"But for Apryl Shackelford, those anxieties have been replaced with opportunity. The 55-year-old is beginning her fourth year as the leader of Liberty City Primer, a private microschool in Miami. With just six classrooms and a few dozen students, Shackelford doesn't have to navigate a politically charged school board or shifting state mandates. Instead, she can pour her energy into what she does best-teaching her first and second graders phonics, reading comprehension, and social skills."
"Perhaps just as importantly, the change has given her something teachers in traditional schools often lack: financial security. As an independent school leader, Shackelford now makes $101,000 a year. That's a far cry from the $34,000 she brought home in her first year working at a public school in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2003. Even after shifting to the charter school system years later-where her salary rose to $50,000-it still wasn't enough."
Apryl Shackelford leads a six-classroom private microschool in Miami, focusing on teaching first and second graders phonics, reading comprehension, and social skills. Transitioning from public and charter systems has provided her greater autonomy and financial security, raising her salary from earlier levels of $34,000 and $50,000 to $101,000 as an independent school leader. Primer, a venture-backed startup, handles back-end logistics such as payroll, tuition setting, legislative lobbying, and zoning navigation, allowing educators to concentrate on instruction. As a founder, Shackelford also selects school culture elements, library materials, after-school programs, and community engagement strategies.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]