATION
STEMCivics expands after state renews charter school license
Building a successful charter school may look good on paper but the proof remains in the classroom.
Education parallels professional sports and Broadway shows: if schools are not filling the seats then expect mediocrity and a short run.
STEMCivics, a charter school that started as an idea for Founder and President Leigh Byron, bears fruit as the Ewing-based learning institution plans for pomp and circumstance for its first graduating class.
Approximately 100 students will walk in June as STEMCivics celebrates a positive four-year run since opening its doors in September 2014. STEMCivics recently enjoyed another milestone as state officials renewed the school’s charter which allows expansion.
“We were renewed for five years and approved to increase the high school enrollment by 50% (from 400 to 600) over four years. We will accomplish that by increasing each incoming ninth grade from 100 to 150 students. Currently, each grade has 100 students,” Byron explained.
STEMCivics enjoys success with other city charter schools including Paul Robeson, Foundation Academies and Village Charter. However, education initiatives are not always paved with victory.
International Academy of Trenton Charter School on Perry St. and housed in the old Trenton Times building, will close over poor student performance and classroom chaos. IAT opened in September 2017, promising to deliver “top-quality education to a highly diverse student body.”
STEMCivics, International Academy of Trenton and Great Futures Charter High School received approval in 2014 to open charters. STEMCivics remains vibrant while the other two charters will close.
“There were 38 applications that year when we applied,” Byron recalled. “Our formula continues: build bonds with students. Let them know that we care about them. The kids grow to like us and respect us for the right reasons, want to be with us more, so they come to school, then they learn more, and then they graduate. It’s elementary,” Byron explained. STEMCivics provides the bells and whistles that serve as attractions for attendance. Whether it’s robotics, music, or an interactive classroom with Liberty Science Center, this charter school gets students in their seats.
The LSC curriculum includes cameras and microphones that allow students to see, hear and interact with an entire surgical team. For two hours, students are immersed in a one-of-a-kind learning experience that enhances their knowledge and understanding of anatomy and physiology, lifestyle choices that affect health, the diversity of careers in the medical field, and research and technological advances in health and medicine.
Students make monthly trips to the Liberty Science Center and enjoy equestrian, crew, fencing, circus school, athletics, extensive engineering, Latin, etc.
STEMCivics, located at Incarnation-St. James Campus on Pennington Rd. in Ewing, allows a hands-on experience that escapes the confines of typical classroom parameters. Plus, upper class members can participate in The PURPLEfect Empire civic engagement program which requires participation in local, national and international events.
STEMCivics students have delivered community enhancement efforts in Haiti, Jamaica and completed a mission to Puerto Rico this week. Byron and school officials have turned the world into a giant classroom as many students for the first time experience travel outside the United States.
Four years of success allows for expansion with the opening of two new schools for grades 6 and 7 in September 2018. The education initiative grows to grades 6,7, and 8 in September 2019. Each grade will hold 75 students.
The middle schools are PURPLEfect Parc — 720 Bellevue Avenue, and PURPLEfect Place — 31 North Chancery Lane.
Byron believes STEMCivics teaches students to engage in community, celebrate diversity and enjoy the opportunities of education.
“STEM subjects promote, develop and enhance problem-solving and thinking skills, and that’s what we want our students to do. We want them to be thinkers and doers,” Byron said.
STEMCivics works because faculty, administration, students and parents have bought into Byron’s Barnum & Bailey-like Big Top education extravaganza.
Education needs excitement, a galvanized faculty inspired by resources and administrators who trust them with learning leniency. Education may be about books but not always by the book or box. Administrators should allow for some pushing of envelopes.
And, education, requires cheerleaders like Byron who believes his students represent the best learners in the world.
Byron, on any given weekday, will send emails about another incredible activity STEMCivics students have engaged.
The communications arrive around 4 a.m. as Byron, part showman, educator and hawker, delivers positive news about “the best kids ever” building a Purplefect Empire.