The Pasco County School Board has approved an enrollment increase for Imagine School at Land O’ Lakes, a charter school on Sunlake Boulevard, across the street from Sunlake High School and Rushe Middle School.
The school was operating at 728 students, but will be able to increase the enrollment to 800 students for the coming school year.
(Courtesy of Imagine School at Land O’ Lakes)
Principal Aimee Williams said the school requested an increase, because it has been operating with a continuous waiting list of 400 to 600 students.
In its backup materials, the school district staff noted that Imagine is a highly performing charter school.
Williams credits the school’s success to two key factors: “Retention of staff and retention of families.”
More than 30 of its staff members have been there for five years or longer, she said.
There’s not much turnover in students, either.
Next year, the school will be graduating its first crop of eighth-graders who have been at the school since kindergarten.
Imagine opened nine years ago in a business park in Ballantrae and moved in January 2012 to what was then a new school building.
The school’s charter was renewed in 2013 for 15 years, extending the charter to 2028.
The school has a STEAM-certified staff.
It received the 2016 Promising Practice Winner by Character Counts and was 2015 runner-up in the National School of Character competition by Character Counts. It also was 2015 runner-up for National School of the Year by Imagine Schools.
Imagine’s students come primarily from Lutz and Land O’ Lakes, but also from Wesley Chapel, New Port Richey and as far away as Brandon in Hillsborough.
The opening of Sanders Memorial Elementary STEAM School and the scheduled opening of a charter school in Lutz next year doesn’t worry Williams.
The principal thinks that families choose to keep their children at Imagine because of the quality of education they receive, and the relationships that have developed between the families and staff.
“We’ve proven our worth, and the families are committed,” Williams said.
Published May 18, 2016
