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Charter School Touts Art, Fitness

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By LENORA LAKE

Tribune correspondent

Published: August 13, 2008

NORTH TAMPA - A new elementary charter school will incorporate visual and graphic arts into its daily curriculum and emphasize health and fitness.

Charles Malatesta, school leader of Community Charter School of Excellence, said full-time art and health and physical fitness teachers will be among the school's 10 instructors.

The students "will have both every day, on top of recess," Malatesta said recently. "A lot of schools are moving away from those subjects because of the testing requirements."

The charter school, which this year has students in kindergarten through fifth grade, is owned and operated by the Leona Group, a company that started in 1996 with four schools in Michigan. It now has more than 70 schools in six states. It also operates the Athenian academies in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

Charter schools are funded with public money but privately run. Students must meet state standards, but the school is free from many other requirements.

"This is very helpful to have Leona. They have had success in several stages; this puts us in a different category," said Malatesta, 31, previously a teacher in public, private and charter schools and at colleges including St. Petersburg College.

He said the Leona group has a budget department to assist in financial issues and recommends procedures for opening and operating a school. Each school has its own school board of area business leaders and hires its own faculty with teachers contracted for a year.

"You can stay with your own daily routine, but the support system is in place," Malatesta said.

Malatesta said he projects about 155 students this year, with 140 enrolled last week. Over the next three years, the school will add a grade each year but has not set an enrollment maximum.

"It is a very diverse group. Some come from other charter schools, some from traditional schools and some from private schools," Malatesta said. "The ones from private schools want a similar learning environment without the tuition costs."

The school leases space including classroom, gymnasium and cafeteria from University Church of God on Central Avenue but is not affiliated with the church. Berean Academy, a private school, previously was housed there, but that school built a facility in Lutz.

The school will have a dress code, with students required to wear a collared knit shirt in the school colors of red or gray, dress pants or shorts, skorts or skirts. Teachers will be expected to dress professionally, the administrator said.

A weekly character education program, Respect, Responsibility and Readiness, will be offered in all grade levels.

Parents will be required to volunteer at least 20 hours during the school year. They also can suggest projects and activities and help with them, he added.

Debra Martin, who will teach second grade and serve as the lead teacher, said the smaller enrollment and the family atmosphere is what attracted her to the school. She had taught in charter schools before.

Martin, who will begin her 14th year as a teacher, said, "It is easier to get to know not only the children in your classrooms but also the whole school."

She said she is finding it a "great challenge to start something and to build on it."

Management of the University of South Florida Patel Charter School recently was transferred to the Hillsborough County School District. That school's leaders said they found it hard to keep staff because of salary and benefits competition. Malatesta said he feels that because his school is part of a company, he will have better success.

"Yes, it is difficult to try to find quality teachers with the salaries available. However, Leona has good benefits, free medical and dental insurance, and that helps," he added.

COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE

SCHOOL LEADER: Charles Malatesta

MASCOT: To be determined by students

SCHOOL COLORS: Red, gray

PROJECTED ENROLLMENT: 155

ADDRESS: 10948 Central Ave.

PHONE: (813) 931-5100

WEB SITE: www.leona group.com/excellencetampa

Correspondent Lenora Lake can be reached at (813) 865-4851 or llake@tampatrib.com.

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