IDEA Lakeland Charter School Works Out Growth Details With City
A charter school that aims to send low-income students to college exceeded its enrollment expectations when it opened in August and expects to quadruple its student body in the next two years, Lakeland city commissioners were told Monday.
IDEA Public School Lakeland is working with the city of Lakeland on plans for road and transportation improvements as it grows from its current 410 students between kindergarten and 8th grade to an expected 1,645 students by 2026.
The school is located in a former call center at 1775 Interstate Drive, just east of Kathleen Road and a little south of Interstate 4. It sits on 12.61 acres, with room to add buildings, including a gymnasium.
Expected growth: City commissioners are considering a development agreement for the school to guide its expected growth, but discussion at Monday's commission meeting turned to the school's mission as well as growth.
Robert Farkas, a civil engineer with Project Management Services Inc., came to the meeting to discuss construction but ended up answering commission questions about education and enrollment. His company has built more than 100 schools for IDEA, which operates schools in Louisiana, Ohio and Texas. Their Florida campuses are in Tampa and Jacksonville.
The full build-out will add more than 125 jobs to Lakeland, Farkas said, adding the $12 million construction project will bring more than 100 "high-paying construction jobs."
Lakeland leadership: Farkas said he and his company strongly believe in IDEA's mission.
"I would encourage the neighbors to come and check out the school," Farkas said. "The staff is exemplary on the ground, but the leadership team here in Lakeland, having built several of these for IDEA, this is one of the most engaged leadership teams that I've come across."
Enrollment has exceeded expectations, Farkas said. "We're turning students away. We're putting them on a waiting list for next year," he said. "We thought this would be a gradual growth. There's a need in the city of Lakeland, where students want this opportunity. And so I would anticipate that our enrollment will double this coming year. So we'll have over 800 students this coming year and then we're going to try to control the growth because we don't necessarily want to shock the system."
Commission support: Several on the commission praised the school.
"This organization is an exemplary provider that has a lot of nimbleness and does an incredible job of focusing students on where they are in terms of their growth," said Mayor Bill Mutz. "And takes the opportunity for students who might not have these advantages otherwise and takes them on a course where, if they want to pursue secondary school, they'll be able to because of the quality education. It's inspiring."
What is IDEA? The school focuses on a college preparatory education for low-economic students.
IDEA was founded in 1998 by Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama while they worked for Teach for America – a post-college volunteer teaching organization. They began with an after-school program for economically disadvantaged students in Donna, Texas, and opened their first school with 150 students in 2000. It has now grown to a national network of 145 tuition-free, k-12 public charter schools in the U.S. serving 87,000 students.
"IDEA Public Schools was built on the foundation that all children can and will succeed if given the chance," IDEA Lakeland's website states . "As such, we committed to a mission of 'College for ALL children,' ensuring more students from low-income backgrounds, students who would be the first generation in their families to attend college, and students who come from groups historically underrepresented in higher education have access to realizing their dreams by first completing a college degree on the path to becoming future leaders."
The website states the school's students graduate at a rate 3.5 times the national average for low-income students –– 45% vs. 13%.
School officials say they deliver high test scores and college-bound students by providing the equivalent of 80 extra days in math and 74 extra days in reading by offering longer school days. All IDEA students take 11 Advanced Placement classes before graduation, with a quarter of the students becoming Advanced Placement scholars.
Development agreement: IPS Enterprises, which manages IDEA Public Schools based in Texas, applied for a development agreement with the city that includes:
Traffic concerns: A traffic study for the school's full capacity conducted by the school used their Tampa site as a comparison and shows 2,352 weekly car trips and 96 bus trips. That's an average of 588 cars in and out for morning drop-off and then afternoon pick-up, plus 12 buses dropping off and picking up students each day.
Currently, the school uses five buses that make two trips in the morning and two in the afternoon, with staggered release times. When the school is at capacity, they expect to add six more buses.
Car lines would be mainly contained inside a large parking lot at the site, according to Chuck Barmby, the city's business development and transportation manager. The requirement is 7,000 feet for a car line to avoid impeding traffic on the road. The school currently has 8,000 feet.
Barmby said 40 students currently walk to and from campus from neighborhoods as far south as 10th Street and as far east as Providence Road. Barmby expects foot traffic to increase. IPS has agreed to build a sidewalk for those students.
"To hear that you are vested in the neighborhood and that you're increasing the walkability option, that connection to 14th Street, really gives me such great hope for the neighbors in the community to be able to have this option," Commissioner Stephanie Madden said.
Commissioners will vote whether to adopt the development plan following a final hearing Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. in the City Commission chambers.
Controversy: There was some controversy over spending practices when IDEA first applied for a charter with Polk County Public Schools.
Then-School Board member Sarah Fortney surfaced reports she found online regarding IDEA Public Schools spending $15 million on private jets, San Antonio Spurs tickets and chauffeured SUVs between 2017 and 2019. There were also reports that U.S. Department of Education political appointees under the Trump administration pulled strings to help funnel a multimillion-dollar grant to the non-profit company.
A November 2019 Inspector General report stated that IDEA Public Schools "did not always spend grant funds in accordance with federal cost principles and its approved grant applications."
The Texas Tribune reported in March that the Texas Education Agency placed IDEA Public Schools under conservatorship after a years-long investigation into improper spending within the entire IDEA system.
Both of IDEA's founders left under a cloud –– Gama was fired and later received a $475,000 wrongful termination settlement, while Torkelson was given a $900,000 severance package.
IDEA had been running the Houston Independent School District, but in June, the Texas Education Agency resumed control "following years of poor academic performance at a single campus within the district, among other factors," the Texas Tribune reported. In addition, "Marlin Independent School District recently began the process of resuming local governance after seven years of state oversight due to five consecutive years of failing accountability ratings."
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