New College Partners with Star Lab to Co-Design Educational Experience
With the support of a March-July 2025 Mellon Foundation Grant, New College of Florida has partnered with a microschool, the Newtownbased Star Lab, and a local community development consultancy, VeraCruz to conduct a 3-month cycle of learning to co-design an educational experience for Newtown K-5 parents and students.
The goal is to offer parents, in particular single parents, an opportunity to send their children to a local private school that prioritizes personalized education for the students but also tailors support services to the parents. Rather than having students (and parents) adjust to an existing educational structure that is not flexible or not generally achieving desired learning outcomes, the Star Lab microschool is focused on crafting learning to suit student and family needs.
During our first of three Iterations, on April 11th, Star Lab hosted an in-person parent meeting and gained valuable insights. The feedback was frank and underscored parents’ (of existing and prospective students) feeling enormous pressure, drained energy, overwhelmed, and uncertain about how to pay for private school options. At the same time, these parents seek being treated with personal respect, dignity, and having inspirational settings for their children – all the attributes underpinning the Star Lab School founding and educational experience. Many parents felt their children were being overlooked or not offered more personalized instruction or support.
As a vital part of the support infrastructure for education and parents in the Newtown community, we would value your joining us for the second (2nd) iteration of the three-part process that helps better empower Newtown parents to co-create a special educational experience for their children. Iteration 1 focused on the parents’ patterns of life and concerns. Iteration 2 focuses on the educational and parental support services available in Sarasota County, both public and privately-supported, and we welcome your perspective for this Iteration.
Simply put, the goal of Iteration 2 is to map the support systems that exist in this community to determine the services parents can draw upon. We will revisit this work in the design phase of Iteration 3. Our intent is to have parents, in addition to educational and parental support representatives, design a system unique to Newtown parents by the end of the 3 workshops.
The details for Iteration 2 are:
Who: Service Providers, Advocates, and Supporters of Newtown Families
What: Illuminate current System of Support available to families in Newtown
When: May 10, 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Where: College Hall, New College of Florida Please RSVP to Alison
Rini, Star Lab Founder, to confirm your willingness to participate at Alison@starlab.world
