High Achievers

Students at Seacrest Country Day School will drive up Leadership Lane this month and step onto new athletic fields and into new classrooms, and some will be members of the private school's first high school graduating class.

The new facilities are the beginning of a $40 million expansion as the campus grows from 10 to 40 acres and fulfills a goal set when it opened its doors a quarter of a century ago. "When the students return in August, our new campus will be open and ready for them," says head of school Lynne Powell. "We're completing our school's plan of 25 years ago by adding our high school division here."

Southwest Florida has relatively few independent schools, and they are thriving. Several have expansion projects in the works-and capital campaigns to raise millions of dollars-to accommodate increases in their student populations.

Florida Department of Education figures show that enrollment in private schools has grown nearly 12 percent from the 2000-2001 school year to 390,085 in 2004-2005. (A drop in 2005-2006 to 350,287 is attributed partly to a change in the reporting methodology.) Enrollment grew faster than in Florida's public schools, which rose about 8.5 percent in the same time period.

The proportion of public-private enrollment follows national trends: 88 percent of Florida's pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students attend public schools, and 12 percent are in private schools. Typically it's a 90-10 split, says Mark Elgart, CEO of the Atlanta-based Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI). With 10.7 percent, Lee County was among 20 of Florida's 67 school districts in 2005-2006 with 10 percent or more in private schools.

Locally, three private schools with expansion projects under way or in the pipeline have reported steady increases in enrollment. Waiting lists exist for some grades at the Canterbury School, which last year had 710 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grades, up from 695 in 2005 and 656 in 2004. By early June, with 700 students already registered and admissions still open, enrollment was expected to reach 725 or 730 by this month, says Chris Fusco, the school's director of development.

The independent college-preparatory school has been educating students since 1964 in Lee County. Annual tuition ranges from $11,880 to $16,495 based on grade level.

The road name at Seacrest, Leadership Lane, hints at why many parents choose private education for their children. It reflects the philosophy that "all our students should and will be leaders," Powell explains.

The choice comes down to culture, from faith-based institutions to independent schools with particular philosophies about education. "It's not so much a fleeing from the public schools as it is a conscious choice, because they can have a different environment that's more representative of their own values," Elgart says.

The scarcity of independent schools in Southwest Florida also has something to do with their success.

"There are 84 independent schools in the greater Washington, [D.C.] area. Here, there are basically three that are truly independent [high] schools," says Fusco, who worked at independent schools in the D.C. region and attended one in Cleveland. "There are other schools, but they have religious affiliations. We don't have a religious affiliation. Neither does Community School of Naples [or] Seacrest," he says. "Each one of the independent schools is serving its own community in a unique way."

Newcomers from the North are used to a "plethora of private schools," says Tom Huckins, executive director of Royal Palm Academy, a private Catholic school in Naples. "They come down here and the choices are pretty slim."

In addition, he says, "Parents are a lot more savvy about schools these days. They say, 'Which school is really going to take my child as an individual and help them succeed as a person?' That's really our hallmark," Huckins says. "What we do is personalized attention, and it's not to the student, but to the whole family."

Officials at Royal Palm, where tuition ranges from $4,970 to $10,610 annually, expect to have 295 pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students this fall. Last year's enrollment was 267. "We've experienced growth every year from our inception [nine years ago]," says Huckins.

The growing cost of housing, which some blame for slowing growth in public schools, particularly in Collier County, might benefit private schools, Huckins adds. "The families that are moving down, if they can afford to buy a house here, they can afford private education."

There is a direct relationship between people affording "nice, big, fancy houses," says SACS CASI's Elgart, and their lifestyle choices, including educating their children. Regions with affluent populations, such as Southwest Florida and metropolitan areas, are likely to see greater private-school attendance than other spots. "When the economy's strong, people can leverage that," he says.

Private schools also benefit when companies relocate their headquarters here-a sector that local economic development officials focus on recruiting. Corporate headquarters lure executives-often with families-to the region. "Whether I was in Washington or Cleveland or here, the corporate world enjoys the idea of having private school options for their employees," Fusco says. "If you're coming from up North and joining one of the [companies] in Southwest Florida, you might have already been exposed to or had your children in an independent school."

Still, while growth continues among private schools, the real estate slowdown is having an effect. Seacrest had 538 students last year and anticipates 570 this year, but after taking a look at enrollment trends at Seacrest, where annual tuition ranges from $11,500 to $14,230, Powell noticed that families whose professions are related to the building industry, from development company executives to mortgage bankers, are moving away. "They are leaving the Naples area," she says. "Some of them are going back to where their original roots are."

In addition to new players, such as Ave Maria Catholic school, a K-12 school in the nascent town, other options attracting thousands of students annually are different types of free, state-supported charter schools. Charters Schools USA, the state's largest provider of charter school management services, has expanded in Southwest Florida from one school with 200 students in 2001 to five schools with about 5,000 students in Lee. Without adding any more schools, it expects to serve 6,500 students with its five schools. The current student-teacher ratio is 17-to-one. At Royal Palm, it's nine-to-one.

Jonathan Hage, CEO and president of Charter Schools USA, says being part of Southwest Florida's population explosion helped. "We definitely aligned ourselves to both build and operate schools in areas where the growth was taking place. That's been very helpful," says Hage. "That growth has begun to slow a bit. That's why we're not opening a [new] school this coming year." Its average investment per new school is $15 million.

While Charter Schools back off on expansion, some private schools are just gearing up. Royal Palm plans to start construction within two years on a project to house several schools on one campus-gender-specific elementary, middle and high schools (sharing common areas such as gymnasiums, sports fields, labs and media centers) and a specialized preschool that Huckins describes as a "hybrid Montessori." The total construction cost hasn't been determined, but Huckins says it could reach close to $100 million. The first phase, possibly a gymnasium and either the elementary or middle school, could cost an estimated $15 million to $20 million and be completed between fall 2009 and fall 2010.

The school plans to start gender-specific education for students in kindergarten and first grade in the 2008-2009 school year. "We really did a lot of reflection on [gender-specific education]," Huckins says. "It's something that, as science becomes more aware of how the brain is constructed, [the benefits are] becoming evident."

While one of the advantages of an independent school is a low student-teacher ratio-Canterbury's is 10-to-one-Fusco concedes it can create space constraints. And Canterbury School has been adding a section each year to its primary school. That's why the school, on College Parkway, is constructing new facilities, including its 40,000-square-foot, three-story Upper School building, to open when classes start Sept. 4.

But private schools rely on private funding, and their relatively short history in Southwest Florida makes raising money for capital projects a challenge.

"If you go up North, you're talking about schools founded not in the 1900s, but some in the 1800s. They have an established alumni base. They have campuses that have been there for many, many years. They're not building on those campuses, they're remodeling," Fusco explains. "We're still in the building stage."

Canterbury's first graduating class, in 1977, had only nine students. It has few alumni from which to draw financial support for planned facilities, which include the Upper School, music and administration buildings, an eight-lane pool, concession stand, locker rooms and a performing arts center.

"Our alumni group is quite small," Fusco says. "Because the schools in Southwest Florida are all young, we depend much more on the philanthropy of the community, and especially our [students'] parents."

Seacrest's next expansion includes plans for a 50,000-plus-square-foot academic building, performing arts center and gymnasium. It also will take advantage of the nine-acre wetland preserve and two lakes on its campus by creating a boardwalk to use the space for outdoor teaching. An expected 25 students will be in its first graduating class in the coming year. For the 2008-2009 school year, 110 students are anticipated in grades nine through 12.