Meet the Washington Family

“After our daughter’s first couple of weeks in the 1st grade, we knew that we needed a change,” says Venita Washington.

Venita and her husband Julius both grew up in Charleston and knew that’s where they wanted to raise their two children. But though they love the city, the Washington’s quickly realized that their daughter’s public school was not meeting her needs. “Victoria tried so hard to be on her best behavior, but when she was in that setting, she got lost and forgotten about,” Venita said of her daughter’s experience. “I was shocked that my daughter was in timeout, because she was very quiet and shy.”

Julius and Venita also worried about the quality of their daughter’s education. “I felt like I was always playing catch-up because of the schools that I went to growing up,” Venita explained. So when she and her husband realized that Victoria was a struggling reader and falling behind, they knew they had to act. They were determined to give her and her younger brother, Julius Jr., a better education than they had received.

“That’s when I remembered my friend telling me about Meeting Street Academy…I heard so many good things from my friends and other people,” says Venita. “We completely fell in love with it because the class size is so small,” Venita shares. This allows each of their children to get individual attention, and has been a perfect fit for Victoria, who now reads several grades ahead of her peers.

Julius and Venita also value Meeting Street’s emphasis on parent involvement. Thanks to required parent meetings, the Washingtons know almost everyone in the school and have a lot of helpful interaction with their children’s teachers. “We would definitely recommend Meeting Street Academy,” they agree. In fact, Venita loves Meeting Street Academy so much that she even convinced her sister to send her children there!

Which is why she passionately states the goal she knows she shares with parents across South Carolina: “We just want our children to learn as much as they can.”