Aurelia M. Cole was an inspiration, and now she is the namesake of a new Lake County school
CLERMONT — The pre-K through 8th grade Aurelia M. Cole Academy looks nothing like the Clermont Middle School it replaced.
It is the point. Amen!
Gone is the football field from the old Clermont High School days, and the rickety portable I was assigned to in 2002 to try to teach language arts to adolescents who had the attention span of gnats.
I had retired from the Orlando Sentinel and wanted to reassure the new generation shaken by the terror attacks of 9/11.
I only lasted a year, and I wouldn’t have lasted that long if not for the principal: Aurelia Cole.
She was inspiring. Sometimes you wanted to burst out of meeting rooms and pour your heart out on students.
“Never give up on a kid” was one of her mottos.
She was supportive, too. She even let me write a column for the Sentinel, including the following: “I could feel the blood rushing to my face in embarrassment as my brilliant young scholars dragged themselves to the bookshelf to pick up a copy of the day’s reading assignment.
“They looked as if they would rather have taken a beating than do something as strenuous as actually turning a page to read. ‘It gets better,’ Cole said, as a look of pity and concern crossed her face.”
I would write about how it was a new school on an old site, how the air conditioner in my portable broke down, and how dedicated teachers found ways to beat the obstacles, including the challenge of educating half-grown humans who could not stop talking.
“There should be a law against having this many hormones in one place,” I wrote.
I was lured back into journalism at the Ocala Star-Banner. I had covered jail riots, fires, and hurricanes without suffering so much as a scratch. As a teacher, my nose was bloodied when I tried to open a window in my portable, and my hand was slammed by a car door.
There were moments, however, when the light bulb lit over a kid’s head, when they turned it around, when they gained self-confidence and when they caught the vision.
On July 26, members of the community and Cole’s family filled the impressive 400-seat auditorium to praise Cole’s contributions. Among them was her daughter, Danielle Cole-Green, who was an educator herself.
Aurelia Cole died of cancer in 2018 at the age of 69.
She boarded a train for Tuskegee Institute at age 16 to follow her family’s legacy as educators, Green said.
A native of Clermont, she wasn’t even allowed to step foot on segregated school properties, but would go on to become a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and assistant school superintendent, breaking down barriers everywhere she went.
Fittingly, the new school students will walk across the gleaming gym floor with the logo “Trailblazers” at mid-court when school starts Aug. 10.
In the old days, when teachers visited parents’ homes, it would break her heart to see TVs, boom boxes and other gear but no books.
“Read, read, and read some more!” she would implore her students, Green said.
Other speakers included County Commissioner Sean Parks, School Board Chairman Marc Dodd, School Superintendent Diane Kornegay, Mayor Tim Murry, and Scott Voytko, the principal.
The $52 million, 163,000-square-foot facility, which will house 1,200 students, has a huge library space and special places for reading, including an “emerging reader” room for the youngest students.
It will be a performing arts-focused school that will offer a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) curriculum. Computer skills will be taught at all grade levels. Robotics will be offered as an elective for fourth and fifth grade students.
More education news: How do I apply for free or reduced school lunches in Florida? What programs are available?
There will be a culinary program that will be used to teach younger students about fractions in real-life settings, and cooking for older ones, a mirrored dance studio, ballet barres and special flooring.
There is also a dedication wall to Cole, with her picture and one of her encouraging quotes: “A champion is the one who won’t quit. No matter how difficult situations become, you have to know that you can overcome them.”
Frank Stanfield is a veteran journalist and correspondent for the Daily Commercial.
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Remembering the wise words of Lake educator Aurelia M. Cole
