Youth Co-Op Charter School Earns Its Five-Star Recognition
Article By: Lovelee Dagum
Youth Co-Op Charter School (YCCS) in Hialeah Gardens, Florida continues to shine as it garners another recognition from the Florida Department of Education. Aside from meeting AYP and being considered as an A+ school for 8 consecutive years, YCCS is now known as a Five-Star School.
Out of more than 300 schools in Miami Dade, YCCS, along with only 19 other schools, recently received the highest award for community involvement. As a Five-Star School, YCCS was acknowledged for having an excellent liaison with business communities, an active Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), a healthy volunteer program, numerous student community services, and a dynamic Educational Excellence School Advisory Council (EESAC).
Mrs. Aragon, principal of YCCS, lauded the efforts made by the faculty, the staff, the parents as well as community leaders to ensure that the students are able to maintain high academic achievement.
Mariana Muniz, the community involvement specialist of YCCS, said that the school has worked with Dade business partners like Home Depot, Applebees, Bird Bowl, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks in promoting activities and programs that motivated students to do better academically.
The school also has an active PTSA with Jeanette Gutierrez, president, and Evelyn Cruz, vice-president, at the helm. Last year, they spearheaded efforts to be able to sponsor fundraising events, teacher appreciation days, student awards, principal honor roll breakfast appreciation, and other fun-filled activities in school.
Having some 300 volunteers in a school that had only around 500 students also contributed in gaining the award. Parents and guardians were involved in school field trips and classroom activities, as well as in donating supplies for the school.
Muniz also said that students at YCCS had been very much involved in community activities. Members of the National Junior Honor Society had been engaged in a clean-up and beautification drive. Carolina Hernandez, the art teacher, also involved all students in the fund raising drive during Thanksgiving for one economically-challenged boy and his family in the Philippines. Students paid a dollar each, decorated a feather, and attached it to a big turkey displayed along the school corridors. In this activity, the school was able to raise funds to help the boy with his education as well as some needs of his family for a year. There were other remarkable activities that the students joined such as the hurricane relief effort and the recycling of old electronics and print cartridges with the support of the Electronic Recycling Company.
“Every year for YCCS has been successful,” Muniz said, “because of the support of the teachers, students, parents, and members of the community. Every sector of the school has been actively involved even in EESAC, a decision-making body in school.” Mr. Hernandez, assistant principal of YCCS and chairman of EESAC, said “the council is a great way for all of the school’s stakeholders to participate in improving as well as in keeping the school up-to-date.”
YCCS had a great start last year as Representative Eddy Gonzalez and Mayor Yioset dela Cruz presented a recognition award to Mrs. Aragon for rallying the school in its quest to maintain academic excellence. It was followed by a series of various fun-filled school activities throughout the school year like the presentation of musical plays, singing, and dances. The School Dance Team, for instance, was involved with the Miami Heat Basketball Organization and had the opportunity to dance in the American Airlines arena. The students also participated in a Career Day where they got to meet firefighters, police officers, actors, and nurses. As for academic events, the students learned more from invited speakers from various organizations such as the Holocaust Memorial, the FPL, and the Miami Dade Police Department. The school also joined many interschool competitions and won some of them. To promote the academics, the school also held Literacy Nights for Reading, Science, and Math where teachers, students, and parents participate in workshops to help students learn better at home.
Aragon said, “Overall, YCCS has accomplished a great deal for many years. It is our goal to first promote academic achievement in our students, and then to provide extra-curricular activities that will help them become well-rounded and motivated individuals. We hope to continue to provide services that would address all the areas of the students’ educational needs.”
