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.