Heritage Charter Academy

MISSION, VISION, GUIDING PRINCIPLES, AND PURPOSE

Mission: The mission of the Heritage Charter Academy of Cape Coral (HCA) is to
foster pride in academic achievements while developing the students’ abilities in
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics by way of delivering
daily instruction in fitness, health, and character education.
Vision: Heritage Charter Academy of Cape Coral demonstrates and promotes the
essential role of STEAM by enabling every student to succeed in school. HCA will
become a top STEAM school specializing in health, character, community, and
project-based learning.

Purpose: HCA’s purpose is to promote our students’ intellectual and social development to
prepare them for success both in and out of the classroom. Through academic
rigor, technology, and real-world activities that make learning relevant and
through relationship building amongst all stakeholders, we create a supportive
learning community that extends beyond the classroom. HCA provides excellence
and fairness in education through this common foundation.

Guided Principles: HCA embraces the belief that everyone can learn given the right tools of support.
Our commitment is part of maintaining a GROWTH MINDSET and recognizing that
learning is best through a multisensory approach. This multisensory approach
involves visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways simultaneously to
enhance memory and learning of all academics. Hence, the integration of STEAM
curriculum. Embracing these Principles, HCA students can use critical thinking
skills to build, create, learn and grow to empower them to aspire to do his/her
personal best.

Parental Involvement: HCA believes different areas fall under the Parent Involvement Category. The first
is the expectations of the School and our Parents. We believe a student’s progress
and positive school experience is dependent on a strong partnership between the
school-parents- and students. All must do their part to ensure all of our students
are successful. During the enrollment process, parents are informed of the
volunteer hours needed for each student. We understand not every parent has
the ability or time to participate in our Parent Volunteer Program, and no
student’s enrollment is affected by any non-participation. However, we provide
parents with many opportunities and levels of assistance to ensure we retain a
90% participation rate. Some of these opportunities include volunteer hours,
monetary contributions, donations, information sharing, reading time, and other
viable ways to show their commitment to their child’s school’s success. We are a
small school, and this partnership is often treated more like one big family. It is
through this spirit we develop the school spirit.
HCA’s administration team assisted in developing policies and a communication
component that will assure the smooth movement of information from the
school’s leadership to the parent’s organization and from the parent’s organization
to the school’s leadership. A separate account for fundraising and other
fiscal-related business will be set up by the elected Parent Liaison and monitored
by the school attorney as needed. Quarterly reports will be provided to the
administrative team detailing all incoming and outgoing funds for school
purposes.
The Principal or Assistant Principal will be responsible for communicating this
information to the Board. The Parent Organization may choose to have a
representative who will make a periodic report to the HCA Governance Board. All
Board minutes and Parents’ Association minutes will be available for review upon
request.
The other side of this partnership is the involvement in their child’s academic
progress at HCA. We utilize the Statewide system FOCUS for accountability.
Parents are provided their student’s school ID and the directions to utilize the
Parent Portal of FOCUS to view their child’s cumulative grades, assignment grades,
test scores, and other historical data about their child with up-to-date data. The
option to massage their child’s teacher(s) is another available feature to keep
parents informed and always an “equal partner!” We have found this avenue of
communication in today’s technology age is one of the most effective ways to
keep our students and parents involved and active stakeholders.
Diversity: HCA’s students are welcome and respected. The school promotes the advantages
of learning from a student body that embraces and employs diverse teachers and
students from all economic, racial, cultural, and “different” backgrounds. Parents
of every economic, social, and ethnic group choose to send their children to local
charter schools. HCA strives to serve a diverse population of students similar to
that of district public schools. Other diverse populations may include Students
with Disabilities and English Language Learners. All students are welcome to HCA
as we are a Choice School parents may send their children to attend regardless of
Public School Zones. ( ***Note- any Grade VPK-8th grade may enroll, however, if
the parent wants HCA to assume transportation, they must be within the 5-mile
radius as outlined in the Transportation plan. Moreover, if a parent lives outside of
the “Five-mile radius” but is willing to assume the student transportation