Jubilee Academies to open campus in San Benito

New leadership
Shown is Yesenia Gonzalez, the newly hired principal of Jubilee San Benito, giving a presentation during a community forum. (Photo by Louie Diaz)

By LOUIE DIAZ
editor@sbnewspaper.com

Jubilee Academies will open a new campus in San Benito starting the semester of Fall 2021.
Jubilee Academies is a branch of public charter schools with campuses situated from Central Texas to the Rio Grande Valley. Jubilee opened nearby schools in Brownsville and Harlingen a few years ago.
The school will be housed inside Cross Church located on 901 W. Expressway 83 and will be open to elementary grades Pre-K through fifth grade. About seven teachers will be employed at the school, according to Tom Kroger, the founder and CEO of Jubilee Academies.
Jubilee Academies follows the TEKS—the Texas curriculum standards used in all public schools—however, they also implement what the school dubs “Determined Destiny Values” in conjunction with the curriculum. Jubilee Academies opened its first school in San Antonio in 2000. According to its website, the school district currently serves over 6,000 students across 12 campuses in Texas.
According to Jessica Gonzales, marketing and communications director for Jubilee Academies, they are looking to enroll at least 150-200 students for its first year. She mentioned that during their first event they had about 40 students register during their first event and are confident that the school will meet its goal.
“Here in San Benito, we’re looking forward to all of the growth, but we understand that we have to start small and gain the trust of all of the families and of the community,” Gonzales said.
Kroger added that the leaders of Cross Church initially reached out to Jubilee Academies. All of the campuses in the Valley have been through invitation, he mentioned. Kroger said their aim is to create a high school at the Harlingen site.
“By starting an elementary school in a different location, that prepares the students who will be coming here to San Benito to attend our Harlingen campus for secondary,” Kroger said.

Want the full story? Click here or grab a copy of the  April 23, 2021 – April 29 , 2021

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2021/04/22/jubilee-academies-to-open-campus-in-san-benito/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.