News Detail
OutREach: Building academic excellence in Opa-Locka
Classical music plays on the cafeteria loudspeakers at Beacon College Prep in Opa-Locka as elementary school students file sleepily past a colorful mural of historically significant Black authors, activists and athletes. Students pick up breakfast and worksheets and slide into seats at long tables, quietly preparing to begin the school day.
Suddenly, the loudspeakers start cranking out a pulsing beat.
The third-to fifth-grade students at this charter school started a decade ago by a handful of Ransom Everglades alumni seem to wake up at once. The music offers the signal that morning assembly has started, and everyone joins, belting out adapted verses to the tune of a popular song. The students, clapping and bouncing in their seats, sing that they have “goals’’ and “grit” and are “down for the challenge.” They will “work, work” and “never quit” and “will stick with it” “every day!”
At the end of the song, principal Patrick Evans moves to the front of the room to welcome the students, and daily “shout-outs” commence; students stand up voluntarily and take turns directing praise to peers. “My shout-out is for Christopher,” says one smiling student, “because he’s a hard worker!” Finally, two students send everyone off to class by leading the Beacon College Prep Creed, which is carried out with the exuberance of a cheer at a rivalry football game:
Who are we? BCP!
And today we will: Push ourselves to learn and achieve! Show each other respect and kindness! Take responsibility for our choices and actions!
What does it take to succeed? Work! Hard work!
And when do we do it? Today, tomorrow and each and every day!
And we’ll do it with: Gratitude, self-control, grit, curiosity and zest!
Who are we? BCP!
This impressive performance is not a performance at all; it’s merely the start of a typical day at Beacon College Prep. The morning assembly offers a glimpse of an engaged student body, self-assured children and a positive structure in a school founded by Jeffrey Miller ’79 in 2014 with the support of many members of the Ransom Everglades community.
John Flickinger ’74 served as founding educational consultant, and Melissa Krinzman ’86 and Patrick Range II ’95 were founding board members – and remain on the board to this day. Other board members include RE parents-of-alumni Virginia Akar P’14 ’15 ’19 and Gail Dotson P’14 ’16, and alumnus Wifredo Fernandez ’05. Terron Ferguson ’04 served briefly as Director of Advancement.
With the goal of creating a model school for closing the achievement gap for low-income students who often perform below grade level, the RE cohort looked to Opa-Locka, where 98 percent of students receive free lunch and about 85 percent are on public assistance. The decade-long venture has been filled with extreme challenges, daily difficulty and frequent setbacks, yet last summer brought a stunningly sweet reward: the Beacon College Prep Middle School earned an A grade from the Florida Department of Education for 2021-22.
It was the first A grade for any middle or elementary school in Opa-Locka in 17 years. For school leaders and Beacon College Prep families, it was a moment of triumph.
“The A grade validates that a quality education with excellent results is attainable within the most challenging areas,” Miller said. “We continue to move toward a replicable model where every kid, regardless of socioeconomic and environmental challenges, will receive the tools and support for success.”
In the beginning
Nothing about the last 10 years has been easy. Operating a public school in Florida is difficult no matter where the school is located; the state ranks third-lowest in the nation in funding per student, according to the Education Data Initiative. “From day one, our goal for Beacon has been to provide our students with an environment that engages them in meaningful ways, emphasizes the importance of core values, and inspires them to work hard with the goal of attending college,” Krinzman said.
“We don't yell at kids. We don't manage the school with a strong arm; we do it with a soft tone. We have created a culture that's very unique, very positive, very uplifting.”
Jeffrey Miller '79, founder of Beacon College Prep
In the beginning
Most charter school founders choose traditionally high-achieving areas to place their schools to give them the best chance for success. In many areas, charter schools – which are privately operated, taxpayer-funded public schools with free tuition – lure top students and offer serious competition to expensive private schools or traditional district-run public schools. By placing Beacon College Prep in an area of high need, Miller took a calculated risk. He and the founding board members were inspired by the success of Breakthrough Miami – an education program co-founded by Flickinger more than three decades ago and long supported by Miller – which has provided after-school and summer programming for under-resourced students.
Nothing about the last 10 years has been easy. Operating a public school in Florida is difficult no matter where the school is located; the state ranks third-lowest in the nation in funding per student, according to the Education Data Initiative. “From day one, our goal for Beacon has been to provide our students with an environment that engages them in meaningful ways, emphasizes the importance of core values, and inspires them to work hard with the goal of attending college,” Krinzman said.
Patrick Evans, formerly a teacher at Miami Central High and Miami Norland High, was hired as the school’s founding principal in August 2014, and has been on the ground since. He credited the RE cohort with providing invaluable support.
“Ransom Everglades is a school where the belief is to whom much is given, much is expected,” Evans said. “Philanthropy, giving back and service are critical. [RE alumni] have the desire to do good for the City of Miami and a concern for the city holistically. They understand that we’re one ecosystem, and where we struggle as a city and society, they have the influence and power to help that.”
Despite the A grade for the middle school last summer, the work is hardly finished. Beacon College Prep’s K-5 school received a C, the grade achieved by the majority of Florida’s 2,200+ public schools (more than 200 earned Ds or Fs). The grade is also not surprising in the aftermath of the pandemic, when executing remote learning was virtually impossible because of students’ home situations. “We don’t,” Evans said, “ever get complacent.”
Still, the progress has been undeniable. Beacon College Prep, which opened with a kindergarten through second grade, has grown in size and scope. Some 570 students (370 elementary; 200 middle school) now populate kindergarten through eighth grade on a freshly painted campus that includes a cheery garden and courtyard. The hallways are adorned with school colors (green and black) and lined with college pennants. Students are assigned to home rooms named for universities across the United States. The values advertised in the BCP creed, inspirational quotes and student work and assignments are displayed in the cafeteria, on classroom walls and in hallways.
The starting point: Respect for everyone
In one classroom, the day begins with reflection on gratitude. A teacher asks: “What does this quote mean to you: ‘I am happy because I am grateful’?” Hands pop up around the room, students eager to share their thoughts. “Instead of being taught and spoken to, this is about engagement,” Krinzman said. “It is very interactive. We did not want to have kids sitting all day long listening to lectures.”
“We could not have done this without the relationships made at Ransom Everglades. It's an ethic of service that was promoted dating back to when I was a student there.”
John Flickinger '74
The starting point: Respect for everyone
It’s also about respect. One of the school’s cardinal rules is no yelling. Ever.
“We don’t yell at kids,” Miller said. “We don’t manage the school with a strong arm; we do it with a soft tone. We have created a culture that’s very unique, very positive, very uplifting.”
Miller wanted students to have a common identity and pride in their school, and a clear understanding that they are going places. The local artist Cory Evans turned one wall of the cafeteria into a colorful showcase for historically significant Black people including Athalie Range (Patrick Range’s famous grandmother), Ralph Ellison, bell hooks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael, Alice Walker, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson and others. Evans developed the morning routine – Miller called it a “pep rally of affirmation” – after traveling the country to visit schools on an educational grant in the year before Beacon College Prep opened.
“Structure doesn’t mean discipline,” Miller said. “Discipline can be almost punitive. Structure means something positive. Kids, they respond positively to a positive structure.”
All involved with Beacon College Prep acknowledge that the pandemic was a near-calamitous period for the school. At-home learning proved nearly impossible, and school administrators directed attention to making sure basic needs were met, delivering meals to homes and checking in on students. They set up vaccination sites at the school and provided skeptical families with education on vaccine safety. There was a silver lining: once students returned to classrooms, the structure school leaders had built helped Evans and his teaching staff stabilize the student body and relaunch their learning. “The pandemic set us way, way back,” Miller said. “We’re still playing catch up … But there is no question we have changed the culture. We have made the learning environment a positive one, and kids want to come to school.”
Miller has long been passionate about improving access to high-quality education in Miami; he has worked with and supported the University of Miami, the Miami-Dade County Public School system, Ransom Everglades and Breakthrough Miami. He previously served as chair of the boards of both RE and Breakthrough, which Flickinger launched in 1992 with classmate Doug Weiser ’74.
School leaders won’t be able to fully evaluate the success of Beacon College Prep until several classes of students reach college age; from the beginning, they have been focused on the long game. Miller and the founding board members agreed Beacon College Prep would aim for not only superior academic achievement, but also the cultivation of student interests and talents and, perhaps most importantly, character development. In short, they knew building successful citizens meant focusing on the whole child.
Beacon College Prep was never intended to be a Ransom Everglades venture; it just happened that way. When Miller sought help, RE community members leaped. “We could not have done this without the relationships made at Ransom Everglades,” Flickinger said. “It’s an ethic of service that was promoted dating back to when I was a student there.”
Even current students have stepped in; Liv Steinhardt ’23, Krinzman’s daughter, and her friends from Ransom Everglades helped to paint a mural on an external wall at the school, and they also donated books and organized the school library. Other RE friends, including Leslie Wakefield Buchanan ’72 and Marsha Soffer P’09, contributed to the installation of a $50,000 playground. Nearly every member of the school’s current governing board has a tie to Ransom Everglades, including treasurer Octavio Verdeja, an accountant who has done work for RE.
“The common theme with all of this is how RE really builds on community outside of Ransom Everglades’ walls,” Miller said. “It’s about values; it’s about families; it’s about understanding our own blessings in life and understanding that our obligations are to share and to really raise the tide for all of the boats out there in our community. That’s the secret sauce of Ransom Everglades, making other people stronger.”
For more information on how to help with Beacon College Prep, email founding board member Melissa Krinzman ’86 at melissa@krillionventures.com or founder Jeffrey Miller ’79 at jeff@jsmhome.com.
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.