IMMOKALEE — RCMA received a $25,000 grant from the Collier Community Foundation toward expenses related to reconfiguring its Immokalee Community Academy to include eighth grade. The charter school established in 2000 now serves more than 300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The overall project costs of $906,000 have been offset by grants from Lipman Family Farms, The League Club, Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, Weller Family Foundation, and a previous Collier Community Foundation grant. Additional support is being sought to cover the remainder of the expenses.

RCMA is a nationally recognized charter school operator with a second school in Wimauma and a third planned in Mulberry. The national Charter School Growth Fund earlier this year invested $1.275 million in RCMA’s charter school expansion. This spring, Florida’s Department of Education designated RCMA a School of Hope operator, just the sixth since the program in 2017, making the nonprofit eligible for state grants and low-cost loans to assist with its charter school expansion plans.

RCMA is Florida’s largest nonprofit provider of early childhood education, with 65 child development centers in 21 counties. Established in 1965 and headquartered in Immokalee, RCMA has a $98 million budget and 1,600 employees.

Learn more at rcma.org or call the Development and Community Relations Department at 800-282-6540.