American Classical Charter Academy (ACCA) opened in August of 2019 in Osceola County. The mission of ACCA is to create a culture of virtue and knowledge. We want our students to become bright young adults, future leaders of their community. The focus at ACCA is to develop critical thinking skills though a classical curriculum model. This is contrary to the current public school progressive education system of teaching to the test. ACCA quickly became a school loved by its students their parents teachers and staff.
During our first year of state testing (2020-2021), while under management by Charter One, ACCA scored 1-percentage point above an “F”. The state testing system measures achievement, learning gains, graduation rates, and acceleration success. After ACCA’s board fired Charter One and took over management of the school, ACCA experienced a dramatic improvement moving to 1-percentage point away from an “A”. ACCA’s increase in academic achievement was the 3rd highest in the State of Florida. ACCA scored more points in every category of the Florida State Assessment (FSA) than the Osceola County School District making it one of the top schools in the county.
Even with the stellar academic performance, the Osceola County School Board decided to terminate the charter contract of ACCA and refused funding to the school – literally one week prior from the start of school. The closing was based on erroneous information that can essentially be used to close the majority of other charter schools in the district, if not the state. The school district is experiencing the same issues that they used as reasons to close ACCA. During the school board meeting on August 2nd a board member said, “If we were to hold all district schools to the same standards used to close ACCA all of our schools would be closed as well.”
ACCA wants to thank all of the teachers, administrators and scholars for a fantastic 2021-2022 school year, and parents for trusting us with their children. We are going to appeal the decision and believe that we shall prevail.
ACCA Managing Partner/Board Member: Mark Gotz
The children and parents were left scrambling to find other schools. the children were scared and some traumatized by the news. Parents had already bought the school uniforms and school supplies. It is a great school. The kindergarten kids knew the preamble to the constitution, how many other school have taught that. It was wrong and we hope and pray things will turn around and they will get to open. Maybe Mark can look into opening it as a private school.
Which board member is quoted as saying, “If we were to hold all district schools to the same standards used to close ACCA all of our schools would be closed as well.”
This is important to know. Voters can appreciate his transparency.