In the News

Pace Brantley Preparatory School Students Shine in Lake Mary Life Magazine!

Two Pace Brantley Preparatory School Students are featured in the Summer 2022 edition of Lake Mary Life Magazine.

Pace Brantley Junior Aidan Wilson and Alumni Hannah Allen are both highlighted for their amazing art work.

Click here to read their articles.

Hannah’s article is on pages 52-53.

Aidan’s article is on page 64.

Congratulations Aidan and Hannah!  We are so proud of you!

Pace Brantley Preparatory School Featured in Orlando Family Magazine

Pace Brantley Preparatory School not only works with students with identified learning disabilities we also work with those who have anxiety.

We provide strategies to successfully teach children how to handle anxiety in school, in social settings and their future.

Our school principal and high school guidance counselor are in an Orlando Family Magazine article on how to help students cope in various situations.

Click here to read the article.

Pace Brantley is Nationally Recognized by Thinking Maps

Pace Brantley Preparatory is featured in a case study on the success of using Thinking Maps.

Thinking Maps are used school wide to help provide structure for thinking that benefits students with all kinds of learning differences.

Click here to read the article.

Pace Brantley Student Named Arts4All Student of the Month

(Tampa, FL) October 25, 2021
Arts4All is pleased to announce 16-year-old, Aidan Wilson, as one of their October 2021 Student of the
Month winners. Aidan was nominated by Deborah Knispel, Art Teacher at Pace Brantley School in
Longwood, Florida. She writes, “The arts have changed Aidan’s life by bringing him out of his shell and
giving him a laser focus. His self-confidence has grown tremendously.”

Aidan’s ingenuity and creativity impressed Arts4All Florida very much. This young artist works with
recycled materials to bring 3D works to life. Ms. Knispel described how “[Aidan] scours the recycling bin
for plastic bottles and containers, cardboard boxes and paper towel rolls and transforms them into
works of art.” His works include life-size recreations of popular media characters such as Forky from Toy
Story 4, Spongebob Squarepants, Charlie Brown, and even Scarecrow and Dorothy from The Wizard of
Oz. Aidan is not just a visual artist but a performer as well. According to Ms. Knispel, he has secured
roles in plays such as Elf, High School Musical, Shrek, Wizard of Oz and is auditioning for Willy Wonka
and the Chocolate Factory this year. He not only performs on stage but also helps build the set designs
with the stagecraft crew.

Beyond the arts, Aidan has recently been inducted to Pace Brantley School’s National Honor Society and
is a part of the Pace News Network. He is also Team Captain and the Food Bag Leader for Hearts, Hands,
and Hope, a local nonprofit dedicated to serving meals to Seminole County families in need. These feats,
as well as his artistic accomplishments, are even more remarkable when considering that “just a few
years ago, Aidan couldn’t read, communicate and was afraid to talk or engage with other people.” Ms.
Knispel explained that since Aidan started at Pace Brantley and embraced the arts, he has transformed
“from hiding and not engaging, to standing in front of hundreds of people on stage.” Aidan’s story is
emblematic of the transformative role the arts can play in the lives of neurodiverse students.

Arts4All Florida looks forward to recognizing Aidan in our newsletter, highlighting him on our website
and sending him a personalized trophy. The Arts4All Florida Student of the Month Program is designed
to increase public awareness and recognize the impact arts make on students with disabilities statewide.

Students who participate in the arts develop creativity, have increased self-confidence, understand
teamwork, have increased language and math skills and are generally more engaged. For more
information about the Student of the Month program and others, please visit www.arts4allflorida.org.

Arts4All Florida is partially funded by the State of Florida, Department of Education, Bureau of
Exceptional Student Education (BESE), through federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), Part B.

RedefinED blogged about our Remote Learning Plan and shared our highlight video. You can read more about that at RedefinED.

While many schools throughout the state and the nation are recording lessons for students to access on demand, Pace Brantley School in Longwood is delivering online learning as if it’s a regular school day – and doing it with a healthy dose of imagination. The media team compiled a video to show the myriad ways teachers have come together to serve their students while staying within the bounds of social distancing.”

News 13 also featured a piece on our Remote Learning on television.

View it here or on our Videos Page

We are grateful to the Seminole County Chamber of Commerce for featuring our school and the Remote Learning Plan. Read more here

“What sets Pace Brantley School apart from other distance learning programs? The students are online with their teachers almost the entire day. “We didn’t want to be a school that was making parents “homeschool teachers” Tapley says, “we wanted to be a school that provided quality instruction during this critical time of uncertainty and a sense of calm community for our families.”

Longwood Award Program Honors the Achievement

LONGWOOD September 23, 2019 — Pace Brantley School has been selected for the 2019 Best of Longwood Award in the Private School category by the Longwood Award Program.

Each year, the Longwood Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Longwood area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2019 Longwood Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Longwood Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Longwood Award Program

The Longwood Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Longwood area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Longwood Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.

(Tampa, FL) September 16, 2019

 

Arts4All Florida is pleased to announce 18-year-old Ryan Sleboda as one of their September 2019 Students of the Month, the first of the 2019-2020 school year. Ryan was nominated by Evan Starcher, the Dean of Students and instructor at Pace Brantley School in Longwood, Florida for his outstanding work in TV Productions as well as a host of other arts-based accolades. Mr. Starcher writes, “Ryan has not only created the project on the History of Pace Brantley, but he also serves as our lead anchor on our daily morning announcements.  He has created numerous visually appealing segments for the program that are shared with the students and staff daily.  His technical skills with the programs that we use in TV Productions are a true work of art.”

 

The History of Pace Brantley, was written, directed, filmed and narrated by Ryan and is an in-depth documentary about his school, why it was created and the potential future for this iconic educational site for students with specific learning disabilities to learn and develop. “His finished product and dedication to the artistic process is well deserving of recognition beyond the classroom”, Mr. Starcher explicates.

 

Ryan is a senior at Pace Brantley School where he is Senior Class President, enjoys his academics and maintains high grades, friendships and participates in the Running Club.  He volunteers, advocates and has presented to his brother’s Boy Scout troop about autism and share what it’s like to live with a disability, as part of a merit badge program.

 

Ryan was also nominated by Andrea Piazza, choreographer and dancer for Chance2Dance, a special needs program in Central Florida.  Ryan has been dancing with the Chance2Dance Performance Team for two years and they recently completed an outstanding music video in which he was the title character, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4MFl3A7WIg. “Ryan is an exceptionally talented young man who works to promote the success of people with disabilities”, Piazza shares, “[He] took the initiative to learn ways of communicating with his dance partner with hearing loss so that they could work better together.”

 

In 2019, Ryan held internships at the Central Florida Zoo and Pet Alliance through Vocational Rehabilitation, with a career goal of working with animals. He hopes to attend Beacon College in the fall of 2020 to seek a degree in Anthrozoology, the study of human and animal relationships.

Arts4All Florida looks forward to recognizing Ryan and presenting him with a personalized trophy at an awards ceremony in the coming weeks. The Arts4All Florida Student of the Month Program is designed to increase public awareness and students with disabilities statewide. Students who participate in the arts develop creativity, have increased self-confidence, understand teamwork, have increased language and math skills and are generally more engaged. For more information about the Student of the Month program and others, please visit www.arts4allflorida.org.

History of Pace Brantley

(Tampa, FL) January 20, 2021

Arts4All Florida is pleased to announce 16-year old Lindsey Arzonico as one of their January 2021 Students of the Month, the first of the New Year. Lindsey was nominated by Coach Evan Starcher at Pace Brantley School in Longwood, Florida. Coach Starcher writes, “Lindsey was dedicated to the process of improving and learning about herself as a documentarian and editor. Her finished product and dedication to the artistic process is well-deserving of recognition beyond the classroom.”

Arts4All Florida was wowed by Lindsey’s documentary video, Beyond the Bench. Written, directed, filmed, and edited by Lindsey herself, this project gives viewers an in-depth look at the Pace Brantley basketball team. The 19-mins video focuses on Coach Starcher’s role as the team’s leader and mentor, both on and off the court. Over the course of a year, Lindsey interviewed players, Coach Starcher, and shot footage of the basketball games. This project not only reflects the talent of the aspiring documentarian and editor but also the collaborative nature of sports and media production.

Lindsey is a sophomore and dedicated member of the TV Productions program at Pace Brantley School. She serves as an anchor on the school morning announcements, is the lead editor for the show, and is part of her school’s National Honor Society. Although Lindsey has a specific learning disability and language impairment, this has not stopped the talented producer from pushing her abilities to new heights for the betterment of those around her. As Coach Starcher has said, “Lindsey does not let her disability hold her back from being active in school and outside of school. Lindsey is consistently working hard to better our campus, school and TV production program.”

Arts4All Florida looks forward to recognizing Lindsey in our newsletter, highlighting her on our website and sending her a personalized trophy. The Arts4All Florida Student of the Month Program is designed to increase public awareness and recognize the impact arts make on students with disabilities statewide. Students who participate in the arts develop creativity, have increased self- confidence, understand teamwork, have increased language and math skills and are generally more engaged. For more information about the Student of the Month program and others, please visit www.arts4allflorida.org .

Kaelani is overcoming dyslexia with the help of the Orton-Gillingham Approach and a Step Up scholarship

By ROGER MOONEY

Read the full article here

Kaelani, who entered Pace Brantley as a first grader, began the Orton-Gillingham Approach when school began last August. By November, she was able to read “Put Me in the Zoo” by Robert Lopshire, as well as a few pages from her children’s bible.

“I remember people saying this year is a wash (for students) with everything in the pandemic,” Caleb said, “but this is the year my daughter learned to read.”