2019-20 Annual Report

When I joined the charter school movement, I very much enjoyed the freedom that I had as a school leader to implement whatever was good for the child without the need to go through the complicated red tape. This allowed me to nurture and encourage teachers' creativity to implement great ideas that would've taken a long time or never been finished in traditional schools.

The six founders of Countryside were all farmers in Berrien County with children attending various school systems. We felt that the charter school concept would allow us to create a learning environment for our kids that closely reflected our values as parents. We developed a theme based on agriculture and environmental science.

As I reflect, I realize that if my family did not have a school of choice option then I could have easily been one of those lost students, forgotten due to my lack of self-esteem and confidence in my academics. My experiences as a bi-cultural, bi-racial learner in the educational system ignited my passion for educational equity for all students.

We have always focused on where our students were academically and emotionally and built our program around that. We did not let a canned curriculum guide our actions. We used data and best practices to guide us. We always were committed to studying about our environment and showing the students that they can care for it.