Jubilee Leadership Academy celebrated the completion of its new Brownsville campus at 1025 Main St. with a grand opening ceremony Thursday morning to mark the occasion.
When school starts Monday morning, the new site will double the school’s enrollment. JLA expects to welcome more than 400 students, principal Lourdes De La Fuente said. The school serves 3-year-old pre-K through seventh-grade students.
For the past four years, JLA has been located at Restauracion y Poder church, 4500 Jaime Zapata Ave.
“This is huge for us. We made it,” De La Fuente said, adding that groundbreaking for the new campus behind Whataburger and just down the street from Wal-Mart on Ruben Torres Blvd. was exactly one year ago.
Jubilee Academies, a charter school that focuses on leadership, character and excellence provides “an education and a mindset that you wouldn’t get anywhere else,” Superintendent Kevin Phillips said
“Our approach is to educate the whole child,” he said.
Mayor Trey Mendez spoke about his experiences growing up in Brownsville, going to the University of Texas at Austin, eventually graduating from UT Law and returning to Brownsville to make a difference in the city.
“I never imagined myself being mayor, I never set out to do that, but here I am,” Mendez said. “What I’m trying to do and encourage is to build a city where we have more young people, more of the brightest minds growing up in your classrooms that want to come back to Brownsville because this is a city where they feel they have opportunities and they can grow here, achieve here and succeed here.”
Schools represent the single best investment a community can make, he said.
De La Fuente said the new year will offer the opportunity to work with the Brownsville Police Department to address students’ safety, mental and emotional wellness. The Handle with Care initiative will allow officers to serve and protect, as well as identify students that need extra support following traumatic events.
Sgt. Billy Killebrew explained the initiative, saying that any time a child is involved in a traumatic event, police will notify the school via email, only saying that it was a traumatic event but not sharing any details about what type of call it was.
Yamilix Diaz, a fourth-grade teacher who taught at the previous location, said she was thrilled to be moving into the new campus.
“We’re very excited. We would pass by every day to see the progress and now it’s finally here,” she said.
