Entirety K-12: Where learning is fueled by the imagination

BROOKSVILLE – Six individuals who attend Entirety K-12 private school form two lines of three inside the studio used for physical education. Normally, the six would be called students, but at this moment they are known as the “talent.”

In a few minutes, they will go through various workouts – squats and burpees and curls with hand weights. This will be recorded by the video production class as it updates the “Take a Tour” video on the school’s website.

Penny Bryson, Entirety K-12 owner and principal, walks among the talent, making final preparations before recording.

“I want authentic workout faces,” she says.

It is a Friday in early October, and that means it’s “Talent & Tools” day at the school. Monday through Thursday are for the core courses. On Fridays, the entire student body spends the day on one of eight elective classes. Architecture and engineering, culinary, and dance are year-long courses. Some students opt for the rotation of video production, art, forensics, and acts of service, with each running for eight weeks.

“These are elective courses to develop a talent or to build skills for your life’s toolbox,” Bryson says. “We are known for being a talent development school.”

Entirety K-12’s motto is “Learning. Fueled by imagination.” All things are possible.

In video production, the students learn all phases of making a video, from selecting the talent to storyboarding to setting a production schedule, to prepping the set, to recording and editing the video. The 14 students follow Tyler Mauriello, a professional videographer who teaches the course, around the school building as he sets up and explains the shots.

Earlier, Bryson showed the class the current “Take a Tour” video and sought their input on how to improve it. She wants the students to think of themselves as directors and the video as more of a project for a client than an assignment for a class. To that end, she constantly reminds them that “time is money.”

Physical education teacher Ashley Sims has each of the talent walk through their workout while Mauriello walks among them, setting up his shot.

Finally, everyone is ready.

“Quiet on the set!” Bryson yells.

Action.

Entirety K-12, in its current form, started in 2013. Located just north of downtown Brooksville, it occupies a building that was once a storage facility with a dance studio in the front. It has a student body of 130, with 60% receiving one of the scholarships managed by Step Up For Students.

The school year begins in August and runs through June, with the students having every fifth week off. The teachers spend that week on lesson planning and meetings. The students get a breather from what Bryson said is four weeks of intense learning.

“We go to school for four weeks and we get a week off. Who doesn’t like that?” said Vadin Mankotya, a seventh-grader.

Bryson is a speech and language pathologist who specialized in phonological disorder and dyslexia. She spent 10 years working in a district school system before leaving to conduct a research project.

One of the students in her study was on the autism spectrum. He responded so well that his mother asked Bryson if he could remain in the study the following year as his form of school. Another parent wanted the same for her daughter, so Bryson opened a school for children with dyslexia. All the students were hand-picked, and each was a gifted student. That was in 2011.

The study concluded the following year, but the parents wanted their children to remain with Bryson. So, she hired a teacher and opened the school for students of all abilities, calling it Academy at the Beat.

In 2013, with the student population growing, Bryson hired more teachers and changed the school’s name to Entirety K-12.

While Bryson is the owner and principal, she does not place herself at the top of the staff’s hierarchy.

“We have what I call a platform program,” Bryson said. “We don’t have a top down. It’s a lateral. We all work as one team. We all have our role.”

And she fills the staff with professionals. Sims is a certified personal trainer. Kaylee La Placa is an art teacher with a visual arts and marketing degree from the University of South Florida.

La Placa recalled the day four years ago when she interviewed for a position at Entirety K-12.

“It was so different than anything I thought it would be and anything I’m used to,” she said.

Each school year has a theme, and the theme is divided into four sections. This year’s theme is wild – Wild West, Wild Imagination, Wildlife, and Wild Design. The teachers tailor their lessons around these themes.

“The things the kids get to experience here, not just in the class but on field trips, it’s so awesome,” La Placa said.

The students themselves have roles beyond the classroom. They help set up the school in the morning and clean up after the last class. They make the decorations for the float that traditionally wins first place at Brooksville’s annual Christmas parade. La Placa’s art students paint the murals that decorate the hallways.

“You cannot get bored here,” Vadin said. “There’s just so much to do.”

That’s Bryson’s point. She doesn’t want the students to feel as if they are simply going to school.

“I love Entirety K-12,” said Jennifer Mankotya, Vadin’s mom. “Vadin has been at a couple of different schools, and this one is absolutely amazing. Obviously, you can see their teaching mechanisms are different than normal. I’ve never seen a school like this.

“My son does not like to miss school. He doesn’t. He has fun at school.”

Adlin Sowder soared above the trees and over a river last January during the four-day school outing to a campsite in Ocala. The seventh-grader, along with nearly every student at Entirety K-12, was ziplining.

The middle school students read Edgar Rice Burroughs’s classic novel, “Tarzan of the Apes.” Bryson wanted the students to experience life in the jungle, or life as close to a jungle as kids from central Florida can get.

They camped, hiked, kayaked, swam and went ziplining.

To prepare, the students learned about the plants and wildlife they would encounter. They learned to measure food, so they would have enough to eat. Bryson even had them learn how to swing from one rope to another.

She wanted them to feel like Tarzan.

“We did,” Adlin said, “when we were (ziplining) through the trees.”

Bryson sees the yearly outings as personal development trips.

“Quietly embedded in every trip is a skill they are weak in,” she said.

One year, the students flew to Washington, D.C. They learned how to find their way around an airport and how to navigate a subway system. Bryson wants her students to realize they can function away from their parents and, in the case of the Tarzan trip, without their iPhones and laptops.

Bryson wants them to expand their comfort zone, which was the purpose of the zipline.

“It was one of the scariest moments, but also one of the most peaceful,” Vadin said. “It was beautiful up there. You could see the river. It was like you were on top of the world.”

When asked about his camping experience, sixth-grader Colin Galiardo said, “We lived the life of Tarzan. It was awesome.”

This year’s trip: Busch Gardens in Tampa, where the students will be embedded with the zoologists for four days, 24/7.

“The trips are experiencing life in its own context,” Bryson said. “You can say, ‘Oh, this is what a zoologist does,’ but unless you are there with the animals, you really don’t know what a zoologist does. You can say this is how Tarzan lived, or this is what it’s like to live in the Congo, but you really don’t know unless you experience it.

“It’s learning what something feels like for real.”

Roger Mooney, manager, communications, can be reached at [email protected].