It’s not uncommon to see best friends Labria Brown and Fredericka Chaires together at any time of the day at Innovation School of Excellence.
The pair is together constantly, sharing everything – lunch, secrets and a love of learning. Both girls are student leaders and the top students among their eighth grade peers, said Innovation Principal Terrell Davis.
In fact, their quest to be the best has sparked a challenge between them to see who can earn the highest grades each marking period, Davis said.
Early in the school year, Fredericka won the first round , earning straight As, while Labria missed the perfect 4.0 grade point average by one point.
“They’ve become competitive and they feed off of each other,” Davis said.
That competition was made possible by the Step Up For Students scholarship and represents a turnaround in two young women who had been become disengaged from school. Of the 275 students who attend Innovation, about 116 are Step Up recipients.
LaQuinta Demous and Wanda Miles, Fredericka’s and Labria’s mothers, respectively, say their daughters’ exceptional school performance has come naturally, but finding the right school setting to stimulate them has been challenging.
LaQuinta said she began to notice a change with Fredericka when she started fifth grade. While Fredericka’s grades remained high, she began to struggle in class and developed a fear of taking tests, LaQuinta said.
She forgot assignments, was frequently unorganized, and struggled to adjust to a change in her class schedule, LaQuinta said.
LaQuinta said she knew Fredericka’s public school wasn’t the right place for her and she longed to transfer her daughter to private school.
Fredericka said her desire to earn good grades caught the attention of bullies who became jealous of her academic success. The encounters started to affect her confidence.
“It’s a big distraction,” she said. “You can’t really focus on your work.”
Like Fredericka, Labria entered fifth grade not as focused on her school work as she had been in past years.
Labria began hanging out with the wrong crowd and gave more attention to her friends than to her classwork, Wanda said.
Wanda knew that if Labria continued on to the local middle school – which was labeled a “D” school – it would be just a matter of time before her academic performance would severely slide.
“Her grades were fair, but sometimes she would get off track,” she said. “I wanted her in a smaller setting.”
Both mothers were fearful that their daughter’s mild disinterest in their studies would develop into a permanent outright dislike of school.
Tuition costs made a private school education seem out of reach. But that all changed when they learned about the Step Up For Students scholarship program.
Nowadays, both girls are more dedicated than ever in the classroom.
That’s because at Innovation, students are driven to do their best, said Fredericka, who wants to be a cosmetologist and own a salon.
“It’s like everybody’s working together,” she said.
Labria, who wants to be a nurse, credits the extra attention she gets from her teachers with helping her thrive.
“I like how the teachers break things down and explain it to us so we can understand it,” she said.
About Innovation School of Excellence
Founded in 2001, Innovation School of Excellence serves students from age three to grade eight. This year, 116 of the school’s 275 students are Step Up scholars. Students are tested annually using the Stanford Achievement Test. The school’s annual tuition is $3,860 for kindergarten through eighth grade. Innovation is accredited by the Florida Coalition of Christian Private Schools Association.