ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A few years ago, Chloe McDaniel didn’t think graduating high school was a possibility.
The now 18-year-old was overwhelmed at Apopka High School — the crowded hallways, the anxiety, the growing number of missed days. Halfway through one semester, she recalled hitting a wall.
“I was getting anxious every single day,” she said. “It was just too much.”
Chronic absenteeism has surged across the country since the COVID-19 pandemic, with more students missing class, falling behind and jeopardizing their futures. In Florida, more than 31% of students were considered chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year.
But McDaniel found something different at Sheeler High School, a small, public charter school in Apopka that’s rewriting the script and giving students a second chance.
“It took me a while but once I got in the groove, I passed and graduated,” she said, adding that if she had stayed at Apopka High School she likely wouldn’t have graduated.
Sheeler recently celebrated its largest graduating class yet — 127 students out of roughly 300 enrolled. The tuition-free school is part of Orange County Public Schools and issues the same diploma as any traditional high school.
The difference is in the structure:
- Students choose a morning or afternoon session
- There’s no homework
- Every student receives a personalized binder with all the supplies they need
- More support staff than teachers help keep students on track
“All we want you to do is show up,” said Principal Jonathan Owens, now entering his ninth year leading Sheeler. “We give them everything they need.”
If students don’t show up, Owens says his staff notices quickly: “They’re going to your house, knocking on your door and saying, ‘Where you at?’”
“When you walk into orientation on day one, we start tracking you from there,” said Monic SaintAnge, the attendance coordinator at Sheeler.
Sheeler operates out of a strip mall between a tax office and a retail store — a location chosen for its access to public transportation. LYNX bus routes run directly past the school, and students receive free passes.
LaDwyana Jordan, a family support specialist at Sheeler, builds relationships with students right when they enroll.
“I like to consider myself as their lifeline,” she said. “If they run into situations that cause them to be truant, I give them my business card, school and work phone, everything to reach out to me.”
Now in her eighth year at Sheeler, Jordan says she constantly has to work hard to shake off the school’s stigma.
“We’re absolutely not a behavioral school,” she said. “Yes, it’s one hallway, but a lot of magic happens between these walls.”
The kind of magic that turns potential dropouts into graduates.
“Honestly, it felt surreal (to graduate),” McDaniel said. “Because of what happened in the past, I didn’t think I would graduate. I never thought I would make it to this point.”
Sheeler High School is one of eight Central Florida schools run by Second Mile Education, which operates campuses in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Brevard counties.
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