JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Dawuane Smoot has been with the Jaguars for seven seasons and his work on the field is only partially what makes Smoot who he is.
It’s also all of the work Smoot does off of the field that made him the Jaguars nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award. Now, Dawuane and his wife, Aumari, have created something that will give back to the community for years to come with a private daycare and preschool.
“This is our little mascot, Elsie, so our logo is a little dove,” Aumari said. “We have one of these in each classroom.”
Elsie is a special word for the Smoot family, so much that when they opened their new school, they named it ‘The Elsie Academy’.
“It’s my grandmother’s name,” Aumari said. “When I found out she was diagnosed with breast cancer I decided to go ahead and name the school after her. Then, once I did research on the name, the name has a very strong meaning and it means ‘pledge to God’. We’re believers and I just felt like it was meant to be.”
“It feels surreal,” Aumari said. “To be standing here today with the classrooms fully finished and families here that we’re serving, it’s a blessing and we’re just excited.”
“Definitely a dream come true,” Dawuane said. “Two years ago when we were visualizing this and trying to come up with a plan, it’s just been a very long road to us getting here.”
The journey of building the school began when the Smoots gave birth to their first born, Ahmir.
“We had Ahmir almost five years ago at this point and I did what any other parent does: we started to shop around for daycares,” Aumari said. “I found myself pulling him out of different daycares for different reasons. I knew that if I had these issues that other parents were experiencing the same thing.”
“This is her beautiful vision,” Dawuane said. “I’m here to support and be able to fill in wherever I can.”
Over the past two years the Smoot family built the school, which was they were able to fully fund. On Jan. 2, The Elsie Academy officially opened and enrolled 12 students. Right now, the school currently serves kids 1 to 5 years old.
“We’ve seen what Jacksonville needs and we’ve had to mold our vision around what exactly it needs as well too,” Dawuane said. “What we have done, we’ve opened up our school to VPK and School Readiness vouchers so that it allows parents that are from inner cities or maybe from struggling homes to be able to afford to come to our child care.”
The school’s motto is “where gifted minds are cultivated.” The curriculum integrates Spanish and sign language into the lessons.
“For me, I feel like it’s important that our children are comfortable and have confidence in interacting with people of all different backgrounds,” Aumari said.
The classrooms are age-specific for each group’s needs.
“Each one of our classrooms are set up in centers,” Aumari said. “The key to each center is making sure that each learning material in their area catered to that specific area. You can see we have different pieces, nature pieces, that correlate with science. Different types of blocks and animals and cars. They can build little cities, which is why I put the world map right here so they can kind of think about that as they build. This is like a hit for all children. They love to play kitchen. Another component is financial literacy, so we have a cash register over here. They can practice and know what it feels like to buy items and sell.”
A few components of The Elsie Academy are unique.
First, “We are an organic facility so anytime we’re able to purchase organic, we do,” Aumari said.
Second, the school is equipped with facial recognition software in order to enter the school or classrooms.
“Everything we do as parents is for them and so it’s a huge relief to know that we were able to build something for our children to go and we all show up here together as a family every morning,” Aumari said. “It’s very comforting, but I think the biggest piece to that is we did this for our family, but we also have now provided it for other families. Now they can drop their child off with a peace of mind just like we have.”
Next the Smoots are expanding The Elsie Academy to teach elementary school as well as offer a homeschool program, which is set to open at the end of the year. Older children will be taught on the second level of the school. In total, the school can fit more than 200 students.
“As we keep growing in Jacksonville, we want to make sure that people understand and know that we are here for the community and that we want to push School Readiness and our VPK vouchers and knowing that this is not just an academy where you have to have a bunch of money,” Dawuane said. “We’re opening it up for underserved communities, for inner city kids as well, too.”
“If you’ve been to any of the underserved communities and have seen the daycares that are there, I promise you once you step foot in The Elsie Academy there is no other daycare that services low income communities with the facility like ours,” Aumari said. “My goal, our goal is to provide equal care to everyone no matter their tax bracket.”
Dawuane is currently a free agent, meaning his future with the Jaguars is not clear unless the team signs him to another contract.
“Yeah we definitely grounded ourselves and we’ve created something that we can’t just pick up and leave,” Dawuane said. “I definitely want to create roots here and I feel like I already have. Stay here as long as possible if the Jags will have me.”
For those with questions about The Elsie Academy, visit the website here.