Funded by school vouchers, middle school for LGBTQ+ youth to open in Arizona
Last week, 13-year-old Ash Blakely decided to switch schools, and his mom thinks there's been something different about him since.
"There's just a little bit more of a smile on his face," Melanie Ford said.
Ash decided to enroll at the Queer Blended Learning Center, a microschool being launched in August for middle schoolers. The school will be funded by Arizona's education vouchers and housed at the downtown Phoenix headquarters of one∙n∙ten, a nonprofit that serves LGBTQ+ youth. The school's founders aim to give young people who may feel uncomfortable in a larger school a safe space to be themselves and learn. LGBTQ+ history will be on the curriculum.
Ash, who is transgender, said the school will take stressors off his mind. For one, the school uses single-stall bathrooms, removing a day-to-day complication he had to deal with at his old school. He said he's also excited by the smaller class size and more freedom to explore topics that interest him.
When Ash and his parents visited the space that will become the Queer Blended Learning Center recently, he was sold on enrolling before he left the building. Outside the classroom space, young people were laughing in a kitchen stocked with snacks. A friend Ash knows from camp, another one∙n∙ten offering, was there checking out the school and decided to enroll too.
Jason McIntosh, the teacher for the new microschool, asked prospective students who visited last week how they felt about the classroom space. McIntosh plans to allow students to decorate the space. He wants them to feel comfortable.
"Maybe some Pride flags on the wall," Ash said.
School founders responding to anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment
Nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced this year in statehouses across the country, according to a tally by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Arizona's Legislature so far this year has passed bills to stop school officials from honoring transgender students' names or pronouns without parental permission and restrict trans students' access to public school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Both were vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs.
It's this environment that makes a school for LGBTQ+ youth so critical, the school's founders said.
“We’re seeing nationally that LGBTQ youth are, frankly, under attack legislatively” and culturally, said one∙n∙ten CEO Nate Rhoton. “It’s deadly to the youth that we serve."
Because of "this state of cultural war with the LGBTQ community at the epicenter," the organization's leaders believe programming like the Queer Blended Learning Center "is absolutely necessary and, in fact, lifesaving for the young people that we will reach," he said.
Rhoton said similar projects are underway elsewhere in the U.S. A queer-centered microschool recently opened in Atlanta and a microschool for LGBTQ+ youth is planned for Las Vegas.
Through one∙n∙ten's existing programs, which include wellness programs and regular gatherings for youth across the Valley, the organization's staff has found that middle school is particularly challenging for young LGBTQ+ people, Rhoton said.
“We just had this population of sixth, seventh and eighth graders that could really benefit from a safe space to be able to really have exceptional education while also having education that pertains to their own identity,” he said.
LGBTQ+ youth "tend to be shy" and "don't want to become targets," said Clayton Davenport, one∙n∙ten's director of development and marketing.
“Being able to raise their hands and ask their questions in a safe, affirming environment is going to be key to their mental health and educational advancement," Davenport said.
The school's operators are cautious of potential backlash. But because Hobbs has been "very direct about her insistence on protecting LGBTQ youth," one∙n∙ten has "some cover" to open the microschool without too much fear of retaliation from other elected officials, Rhoton said.
School will combine in-person and online instruction
So far, there are about a half-dozen students enrolled in the Queer Blended Learning Center, according to Darla Baquedano, the director of education for Spark Community Schools, a program of Thrive Services Group. While one∙n∙ten is providing the space, classroom supplies, technology and internet access, Thrive Services Group hired McIntosh, lined up the curriculum and is in charge of the school's administration.
McIntosh will be instructing a mixed-age classroom that could grow to 10 to 12 students. Families will be able to pay for the whole cost of tuition through Arizona’s school voucher program, which was expanded last year to allow all school-age children in Arizona to receive public funding for private school tuition, home school supplies and other educational resources.
Come Aug. 1, Ash and his new classmates’ school days will begin with sessions on topics like problem-solving and conflict resolution, said Baquedano.
“We know that throughout the rest of the day, they might encounter situations where they’ll need to use those skills,” she said.
Reading, writing, math and science lessons will be delivered to students in the classroom through an online homeschool program called Time4Learning. Each student's instructional level will be determined through an individual assessment, Baquedano said.
Students will learn LGBTQ+ history each day from McIntosh, who will use a curriculum created by the New York City Department of Education called Hidden Voices: LGBTQ+ Stories in United States History.
The curriculum "highlights different significant historical figures in the LGBTQ+ community," Baquedano said.
It's a program the students will be able to "see themselves reflected in," she said. "We thought that that was very important."
Social studies lessons will also be taught with a curriculum from the NYC Department of Education called Civics for All. The goal of these lessons will be to teach students about "history and government and civics ... through the lens of populations and communities that aren't always prevalent in traditional textbooks," Baquedano said.
Students will take on projects that will encourage them to delve into a topic they're interested in and "along the way, they're learning critical thinking and problem-solving skills," McIntosh said.
Although the curriculum is set, some logistical aspects of the school are still being organized. The school hopes to offer lunches and transportation in the future. For now, parents will need to fill in those gaps.
For Ash's parents, finding a way to get him from north Peoria to downtown Phoenix is a small price to pay.
“We’ll do whatever we have to,” Melanie said. “It’s important for him.”
More: How these queer spaces are creating safe havens for LGBTQ communities
Helen Rummel is a Pulliam Fellow for The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at hrummel@gannett.com or on Twitter @helenrummel.
Madeleine Parrish covers K-12 education. Reach her at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter at @maddieparrish61.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Voucher-funded school for LGBTQ+ youth to open in Phoenix
