New leadership team at learning center in Gainesville aims to close achievement gap

A new leadership team will be at the helm of the Gainesville Empowerment Zone’s Family Learning Center as it enters its second year of its efforts to close the achievement gap between Black and white students in Alachua County.

The center is located at 1250 NE 18 ^th Ave. on the northwest part of the Metcalfe Elementary School campus. The Alachua County School Board in February 2022 approved a lease to GNV4ALL for three years after former Superintendent Karen Clarke suggested the more than 8,000-square-foot Metcalfe building be used to house the center.

The center, which serves struggling families with children 6 weeks to 4 years old, has an ongoing registration process and officials invite the public to take advantage of the wrap-around services the center offers for the entire family.

Registration for the center’s services can be done online at GNV4ALL@GNV4ALL.org or by calling 352-225-3931.

The center has the capacity to accommodate 128 kids, and its building features a dining room, laundry room, two offices, rooms for children of different ages, a storage room, a laboratory and an outdoor classroom with a playground area.

Learning model: Family Learning Center seeks to improve public education

Volunteer pre-kindergarten (VPK) classes at the center start Aug. 12, the same day school starts for Alachua County Public Schools students, said James Lawrence, president and CEO of Gainesville For All (GNV4ALL), which was launched as an initiative of The Gainesville Sun and spun off as an independent agency with its own nonprofit charter in 2021 to find long-term solutions to long-term inequities that often fall along racial lines.

The center grew out of the 2018 report "Understanding Inequities in Alachua County," which examines the disparities between Black residents and others in the community.

The new leadership team will work hard to meet the needs of the families the center serves. The new team who will assume their new roles on Aug. 5 includes Cathyann Solomon, the new executive director, Trish White, the new interim site manager and Schuran Cartwright, the new curriculum coordinator and lead VPK teacher.

“We’re excited about our new leadership team,” Lawrence said. “Each possesses the skills needed to help us accomplish our mission of building strong families.”

Solomon, a native of Trinidad, moved to Gainesville in 1999 and formerly was an associate director at Catholic Charities until she relocated four years ago to Cincinnati where her daughter, Sydni, was enrolled at the University of Cincinnati. As executive director she will be actively involved in forming community partnerships and collaborations as well as leading the center’s management team, Lawrence said.

“Increasing our enrollment and making the community more aware of the services we provide and how we can benefit families is my top priority,” Solomon said. “It appears the community is not fully aware of what we have to offer, and that our mission is to make sure kids are prepared and ready to start kindergarten. This is not a daycare center.”

Building relationships with elementary schools, libraries, attending community events and engaging with the community in every way possible is how she plans to make the community more aware of the center, Solomon said.

White is a longtime Gainesville resident who joined the center in January as family engagement specialist. She is leveraging her extensive background in supporting and empowering families to ensure they have the resources and guidance needed to foster their children’s early education, Lawrence said.

White will continue in her family engagement role as she assumes additional duties as site manager on an interim basis, Lawrence said.

Cartwright, a native of South Florida, has served as interim director since January. With more than 20 years of experience in childcare, she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in human services and an associate degree in early childhood education.

In her new role, Cartwright welcomes a return to the classroom as lead VPK teacher and working with other center teachers as curriculum coordinator, Lawrence said.

The center earlier this year received a high rating from the Early Learning Coalition of Alachua County, which is a sign of the success of the center in its first year of operation, Lawrence said.

The center received an assessment score of 5.53, which is the high end of the mid-range, and just short of 6 and the “excellent” category. The ELC assessment scores range from 1.2 to 7 and are based on direct observations of teacher and child interactions. The scores are weighed by the presence of specific dimensions such as effective teaching practices, Cartwright said in a press release several months ago.

On the heels of receiving the high rating from the ELC, a $35,000 donation was made to the center by the Harris Rosen Foundation.

“As founder of Orlando-based Rosen Hotel & Resorts, which created the Rosen Foundation 37 years ago to provide opportunities for underserved communities, I know a few things about startups and the importance of early learning in a child’s life,” said Harris Rosen, president and COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts Inc., Florida’s largest independent hotelier, in a press release in May. “Seasoned as I am in both of these areas, I have been struck by the tenacity of Gainesville For All and its supporters in their efforts to improve academic achievement among children from low-income families.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: New leadership team at learning center in Gainesville aims to close achievement gap