Geri Chaffee (left, in black) and Dr. Catherine Rodriguez (right, in black) at the groundbreaking of the Dreamer's Academy upper campus in Newtown. Photo by Isabel Herrera Studio LLC.

Around 10 years ago, Geri Chaffee was volunteering at a local public school, when she noticed something—a large group of students spoke Spanish and not English. Chaffee began working with three boys who only spoke Spanish in math lessons. “The teacher said, ‘Mrs. Chaffee, we’re in America, you need to speak English. You need to teach them math in English,’” says Chaffee. “I was floored.”

The experience led Chaffee, the daughter of Hispanic immigrants who holds a Masters in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, to start asking questions about learning, demographics and how to better serve the Sarasota community—a community that includes a large demographic of non-English speaking, low-income students. Those questions led to Chaffee’s founding of Dreamer’s Academy in 2021, a K-8 public charter school that offers a whole-school dual language immersion model in which students learn Florida state standards in both Spanish and English.

“We rented space for two years before building our elementary school on Myrtle Street. We started with 200 students and have grown to 650 in five years,” says Chaffee. “Eventually, families began asking us to open a middle school because they didn't want their children to lose the benefits of the program once they reached middle school. We spoke with staff, the district and the Florida Department of Education, and we secured an infrastructure bond to build the middle school.”

On September 17, Dreamer’s Academy broke ground on a new 10-acre upper campus in Newtown. The campus will include a 42,000-square-foot middle school building housing fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades, allowing for students to fully progress from kindergarten through eighth grade upon its opening in August 2027.

“This represents a tremendous demand from our families, and we are honored to provide this opportunity for our students,” says Head of School Dr. Catherine Rodriguez. “It's an amazing milestone for Dreamers Academy. I'm especially excited about giving families the opportunity to have their children grow in one school.”

The campus will include increased potential for sports, with an indoor gym, an outdoor soccer field, two outdoor basketball courts and a volleyball court.

Dreamer’s Academy, 2146 Myrtle St, Sarasota.

Geri Chaffee (left, in black) and Dr. Catherine Rodriguez (right, in black) at the groundbreaking of the Dreamer's Academy upper campus in Newtown. Photo by Isabel Herrera Studio LLC.

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