Lead Academy Learning Center/Classical School

4106 Berryhill Road

Pace, FL 32571

44 Reviews

School District
Grade

PK, K-3
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by teacher on August 20, 2024

This school essentially boils down to the following: 1) money 2) athletics 3) bullying. So, with the first pay close attention to your scholarship. They add fees for services children don't receive (tutoring). They still have not sent the excess they took back to step up so we could be credited and get reimbursed for my child's other activities outside the school. It costs about a $1,000 per child to attend that scholarship doesn't cover, and their curriculum has changed the past 6 years in elementary. In regards to the second, they care about athletes. They are exceptions to the rule, even if they are blatantly disrespectful and disruptive to the rest of the learning environment. The schools goal is to build their athletic department, not academics. Which leads to minimum activities for students to participate in. This makes it a struggle for those in high school working towards scholarships. Lastly, the bullying is by administrators. It is family run, where the family has complete control. If you disagree with something they do, be prepared to be yelled at by the administration. It is unprofessional and they do not care. Since Aug. 2023, they lost over 20 staff members of around 60. The prior year was another high turn over year. Teachers are leaving, staff is leaving, families are leaving. Families that have been there since the beginning. Kids deserve better, families deserve better, and it started as a good dream. They family is running it down the drain, and it's sad. The primary goal of parents is to train up their children. Protect your children by not sending them here.
Submitted by parent on August 09, 2024

Teachers are okay, they try hard but struggle under the authoritative administration. Not much else positive I can say. The problems?1. The administration is awful. The founders daughter is one of the main administrators and is the biggest bully I’ve met. She treats students and parents with total disdain. Never met an educator who is so rude and mean. The administration rules by discipline and punishment. 2. A lack of educational options to prepare for college. High school options are limited since most funds are spent on athletics. No clubs, societies or groups to join. No prom, formals or anything fun. It’s all about control. 3. Administration will only acknowledge your existence if you are a large donor. Otherwise you do not exist. Try to talk to one and your are rudely and rapidly dismissed. Admin is vindictive, if you pull your kids out getting transcripts is almost impossible. 4. There is favoritism towards students that belong to large donor families. Innocent kids with no connections are expelled in favor of guilty kids of large donors. This is after 4 years of sending my kids there. I would not recommend this school.
Submitted by other on August 09, 2024

I’m a former-student who attended for a few years, before departing to finish my education in public school. There’s a couple reasons as to why my time here was elongated: #1 there’s very few options in the area and #2 I’ve had the Gardiner scholarship ever since I began school because I needed it for special ed. I did not need it when I started going to Lead. At the time I was enrolled, they accepted it, but provided zero special ed. They stopped accepting it, likely due to that. Other than special ed, there are points to take to consideration before enrolling your child here. Inclusion is an issue. Everywhere has a “popularity game”, but here it’s on another level. Athletes with ebullient (and neroutypical) personalities are favored. It goes so far that if something inappropriate occurs, they’ll pit the blame on students that aren’t as favored to save favored kids from trouble. Expulsion of innocent students has occurred because of this, despite having proof of innocence. There are bullies within the students and staff. It’s not rare that I’d hear a white student say that a black student looks like a monkey, and it’s not rare that a particular admin will be rude to both students and parents that aren’t associated with her precious athletes. The bullying rarely gets physical, but it’s there in a way that lingers around the air constantly. Money is another point. Their greed is high, and they care to fund athletics more than academics. Their curriculum is lacking and changes every year, which causes students to fall behind. They also lack in clubs and electives. They offer FFA, music, theatre, and yearbook, but they set it up to where you can’t pick your own elective. They consistently have SGA and Chess Club, and inconsistently have Beta Club and Math Club. On the topic of electives, be wary that Lead requires PE all four years of high school, and I call their PE program militaristic. It may be a slight hyperbole, but it’s definitely brutal, especially for non-athletes. Students tend to pass out, puke, and have asthma attacks due to PE, and the staff does nothing to help. Lastly, I do want to say that I’ve meet some of my most perplexing friends and teachers here. Lead wishes they could take credit for bringing me out of shell, but it was my misfit friends that did it. They’re phenomenal, it’s admin that’s hostile and incompetent. I was dumbfounded by how friendly admin at my new school because of Lead’s admin. Don’t give this school your time or money.
Submitted by teacher on June 23, 2024

L.E.A.D. Academy teachers are committed to the mission of the school to come alongside parents and help raise students with a biblical worldview. Teachers have a desire to invest in the lives of their students academically and spiritually. Teachers integrate the Bible and show its relevance to all subjects while teaching truth, beauty, and goodness. There is no teacher at L.E.A.D. just collecting a paycheck or riding out their years until retirement. The administration treats students as family, going out of their way to make accommodations to help children however they can academically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. The school does not offer all accommodations for special education students and the administration tells parents upfront what they can and cannot accommodate and have told parents when they are unable to provide the resources a student needs. Safety is ever present in the minds of the administration and teachers and adjustments are made whenever necessary to enhance the both the physical and social/emotional safety of students. I have heard from students who have come to us from other schools that we are more structured and disciplined and having taught in a public school (in another county) I would say that is true. It also means as a teacher I spend more time teaching and less time dealing with discipline issues. We do push our students to do hard things and teach them that hard is not bad. After all, the "L" in our name stands for Leadership and leaders must learn to do hard things. The school offers many opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. It is a privilege to work alongside administrators who wholeheartedly and tirelessly give of themselves to serve the students and parents. The administration full heartedly supports teachers and provides great professional development opportunities.
Submitted by parent on June 08, 2024

I can't yet speak as to LEAD's academic congruence with public school; I will find out in August whether or not my kids are behind and update my review. In addition to the requisite ELA, math, science and history, LEAD students learn the Bible, Latin and music, and they offer an elective musical theater group. Unfortunately though, LEAD does not offer a visual arts program nor is their a library on campus. Athletics are emphasized above all, it seems.I could put a lot of the negativity we experienced on blast, but I see no point in that. Instead, I will offer three points of constructive feedback in an effort to educate other parents and hopefully influence change. 1) Inclusion. Please be mindful of equitable treatment of students and families. We noticed an air of cliquishness and favoritism playing out in peers, faculty and parents. I realize this occurs everywhere but it was in plain sight at LEAD - and our kids were aware of it too. 2) Discipline. Don't use the Bible to punish, period. Using scripture to shame anyone, especially those who may not yet be believers, is not good. Making a child copy the same verse multiple times or telling them to read it out loud in the hall while other students stare is not only ineffective but humiliating, and can cause them to make a negative association with God's word. It is both willfully ignorant and sanctimonious to assume that problematic behavior is due to a lack of Jesus. 3) Communication. Respond to parents when they email you with a question or concern, even if you don't have an answer. Something like, "We don't have answers right now but we'll get to the bottom of it" would be appropriate. A certain administrator did not respond to us at all when we raised a question about how our child's papers were graded. 4) Management of funds. This practice is highly suspect at LEAD. They demand an exorbitant amount of money in registration fees in January to secure your child's spot for the upcoming school year, in addition to a technology and book fee, totaling approximately $1K out-of-pocket per student. We also noted an "in-class assistance" fee tagged on to one of our children's tuition - but our child received no such benefit. And if you question the handling of money, you are shut down by staff and parents alike.LEAD wasn't entirely bad - we liked some teachers and staff, but sadly they left or are leaving. I think there is evil amuck and it would behoove LEAD to put on their armor and address it.
Submitted by parent on June 02, 2024

Overall, poor quality education. They do not care about the children, and they only care to get your money. Their recent increase in fees proves they want to get every dime they can out of you when other local private schools offer more for less tuition/fees. LEAD mismanages their funds, and the kids suffer. Kindergarten was charged technology fees, yet their kindergarten groups don't use technology. The funds they charge does't go to providing the students a quality education. In fact, the school changes curriculum every year that the students get left behind. They didn't even have a true science curriculum for third and below this year. They have consistently ran off quality teachers and have high turnover rates every year. They claim to be classical, yet what they do is no different than public school. They only cater to sports programs, and they ignore offering activities and clubs for academics. This school is extremely disappointing for the amount of money it costs. And if you don't believe the reviews, ask on local pages what people think of the local private schools. They will rave about every other, and you will get comment after comment about the negative experiences of this school. Even public school is better than here.
Submitted by parent on June 02, 2024

This school cares about your money, not your child. They consistently have adults that bully children, and they do not care about your child's academics. They are unprofessional in how they deal with your child and parents. They are behind other school academically because they keep changing curriculum, and is not organized by a coordinator. Kids are not getting the foundation they need to be successful in upper grades. They have high staff turnover, and make sure you watch that scholarship. They added fees to accounts for services that students didn't receive. Avoid at all costs if you care about your children's future and their view in life.
Submitted by teacher on February 02, 2024

L.E.A.D. Academy is a sub-par school. Compared to the public schools in the area, they are both very underwhelming for what they claim, and severely lacking in student progress/achievement. I remember specifically, having to argue with parents about historical facts taught in my class, when I have a masters in the field of history. When the parents confronted the administration about it, the administration, knowing and being shown proof of a historical fact, wanted me to teach inaccuracies in the history of the world, because they are a "good family", if that is suppose to equate to experience as a historian. I remember arguing with my co-teacher about historical facts, when indeed she based her American history on I kid you not, various movies and other highly inaccurate media. I'm sorry, but this school does not care about actually teaching, but the income it generates. Talking about fellow teachers, if you are lucky enough to co-teach, be ready for parents to pick a favorite teacher, and have that said teacher actively work against you, and bad mouth you to the parents after school. Talk about professionalism at this school! After switching to public education the environment was much more conducive to learning, which is a shame when L.E.A.D. claims to strive to be the best in the area. When it comes to God's Word, you can teach straight from the Bible, but if it contradicts their doctrines of man, i.e. baptism not being necessary for salvation, you are told, and again I kid you not, "You are not paid to teach the Bible, you are paid to teach what we believe". For a Christian school I would hate to stand in judgement before Jesus' throne and have to answer why they purposely taught in error, as false teachers, when it is clear in the scriptures what is expected of a Christian, and how to become one. In conclusion, the "educators" here are most likely not qualified to teach anywhere, which is why they can only find work at L.E.A.D.
Submitted by parent on August 31, 2023

This school is one of the worst schools my family has dealt with. I was in the military and we’ve seen a lot of schools all over the country. I had two kids in this school. My daughter was in 8th grade and struggled tremendously. She went through 6 different teachers. Last year we pulled her out and she went to public school for her freshman year of high school. We realised quickly how behind she was in EVERY subject. She worked really hard and went from a struggling student, to almost straight A’s by the end of the year. This year she is in honors classes and she has finally recovered from the poor curriculum of LEAD Academy. Unfortunately we decided to keep our son in for a total of two years. 4th and 5th grade. We made the decision before we knew exactly how bad Lead was. We should’ve pulled him out in the middle of the school year. He hated every minute of it. We put him back into public school this year and he is way behind the other students. He’s struggling, but we’ll get him back to where he should be, since we have experience with it. We’ve been told by teachers at Pace High school that students from LEAD Academy struggle when they go back to public high school, and struggle to graduate. Lead isn’t a cheap school. Where is the money going? Not paying for exceptional teachers, but paying for baseball fields and a running track. This school looks good on the outside, but students regularly get bullied by students of teachers AND the teachers themselves. We were always worried about saying something because of the possibility of him getting treated worse. It’s happened when other parents complained. In conclusion, this school is absolute garbage and having our kids go there was a really bad decision. Don’t make the same mistake we made.
Submitted by other on March 05, 2023

In the first three years of its online high school program, LEAD was essentially putting high school students on laptops and having them complete courses completely independently. Many of the teachers who were the most helpful in guiding the high schoolers left the school, making for an isolated learning experience. My family and I were on the receiving end of some shockingly disrespectful and immature treatment from high-ranking members of the school staff, which is really a shame because most of the staff members truly are helpful. The curriculum for high school students comes from Liberty University. While this online university provides a flexible schedule and plenty of freedom in selection of courses, it fails in preparing students for higher education, with very limited AP options. It does more than enforce Biblical moral values - students can expect learning material that asserts things like young Earth creationism and ultratraditional gender roles to be fact. This viewpoint influences everything from science to history classes, and students must write assignments in support of these views to complete the courses. While I do not expect LEAD Academy to move away from the fundamentalist values it is built on, I would like to see it engage more closely with the students that are working with the online courses in order to bring their experiences closer to the rest of the students'.
Submitted by parent on January 03, 2023

They care more for money they get from you.Not professional Unfortunately there are not much options in this area for schools
Submitted by teacher on August 15, 2022

As a former teacher at this school and someone who has worked in public education in Santa Rosa and Escambia county, this schools curriculum is a joke. The kids are not being challenged every day and in fact most of the students could barely read/write. The parents at this school form special clubs in which they bad talk teachers who do actually challenge their kids. If you are lucky enough to have fellow faculty/staff kids as your students, then the parents also join in with the harassment that parents at this school gives teachers. This school prides itself for being tough academically on kids and parents. This is not the case as teachers and administration are pushovers. As a side note if you actually are a Christian and follow the Truth found in God's Word and teach it to the kids, be ready to spend 3 hours most days after school contending for the faith as Jude writes about. These people do not care about what the Bible says even as it is being read to them. They would rather be caught up with false doctrines made by men and not supported by the scriptures. If you are a prospective teacher I would not recommend L.E.A.D. Academy!
Submitted by parent on May 31, 2022

We're not sure why the bad reviews for LEAD. We have had all three of our kids at LEAD this year and we love it. The only negative we could say is that our kids come home tired every day, but that's not really a negative. That's just a sign that our kids are being challenged mentally and physically every day at school. We don't send our kids to school to be babysat. We expect them to be challenged and to learn. For that reason, we're giving LEAD 5 stars.
Submitted by parent on May 31, 2022

My daughter just finished kindergarten at LEAD. She has thoroughly enjoyed it. She has made great gains academically, especially in reading and handwriting skills. I love how small the classroom size was (10 students). They performed a lot of hands on activities/crafts. The expectations are set high, but my daughter did not have any issues keeping up. The staff was kind and always willing to help.
Submitted by other on May 22, 2022

They are using staff and students to say positive things on this review to keep the score higher on this site. The people who run this school call themselves Christian’s, but under no uncertain terms act like Christians. A Christian would not treat the children and parents the way they do.
Submitted by parent on May 19, 2022

My kids were bullied and they were blamed for not being mature enough to handle it
Submitted by parent on May 12, 2022

I would NEVER recommend this school EVER,,
Submitted by parent on May 11, 2022

Kids that go to this school are unfortunately testing grade levels behind.
Submitted by teacher on May 10, 2022

L.E.A.D. Academy is a Christ-centered school with a passion for Classical education. I have taught at several schools and no school has compared to L.E.A.D. The love the Lay’s show to their staff and students is unmatched. I have never worked somewhere where I felt more loved and appreciated than I do at L.E.A.D. If you are looking for a Classical school that focuses on having a bible foundation, promotes Christ-like behavior, and strives for students to excel in all their endevours, then please consider L.E.A.D. Academy.
Submitted by parent on May 10, 2022

Our 3 year old grandson attends this school. He loves his teacher and going to school every day. He has learned so much. He can count, knows his abc’s and can recite the 23rd Psalm. We love hearing him tell us how much he loves school and always looks forward to going back the next day. L.E.A D. Academy is such a great school. The teachers truly love and care for their students. We are so grateful that our sweet grandson is in such a loving environment at school. I would highly recommend this school. They are fantastic.