The Sticky Note That Led to BrightGate Academy: Part 1 of the Microschool Series

While completing research for my dissertation during my doctoral studies in 2022, I came across the concept of a microschool. At the time, I was serving as the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services and Curriculum for a K–6 school district in Bergen County, New Jersey.

Although the concept of a microschool did not apply directly to my dissertation study, something about it caught my attention. On a sticky note, I scribbled several ideas I wanted to explore further:

“AI”

“Microschool”

“Learning Pods”

“Arizona has already pledged 35 million dollars”

I placed the note inside one of my notebooks and continued with my research.

I did not revisit the concept of a microschool until after I moved to Florida in 2025. I was working at a private school and soon realized that, even with the many school-choice options available to families, parents were still facing a familiar obstacle: large class sizes.

As a seasoned school administrator, I quickly recognized the challenges this could create. With strict retention guidelines, overcrowded classrooms, staffing shortages, and too few certified teachers, students who were already struggling academically could easily be left behind.

I began thinking deeply about what the next chapter of my career should look like.

Although I enjoyed my time in Jacksonville and found the work we were doing very meaningful, I knew I could not continue spending approximately two hours commuting each day. More importantly, I began asking myself a larger question:

How could I continue supporting students and contributing meaningfully to my community during the second half of my career?

While I was wrestling with this question, I received an email from the interim superintendent of my former district in New Jersey. He was requesting information that required me to consult some of my old notebooks.

As I searched through those notebooks, I found the sticky note I had written years earlier. I had apparently been curious about alternative approaches to education long before I seriously considered creating a school of my own.

Finding that note at that particular moment felt significant. It reminded me that the idea of a microschool was not entirely new to me. It was something I had noticed, questioned, and set aside years before.

This time, I did not set it aside.

I began researching what microschools could offer and whether this model could help address some of the challenges I had witnessed throughout my career in education.