Cypress Creek Academy School/Community Advisory Council

One of the most gratifying schools for me to visit and share about is the Cypress Creek Academy, which is also a 96 bed High & Maximum-Risk Male Juvenile Detention Center located in Lecanto.

I am the School Board member on the School’s/Community’s Advisory Council and visit the Academy a number of times throughout each year and have for the last six years.  What often surprises people when they visit CCA is that is has some impressive learning taking place and given that it is a detention center it often surprises visitors that it looks very much like a school setting.

Many of these students have made some extremely poor choices prior to being brought to CCA.  Much of these students will be at CCA between 18-24 months.  While at CCA a partnership between the Citrus School Board, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and G4S (the company that manages CCA) work together to make a lasting education difference in the lives of these students.  At the center of this partnership is CCA Principal Robert Cummins or as he is referred to by most at CCA, “Coach”.

At this quarters SAC meeting Cummins shared of many recent successes of their students.  He shared that traditional Florida high school graduation courses are offered as are G.E.D. courses. Cummins talked about some newer programs they have begun at CCA in order to provide career skills and future opportunity to students.  CCA now offers several Home Builders Institute programs. This program provides the student the opportunity to get career certified in a number of construction areas including OSHA training. Cummins explained that of their students that have completed the HBI programs 100% of them have had a job placement after leaving CCA.  Also offered at CCA is Truck Driving and Equipment vehicles training using computer simulators.  Students can complete all levels of driving training and certification up to the actual State Driving Test.

CCA focuses many of their academic on vocational course options, but they also have a number of students that attend colleges virtually. A recent CCA student completed a Bachler’s Degree and was halfway through his Master’s before he left CCA.  CCA is one of two facilities that can offer ACT testing for college entrance and high school promotion.  Another recent student scored an outstanding 31 (95^th percentile) on the ACT.

Obviously not all of these students are prepared academically to attend college or vocational programs. These students may have learning disabilities or other learning challenges and so Cummins’s staff provides a number of remediative strategies to help increase the students’ academic knowledge.

The proof of CCA’s success is that while statistically nearly 50% of youth sadly reoffend and return to a Juvenile Detention Center, CCA only has a reoffending rate of approximately 35%.  A testament of CCA’s staff and leadership.

Next CCA is exploring the idea of a program that would pair students with animal training.  The program could provide career animal training certifications.  In addition, there are programs that have shown a positive result for both the youth and the animal of these programs.  The student learns how to care for something more than just themselves and the animal provide companionship that is non-judgmental.

At this time CCA has several picnic tables that they would like to share with the community that were built by their HBI students.  If you know of a not-for-profit, school or other facility that would like to benefit from one of these tables, please contact me and I will contact you with CCA.