When former Sea Gate Elementary School Principal Beverly Budzynski first talked to me about becoming the new principal at Village Oaks Elementary School beginning in fall of 2019, she was bursting with excitement about her plans:
“First, I am going to start with the bridge.”
The bridge she is referring to is a pedestrian walkway that connects Farm Workers Village and Village Oaks Elementary School (VOE) over State Route 29 in Immokalee.
State Route 29 is a mostly two-lane highway that winds through eastern Collier County farmland and the Everglades. The L-shaped bridge that connects the two villages is a strikingly urban rusted steel and concrete structure that emerges at the only traffic light intersection heading southeast of the main street in Immokalee.
When I visited VOE the day before school started last month, excited families were trickling across the recently power washed bridge to meet their new principal and teachers. Along the way, they passed community volunteers on the bridge who were paint-ing over graffiti to create a blank canvas on which each grade will paint its own mural this school year.
Budzynski said that she wanted to start with cleaning the bridge and brightening it with the class murals because “the walk on the bridge is the way over 100 students start their school day. It is important that the day start out with a welcoming and encouraging experience for all students.”
One of the community volunteers on the bridge, Frank Rincon of the Benison Center, a local distributor that links com-munities in need to donated resources and supplies, was archiving the progress of the bridge as he recorded the painters applying the fresh base coat canvas for the murals. Together with Budzynski and Abel Jaimes, director of Collier County Public Schools Federal, State, and Competitive Grants, they have galvanized the county, community, and volunteer resources to carry out this restoration project.
On the other side of the bridge, teachers and office staff were finishing the new teacher meet and greet event, giving information to the parents in both Spanish and English, as the excited students enjoyed the super hero decorations and photo booth. Some students walked away with brand new school clothes, courtesy of Angels Undercover, a local nonprofit that provides new uniforms and undergarments to students in need.
While the pedestrian walkway is concrete and steel, Budzynski is the human bridge between these two communities.
Budzynski, who has 33 years of experience in education (22 of those years in Title I schools), including eight years at Sea Gate, said that the staff’s dedication, energy, and passion for the Im-mokalee community is admirable. “Many staff drive a significant distance to teach in Immokalee. The respect and admiration from the community and parents for the staff at VOE is also very apparent in daily interactions. You can feel the excitement and energy when you walk through the campus. Staff voluntarily spent the summer together on beautification projects around the campus. They made a rock garden, planted flowers, and improved the landscaping.”
In the 2018-2019 academic year Village Oaks Elementary had 597 students, with 97% classified by the school district as economically needy and 75% of homes speak a primary language other than English. Sea Gate had 747 students, 39% of whom were classified as economically needy and 35% whose homes speak a primary language other than English.
Sea Gate earned an A grade from the Florida Standards As-sessments (FSA) and was designated as a National Blue Ribbon School in 2008 and 2018.
Village Oaks is one of 33 Title I schools in Collier County. According to the CCPS website: Title I is a federal program that provides funds to school districts and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children who are disadvantaged to support a variety of services. Title I funds can be used for resources such as extended day care, tutoring, technology, equipment, summer programs and instruction, professional development, supplies, and parent resources. Many students at Village Oaks are at school for nearly 12 hours each school day, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner while there.
Budzynski’s five-year goal for VOE is to improve the school’s grade (determined by FSA) from a D to an A. School secretary Petra Adame, who has worked at VOE for 31 years, also would like to see the school’s grade improve. Adame said that she thinks improving attendance is one of the school’s biggest challenges, and would help raise the school’s grade.
Bridging the gap between the Naples and Immokalee schools with Budzynski are two teachers from Sea Gate Elementary who were so inspired by her enthusiasm for her new position that they joined her team at Village Oaks as well. The robust Sea Gate Parent Teacher Organization, which historically has raised funds for a budget large enough to fund field trips, enrichment programs, classroom supplies, and community outreach for their own school, has launched a school supply drive and become a sister school for Village Oaks to support its unique needs.
Fifth grade teacher Audra Barton followed Budzynski from Sea Gate “because of her infectious enthusiasm and love for kids. She inspires me to be the best me and teacher that I can be. I am excited to get a chance to be with the hard-working, dedicated teachers and staff of VOE and to help make a difference in the lives of the children here.” She admits that one of her biggest chal-lenges will be the one-hour drive.
Lynn Conroy, who also teaches fifth grade and followed Budzynski, said she is “most excited about working with the children of this community and making them love coming to school, so that they will want to learn.” She feels her biggest challenges will be the language barrier with many of the students and families, and the issues that are unique to children living in poverty. She said she is impressed with staff at VOE and the Immokalee community.
“This is a very tight knit community where people watch out for each other’s children,” Conroy said. “It truly is a village.”
Photos by Lisette Morales
This story won a Gold Award for News Feature at the 2020 Parenting Media Awards, an international professional organization for Parenting Media.