Cynthia Trigg is the founder and superintendent of Evolution Academy Charter Schools. (Photo courtesy of Cynthia Trigg)
Once a teenager drops out of high school, stigmas often follow. The world has become a more and more unforgiving place for young people, and on top of the unique challenges today’s teens face, financial crises at home and in the public school system leave struggling youth without much support. Fortunately, there’s a North Texas educator who’s made it her life’s mission to give those young people another chance.
“In the dropout recovery space, it’s just about giving first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth chances,” Cynthia Trigg said.
Trigg founded a school system to help the state’s most vulnerable youth finish high school.
Trigg arrived at Texas Women’s University with every intention of majoring in political science, so that she’d be a great candidate for law school. She ended up double majoring, adding secondary education to the mix because she wanted options. In those classes, Trigg had projects centered around creating a budget and building a school. She found her sweet spot.
“I had a mentor that was a retired teacher that told me ‘as a teacher, you’re really the CEO of your classroom,’ she said. ‘No one really bothers you. You just kind of get to shape the minds of the students that you serve.’ And that really did stick with me,” Trigg said.
After college, she moved back to her hometown and taught English and history for five years in Beaumont Independent School District. She loved it, but knew she could have an even larger impact on the administrative side. While working, she earned a Master’s in Education Administration from Prairie View A&M University.
Then Trigg had an opportunity for leadership. If it worked out, it’d be a miracle.
“I had an interview for Alden ISD where there were, I think, about 250 applicants for one position and I was told the chances of getting this is slim to none,” she said.
She ended up getting the role and never looked back, eventually serving as a principal, an education consultant, and now, Trigg is more than just CEO of her classroom—she’s CEO of her own school—Evolution Academy, a Texas charter school with locations in Spring, Beaumont, and Richardson.
Charter schools in Texas are public schools and funded equally, but charters have more flexibility to cater to students’ individual needs and are therefore held to higher financial and academic standards than traditional school districts.
The charter targets students who have already dropped out of school as well as ones at risk of quitting. Evolution works with students through their challenges, customizing learning plans, and standing in as true cheerleaders for students who don’t have them at home.
“Whatever the barriers are, we have someone in place to try to address those,” Trigg said. “Even on a social emotional level, we have dedicated counselors that are on our campus or remote, on a weekly basis, to just have that support system, because that’s really what it’s about.”
Running a school takes grit
Trigg believes in holding students accountable, too. Her staff work on building trust with the students and Trigg admits that’s not easy. A lot of the job isn’t easy.
“Blessed are the flexible, because you will be bent backwards, forward, sideways, but not broken, ” she said. “I would say maybe 90% of the job is to be able to exercise not just judgment, but good judgment.”
In Trigg’s experience, students drop out of school because they’re bored or feel like they need to go out and work to help their families. Trigg attributed today’s gig economy as a reason why it might be easier for teens to join the workforce early, in comparison to past generations.
Trigg and her team are there to support students who want to start work right after high school as well as students who want vocational training or a four-year college experience. Evolution works with local community colleges to provide the students with the experiences and training they need, many graduating from the charter school with associate degrees. Their Richardson campus has a current partnership with Dallas College.
But no matter how good an educational concept is, it’s a rough time to manage schools right now in Texas. State funding is dwindling as public school funding isn’t keeping up with inflation and much of it is soaked up into school vouchers, a state effort to use government funding for private schools, with little oversight. Districts have been closing schools left and right in North Texas, and one district has even opened enrollment up to children outside the district in an effort to fill seats and qualify for more funding.
Trigg knows about budget shortfalls. Evolution has had to cut their staff to survive funding challenges.
“We feel the strain,” Trigg said. “But I operate like it’s just an opportunity to solve another problem,” she adds. “I believe that it stretches us, because it teaches that you can’t put all your eggs in one basket in terms of how you look at donorship.”
Evolution is looking for new ways to fund their programming, hoping their mission serving some of the state’s most marginalized children will open doors for philanthropic help.
“This is just a time that we’re in, but we’re going to get through this,” Trigg said.
If you want to learn more about Evolution Academy Charter School or see how you can help, check out their website here.
Author
Support Our Cause
Thank you for taking the time to read our work. Before you go, we hope you'll consider supporting our values-driven journalism, which has always strived to make clear what's really at stake for Texans and our future.
Since day one, our goal here at Courier Texas has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of Texas families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.
