August 16, 2018
BY CINDY SWISHER, Neighborhood News Bureau
One out of seven 16-24-year olds in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area are not working or in school.
MYcroSchool is a tuition-free, public charter high school that exists to change those numbers by re-engaging recent dropouts, as well as at-risk students still in high school. Kelvin Neal was one of those students. Neal enrolled in MYcroSchool a little over three years ago when counselors at Boca Ciega High School informed him he was too far behind in credits to graduate on time. He chose MYcroSchool because of the setting.
“You have a lot of kids that can’t deal with 30, 40 kids in class at the same time,” Neal said. “That was my problem. Here you can work at your own pace.”
The students that have already dropped out, MYcroSchool offers them a second chance to earn a diploma. While the average age of the students is 19, anyone between the ages of 16 and 22 can enroll.
