Meet Michelle Flowers | Founder and CEO of Excelsior Village Academies

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Flowers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The work to expand equity in education and advancing the agenda for creating better school choices for children that has been historically underserved by making profound shifts across the scope of teaching and learning can be tough, but it was the thought process behind the work I am doing now. I want to continue to elevate and actualize what is possible for children when we create highly effective schools that feel supportive of their development and wellbeing as individuals. Founding Excelsior Village Academies, a community co-designed charter school has been an incredible experience. Undertaking a unique approach to creating schools that truly reflects the needs and aspirations of the communities we serve is transformative. We co-design our schools with families, educators, students, and community organizations. We believe it takes a village to actualize the promise we are making to families to prepare our students for a life of opportunity and impact. Schools are important institutions within our communities and Excelsior Village Academies has a responsibility to amplify the voices and create a responsive experience for the students, families, and communities we serve.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My experience being in the New York City public school system has greatly influenced this great call to service for me in this capacity of my work. As an educator and administrator for 15 years working in high performing college preparatory charter schools in underserved neighborhoods in Brooklyn, New York and Atlanta, Georgia, I believe we have an incredible opportunity to be who or what inspired us for our scholars, so they too can one day stand in their life’s purpose. The work to expand equity in education and advancing the agenda for creating better school choices for children that has been historically underserved by making profound shifts across the scope of teaching and learning can be a tough, but I am determined to co-create one the best networks of schools in Georgia. I was a former Mentor Teacher, Dean of Students, Founding Elementary School Principal, Assistant Principal for a turnaround Atlanta Public School, Director of Teaching and Learning and currently in this capacity as Founder of Excelsior Village Academies. While in my role as Founding Elementary School Principal in a high performing college preparatory charter school in Brooklyn, New York serving 97% minority students I have managed, developed, and evaluated the school’s leadership team and faculty to build a culture of relentless self-improvement among the entire staff. I have honed and developed my team’s data driven practices to ensure the achievement of targeted academic results through curriculum alignment and assessments. In the scope of my work, I also monitored and safeguarded the intervention programs, special education and ENL mandates being serviced. I ensured data driven practices were implemented to inform decision making around pedagogical approaches and behavioral supports and interventions for scholars. I provided coaching and professional development support over the summer for teachers and leaders, ongoing development for all staff members instructional and non-instructional throughout the school year in targeted areas of need. I am especially proud of, not only our academic achievement in one of Brooklyn’s most underserved neighborhoods, but the ability to build a collaborative team that feels jointly responsible and committed to achieving the school’s end of year goals, school’s vision and our network’s mission.

I am resolute about closing the achievement gap for minority students and providing a better school choice for our scholars and families pre-k through grade 12. All children deserve an excellent education despite their socio-economic background, race and/or zip code. These societal markers disproportionally affect black children and their experience in school, and I want to build excellent schools to decimate the achievement gap and to replicate that success one school at a time.

After relocating two years ago to Georgia from New York City, I began my pursuit to find an opportunity that will allow me to be a champion for students in underserved communities working to advance equity and inspire students to lead transformative lives of choice and impact. As I have done in my previous work in high performing charter schools, I wanted to support charter organizations in Georgia that matched my professional aspirations and philosophical beliefs about education. I began to learn early on that there was a sluggish approach to radicalizing teaching and learning and developing teachers and leaders rapidly, which are the driving forces in increasing student achievement. It appeared to me there was a persistent fear to make radical choices about curriculum and instruction and student culture to advance student gains. Like a broken a record, the thought of ‘We cannot continue to do what we have always done if our schools are failing’ would circle in my mind incessantly as I would advocate for shifts in mindsets as it relates to student achievement and closing the achievement gap in an equitable way.

My service has come full circle as I am now a Founder petitioning for an uniquely designed community co-designed college preparatory charter school built on the promise that we will reverse the achievement gap for minority students by providing high performing school choice for our scholars and families pre-k through grade 12. I am determined to launch a charter school that is profoundly aligned to an educational philosophy and social emotional learning approach that will reverse the opportunity gap and level the playing field for economically disadvantaged students. High-quality schools have the power to uplift communities.
I am just starting out and still learning a lot on this journey. However, one of the most profound lessons I have learned is nothing happens before its time, so trust the process and do the work required. I would not change anything currently as I am still learning a lot about the entire process of founding a school, one with a unique methodology in the charter sector. I am soaking it all up as I learn from other founders. Founding this community co-designed school with a grassroots approach does have its fair share of challenges from networking in a pandemic, mothering three school aged children, funding, resources and shifting mindsets. You inevitably will not have all the pieces of the puzzle in the beginning–but I am holding on tight to this “heart” work, and my “why” to achieve my vision for creating educational excellence and pushing urgently to unlock what is possible for children no matter their zip codes or socio-economic background.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
At the age of 9 years old I relocated to the heart of New York City, Brooklyn. I migrated from Jamaica, West Indies with my mother and two younger siblings in search of better educational and life opportunities. Life for me in Jamaica as a child felt great, but I knew there was more my mother and father wanted for their children to attain and moving to the United States felt like the best way for my parents to provide that opportunity. Immigrating to the United States was a complete culture shock and school as I knew it “back home” felt very different here in the States. I have always known I would be an educator and my parents confirmed it for me at a very earlier age because I would teach the birds, trees and rocks in the garden using my little chalkboard, walking around in my “slipper heels”. I would always mimic my teachers, but it became more of an actualization for me when I first met my Elementary School Principal Ms. Mabel Robinson. She created a sense of community and made her students take pride in our identities and believe in ourselves as little Black and Brown children. She would always have us gather in the multi-purpose room as a school community every morning and gave students the opportunity to share important events happening in their lives, we felt so connected and realized we had more in common than we were different. As a school, we would chant/sing together and finally recite the school’s mantra “I am somebody, I can, and I will achieve.” before making our way to begin learning. I remember feeling a sense of significance and belonging. Ms. Mabel Robinson was a champion for children, and I wanted to be just like her. When given the opportunity to be a Founder of my own school in New York City within walking distance of my old Elementary School, I tapped into the hope and promise that was Ms. Mabel Robinson and knew– I would always seek to be a champion for children for as a long as I am able to serve in the capacity of an educator.

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