Wayne Millette: Letting Kids Fly

Dear Wayne Millett, My name is Fern Harris, an undergraduate student at Eastern Michigan University studying business management. I expect to graduate in April of this year and plan on applying for the Master of Science Administration program at Central Michigan University in the fall semester of 2008. I was led to the Michigan Innovators website by one of my professors as an assignment. As I searched the site I noticed your organization and my interest immediately peeked. I listened to the four videos regarding the founding of “New Beginnings Academy.” I was excited to hear of the vision and mission for your school. My husband and I are Christians who have a four year old ministry in the Belleville, MI area and are planning to open a K-12 school. I am currently working on a business plan for our school and found that it was difficult, initially, to find resources regarding school startups on the internet. Listening to your videos sparked several questions. You mentioned in your first video that the idea to open a charter school instead of a private school had to do with offering the parents the quality of a private school with no cost to them. We are also planning on offering the no cost option to our parents with the quality of a private school? However, since we are a Christian based organization, I don’t think we would qualify to be a charter school. We are going to have lots of fundraisers. Did you have fundraisers and if so how successful were they? Also, I’ve learned that when starting a new business it is not possible to have financial history for the business plan so one would use the financials for an organization comparable to the organization one plans to open. Since my husband and I have a ministry and the school will be under the same leadership, do we or should we use the financials for the ministry in the business plan for the school? In your experience, is it easier to get financial assistance when a new organization has some financial history or could this possibly hurt us? Finally, is it possible to have a non-profit ministry and a for-profit school? In your second video you mentioned that you started the school with about a 100 students. Where did the students come from? How did you get the word out about the school before it was actually opened? What are some of the marketing tools or options you utilized? In your third video you mentioned that the community was excited about your opening a new school. Did you work with any community leaders, officials, parents, schools, or students? Finally, in watching the fourth video, I was surprised to hear that research indicates elementary, middle, and I’m assuming high, school students need to be separated. Many private schools operate with everyone in the same building. If you can lead to me to some websites that will assist in my research, it will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to do the interviews. They were very helpful. I took a lot of notes. Sincerely, Fern Harris, Student Eastern Michigan University

Hello Mr. Millette, New Beginnings Academy sounds like a terrific school. I am so glad to hear that children in the "bottom third," as you say, have a chance at being individually worked with. I feel like a lot of students just get pushed through school, not even benefiting from anything. In high school, my boyfriend was in the "emotionally impaired" classes. They just threw him in there because when he was younger, he had some anger problems. They treated him like he was stupid in this class, therefore, he skated through high-school doing work that a third grader could do. It really upset me that instead of taking time with him, they just threw him under the rug and essentially forgot about his existence. All children are different, and all have opinions and ideas if they are just listened to. I love that New Beginnings understands that. Good luck with building the middle school. I hope to hear about it in the near future. I guess the only thing I would have to ask is, how are children enrolled in your academy? Is there a selection process, or are all who apply, accepted?

Hello Mr. Millette, I am a student at Eastern Michigan, my major is General Business. I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide childern the education they deserve. It is very important that childern be able to study in a safe and comfortable enviroment. I a fan of charter school, I hope to see more charter schools in my community in the future. Good Luck with the middle school. I would like to know if you have considered starting a high school?

Hello Mr. Millette. Your concept about educating kids individually is quite refreshing. Quite often we hear about children being hurdled through grades that ultimately does a disservice to their future development. Each child is different, so it is beneficial to reach a child in a multitude of ways. Many kids suffer through poor communication from teachers. Many are just as intelligent as the upper tier students but some other circumstances prevent their skills from springing forward. I endorse your aspirations of keeping the classroom of small quantity and also knowing the students by name. That creates a sense of unity in the school environment.