Johnson wants to open a charter school for 140 students in grades five, six, seven and eight, that would eventually grow to an enrollment of 320. On Tuesday, the Pasco County School Board will vote on Johnson's charter school application. If approved, Johnson's Deerwood Academy would become the fourth charter approved by the School Board and the third scheduled to open next August. Only one charter school, Dayspring Academy of the Arts, is in operation in Pasco, although the School Board approved applications for two more last spring. The two others may open in August.
Charter schools are public schools, open to any student who applies.
Charter schools receive the same per-pupil funding that public schools do, but they are free of much of their bureaucracy and regulation. The contract also explains how charter schools will show that their students are learning. There are more than 80 charter schools in Florida. Johnson taught math in Broward County middle schools for 14 years and was a special education administrator in Hernando County for two years. He most recently served as a dean at Florida Metropolitan University in Tampa, and he teaches statistics at the college's Clearwater campus.