Singer and rapper Pitbull will be opening his first public charter school in Arizona this August.
Armando Christian Perez, whose stage name is Pitbull, has opened 13 other Sports Leadership and Management schools in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado. The first of his STEM and sports-based curriculum schools was in Miami in 2012.
The Tempe, Arizona, school will open for kindergartners through the fifth grade. After its first year, it will open another grade each year through 12th grade. The school is already fully staffed and nearly fully enrolled, according to founding principal Shannon Beem.
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Beem previously assisted in opening SLAM’s Nevada school, which, along with its sister schools, educates some 7,000 students. The majority of students are Hispanic and or from low-income households. SLAM reports a 100% graduation rate, whereas the nationwide graduation rate is 86%, with Hispanic children graduating at an 82% rate. Low-income students graduate at a rate as low as 70%.
“We wanted to be in the Tempe/Mesa area because of the demographics,” Beem said. “What we do with children works.”
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SLAM Arizona is currently located in Tempe near McClintock and Apache Boulevard, with expectations to move to a bigger space. It does not charge tuition to its students.
