Autism Center planning K-12 school

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Autism Pensacola Inc. filed a Letter of Intent with the Escambia School District on June 1, 2010 to begin the process of creating Autism Pensacola Charter School for children with autism in grades K-8 and eventually K-12.

The API board is the governing body for Kids for Camp – a summer learning partnership with the Escambia School District. The school will be for children with autism living in Escambia and Santa Rosa County, but enrollees will not be limited to those school districts if space is available.

“Our committee has identified a six-step process to go from sending in a Letter of Intent to opening the school in August of 2011,” said committee chairman Kevin T. Doyle, API vice president and president and publisher of the Pensacola News Journal.

Joining Doyle on the Charter School Board committee are API board members Fred Donovan, Mort O’Sullivan, Cate Merrill, Peg Nickelsen, Ted Kirchharr and API Executive Director Susan Byrum.

Gulf Breeze lawyer Kimberly Ward Grimley, API Board Member Judy Burns and educator Larry Hutcheson made a presentation to the 24-person board last month. After some preliminary due diligence, the board voted unanimously to participate, but only if its governing body was the board of the charter school and there was an exit strategy during the process.

On behalf of the committee, Doyle called Escambia School District Superintendent Malcolm Thomas before sending the Letter of Intent.

“I told Malcolm we were doing this not because of any dissatisfaction, but this was the next logical step in our partnership,” Doyle said. “The Escambia School District has been a valued partner in our Kids for Camp success story providing facilities and supporting teacher training.”

There are only three charter schools focused on autism for children K-8 in the state of Florida: South Florida Autism Charter School in Hialeah, Florida Autism Charter School of Excellence in Tampa and The Princeton House in Orlando. All three are K-12 and have between 57 and 251 students.

During the school’s application process, it will be looking for a downtown Pensacola location that could host approximately 80 students.

One step in the process will be to judge interest in the school. Parents will be polled at Kids for Camp later this month or they can e-mail Doyle at kdoyle@pnj.com and share their interest.

For more information contact: Kevin Doyle at 850 435-8581 or Larry Hutcheson liveoakdean@aol.com or (850)570-6515.