AKRON, OH On August 21, a brand-new private school in Akron will open for boys in grades K–2.
Dreams Academy is the realization of creator and executive director Brandon R. Scarborough’s lifetime desire.
Scarborough, a graduate of Buchtel High School, has been a professional gospel musician for many years. He has had the chance to establish close links with the religious community throughout his career. However, he also told Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that he has been asked to play music at far too many funerals for young Black males. He talks about transforming his personal pain into motivation to change the community’s narrative from one of fewer funerals to one of brighter futures.
The foundation of Dreams Academy is the Kings Academy summer mentorship program, which Scarborough founded in 2016. According to him, participants in the program, which caters to boys, learned leadership skills, respect, and even how to build relationships. Scarborough introduced a Queens Academy program for girls five years later.
I’ve always wanted to start a school. The mentoring part was actually not something I had planned for. He claimed that it simply sort of happened.
Scarborough was forced to refocus on his goal of starting a school after losing his job and receiving support from the parents of Kings Academy. Scarborough, who has taught in middle school, high school, and college, is a graduate of Mount Union and The University of Phoenix, he added. However, he was always hoping to provide pupils with more than simply an education.
In Alliance, my father served as a preacher. He had a large, red house in the city named Hope House where people might eat or attend classes. According to him, the residence also functioned as an outpatient drug addiction treatment center.
Scarborough intends to carry on Hope House’s purpose of offering wraparound services to families in need, even though it closed when his father retired. In order to accomplish this, he founded Hope House Behavioral Health, which provides students and families on the Dreams Academy campus with emotional and mental health treatment, he added.
According to him, our goal is for our young men to possess both emotional and intellectual intelligence.
The Drexel Fund awarded Scarborough a $135,000 grant to launch the school. According to the Drexel Fund website, the fund is a fellowship that assists individuals in starting schools and provides them with the necessary resources to do so.
“I’ve been traveling around the nation for the past year, visiting schools, meeting with other school founders, consultants, and strategists, and learning how to build our school,” he added.
Scarborough said Monique Swain will be the founding principal of Dreams Academy.
Swain has worked as an educator, intervention specialist, and assistant principal at public, charter, and Montessori schools. She has lived in Akron for a long period. She most recently worked at the Akron Public Schools I Promise School as an intervention specialist.
“I tutor on the side because I have so many babies who are failing,” Swain said. There are a lot of children who come to me feeling dejected, disappointed, excluded, and as though they are being knocked down every time they raise their hand because they are getting the answer wrong. Furthermore, the teachers are not even at blame.
However, we must figure out how to help them achieve, and that’s what I want to foster with them. I want them to think boldly. They should be enthusiastic leaders, in my opinion. I want them to understand the importance of self-awareness and self-control. In order to build scholars who want to follow their ambitions and live and be exactly who they need to be, I simply want to find anything that provides me a holistic vision of education.
Swain holds a master’s degree in special education from Grand Canyon University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati. According to her, she is presently completing the Principal Licensure program at Grand Canyon University.
Three teachers, two aides, a secretary, and a part-time nurse will join Swain’s crew. According to Swain, the school will provide extra classes in languages, art, music, physical education, and theater while adhering to state curriculum requirements. According to Swain, there are presently 18 students registered for the 2025–2026 academic year. A maximum of forty-five kids can be accommodated at the institution.
According to Swain, people frequently question her why she opened a school only for guys.
Even in kindergarten, our kids are being labeled with anxiety, and our boys are failing and dying at a breakneck pace. Finding methods to speak to these boys’ hearts and continuing to affirm that they are leaders and that they are beautifully built is what I want and want to do for them. As early as kindergarten, I want kids to start looking for methods to discover their purpose. Swain added, “I want them to keep going and maybe have an impact on someone else.”
Dreams Academy may be found in Akron at 790 Easter Ave., inside The Faith Place. Scarborough said EdChoice vouchers and private money are accepted at the school. The Dreams Academy website offers additional information for anyone who are interested in the institution.
Want more news about Akron?Sign up for Rubber City Update, a Wednesday 5:30 a.m. email newsletter from cleveland.com.
