In its first year of operation, the WonderHere Farm and Schoolhouse at 5120 Colbert Road has realized many of its founders’ dreams.
Former teachers and best friends Tiffany Thenor and Jessica Zivkovich began with a learn-and-play studio downtown, but dreamed of expanding to a bigger space where local children could imagine and build, take healthy risks, and explore nature away from the stresses of traditional education.
The pair opened the doors of their farm and schoolhouse on Dec. 5, 2022. The play-based, project-driven private school has full-day and half-day options and currently serves around 80 students. But getting there was a rollercoaster journey with significant hurdles and unexpected costs — which have continued to weigh heavily on the fledgling institution.
Now WonderHere’s nonprofit foundation is hoping the community will help it raise $185,000 by the end of 2024 to secure the small south Lakeland school’s future for many years to come.
More than a school
In addition to its regular students, WonderHere also hosts programs for the community, such as toddler farm school, family farm days, language and arts classes, and wilderness workshops.
“Interest in our programs has been (steadily) increasing,” Thenor said. “Our summer camp was sold out all summer long.”
There’s also the option for homeschool students to come to the schoolhouse once a week to allow them to socialize, play on the farm and learn with other children. The farm has goats, chickens, ducks, and bunnies, along with a garden.
“Our property is for families who want to play with goats and read books. We believe in academics but we also believe in play and socialization,” Thenor said. “We want to invite families and kids to learn and be a part of nature on the farm.”
A series of setbacks
Thenor said she and Zivkovich were able to finance the purchase of the 9.32-acre property themselves, which Polk County Property Appraiser records show they bought for $1.25 million in January 2022. However, soon after taking possession, they were hit with additional buildout costs.
When they were buying the property, Thenor said the county health department and the city of Lakeland believed the property’s septic tanks would be sufficient. Later on, before opening, Polk County required them to install a sewer line to connect to the city of Lakeland’s wastewater system. The cost of that was $185,000.
Thenor said another unexpected expense was $30,000 to install trees around the property to block out noise to appease neighbors, and $25,000 in legal fees to fight neighbors who initially opposed the schoolhouse opening in their residential neighborhood.
The legal fight lasted more than a year, as neighbors were initially concerned about noise and traffic. However, Thenor said she hasn’t heard of any complaints since the school opened.
“We had the property for a whole year before we could bring kids on it,” Thenor said. “There were huge costs to move to this property. It is a huge burden on the school. We’re grateful to be on this property, but we also want to make sure that we stay in good standing with everyone who helped us get here.”
Long wait for voucher funds
The owners also weren’t expecting the Step Up For Students scholarship vouchers, funded by the state of Florida to assist families with paying tuition, to be delayed until Nov. 15., months after school started.
“We have several families who haven’t paid tuition for the school year because they haven’t received the funding. The families we serve are doing the best they can,” Thenor said, adding that some families have received their vouchers and some haven’t.
The handful of students who haven’t paid because they haven’t received the vouchers they were approved for are still attending school, as the school’s owners patiently wait for the funds to arrive.
Faith and hope
Thenor said she and Zivkovich are relying heavily on their faith. In an email, the co-owners asked families who’ve participated in WonderHere programming to donate and to pray that more donors will come forward.
“We’re not going to close. We will always do what is necessary to remain on this property. We’ve come too far,” she said.
“We just know that in our next season, we want to take care of any remaining costs from the journey to get to the property so we can look to the future,” she said. “What we are really hoping for is that our greater community will rally around the vision and help us meet our goal … We want our school to be here for good… We’re trying to get ahead of it.”
latest news
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.