Breakthrough Charter School’s first graduating class walked across the stage one by one in the school auditorium to receive their diplomas recently. Each student had chosen a person who helped them during their school years — a parent, grandparent, teacher, or sibling — to place a robe on their shoulders and a cap on their heads.
Breakthrough opened in August 2021 with kindergarten through eighth grade classes and added one grade each year. This first graduating class is made up of eighteen students.
“Today is more than a ceremony,” founder and Superintendent Darren Ramalho told students, families, and friends. “Today is history.”
Ramalho said the robing ceremony was meant to honor the students and the people who helped them graduate.
“The robing ceremony reminds us that no one reaches a milestone alone,” he said. “Behind every graduate is someone who prayed for them, pushed them, believed in them, sacrificed for them, encouraged them, and refused to let them quit.”
The school’s first seniors, he said, are “the first to walk this path, the first to set the standard, and the first to prove what was possible.”
Caleb Brooks was interested in trucks when he became a Breakthrough student four years ago. Now, he plans to study the logistics of moving goods across the country.
“I wanted to drive trucks,” Brooks said. “So instead of driving trucks, I want to major in supply chain management.”
Brooks has been accepted by Florida A&M University, where he plans to study supply chain management with help from academic and community scholarships.
Breakthrough changed the way Brooks thought about school and his future.
He previously attended Francis Marion School, one of Perry County’s two public K-12 schools. Moving to a new school as a high school freshman was a risk, Brooks said, but one he now sees as worthwhile.
Students at Breakthrough say they’ve found access in addition to academic support — access to teachers, counselors, and adults who kept asking them about their goals and helping them attain them.
“It kind of feels nice to have people that are not related to you show that they care,” Brooks said.
His mother, Earnestine Wagner-Holley, said the new school helped bring out her son’s academic potential.
“Breakthrough helped bring out the academics in Caleb,” she said.
Before coming to Breakthrough, Caleb told her he wasn’t interested in college. Now, he’s graduated with a 3.95 GPA and earned a $7,000 annual scholarship from FAMU.
Wagner-Holley said the school’s small size and communication accessibility for parents made a difference. Staff members are quick to report their concerns to parents, she said.
She also said the school gives families in Perry County something rare in rural communities: a public-school choice.
“By this being a small town, it’s a blessing to have a choice,” Wagner-Holley said. “People need to understand what works for me might not work for you, but what works for you doesn’t work for me. So it’s good to have a choice.”
Breakthrough is one of the few charter schools in the state. Ramalho said rural families typically have fewer education options than their counterparts in cities or suburbs.
“You don’t have school choice opportunities as much in rural education,” he said. “To create this space has been good.”
The charter school’s first graduating class has high hopes for the future.
During Thursday’s ceremony, students announced plans to attend colleges including Florida A&M University, University of South Alabama, University of West Alabama, Troy University, UAB, Wallace Community College, and Jefferson State Community College. Students also plan to learn trades, enlist in the military, or join the workforce.
Kalashia Moore and Jaden Melton will both be attending the University of South Alabama. Moore plans to study speech and hearing sciences and wants to become an audiologist. Melton is interested in marketing and real estate and plans to major in business.
Moore believes the school’s small size helps students build close relationships with teachers.
“We’re all very close with our teachers,” Moore said. Teachers “take time out of their day” to tutor students when they need help, she said.
Melton said students know they can ask for help from counselors, teachers, or even the head of the school.
“You can talk to the counselors,” Melton said. When students need help, adults at Breakthrough give them “an extra, extra push,” she said.
Students said the charter school also made them aware of options they might not have considered on their own, including college visits, community college programs, and trades.
Melton said those experiences helped students decide what they wanted to pursue after graduation.
For Brooks, the school helped him turn an interest in trucking into a plan to study supply chain management.
David Marshall, a Breakthrough board member, was serving on the Alabama Public Charter School Commission when plans for the school were approved in 2020. He said approving a new charter school came down to deciding whether to “place a bet” on the people proposing it.
“I looked at the plan that Darren and his group put forward,” Marshall said. “And I said, I think that I would place a bet on these individuals to open up a school.”
Seeing the first graduating class, he said, showed that early confidence is beginning to pay off.
“This is a moment I’m proud to be affiliated with Breakthrough Charter School,” Marshall said.
