Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we are delighted to share a Contributor Column from Dr. Rodney Lynk, CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer) at Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy in Milwaukee.
We provide a bio for Rodney below.
Rodney Lynk Jr. is the Chief Executive Officer of Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy (HFCA), where he leads with a deeply held belief that education can change the trajectory of a young person’s life, a family, and ultimately an entire community. His work is rooted in creating opportunities for young people to recognize their own brilliance, develop the resilience to navigate challenges, and gain access to possibilities they may not yet be able to imagine for themselves.
Rodney brings extensive experience in educational leadership to this work. Prior to leading HFCA, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Academic Officer of Milwaukee Excellence Charter School, Principal of Rocketship Southside Community Prep, Lead Coach for the Early Childhood Initiative, and Regional Manager of Teacher Recruitment. Across these roles, he has trained, coached, developed, and inspired hundreds of educators and school leaders while maintaining an unwavering belief that high expectations, paired with meaningful relationships and genuine care, can produce extraordinary outcomes for students.
His leadership philosophy is grounded in the idea that what may appear impossible becomes achievable when people are surrounded by the right combination of opportunity, belief, support, and expectations. He is particularly passionate about ensuring that young people are not defined by their circumstances, challenges, or mistakes, but instead are given the tools and relationships necessary to discover who they can become.
For Rodney, leadership is ultimately about legacy. His purpose is not simply to lead successful schools, but to help build institutions and develop people who expand what is possible for the generations that follow. Whether working with students, educators, families, or community leaders, he strives to create spaces where people can recognize their potential, pursue excellence, and use their gifts to transform the world around them.
Leveling Up at Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy
I was born and raised in Milwaukee, one of the most segregated cities in the nation. I attended schools that serve students of color and families living in poverty. Today I have the privilege of leading Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy (HFCA), a public charter school in Milwaukee that serves students of color and families living in poverty. I consider it a privilege and a responsibility to make sure every child who walks in the doors of HFCA has access to what I had to advocate for and earn: real and consistent opportunity provided for them by a school that works every day toward greatness.
The difference between a good school and a great school is the culture of those walking the halls.
A great school is restless, and everyone in it is pursuing something better – not just chasing the latest program or adding initiatives because they sound good. The right people are in the right staff positions, and they don’t let fear get in the way of meaningful change. They have courage to “go for it,” and they encourage students to do the same.
Leveling up to Greatness
Leveling up from good to great requires understanding where you are now and where you’re committed to going, then making choices that align with that future. It is honesty and transparency without shame. Test scores matter. We should never avoid test score accountability. However, a single assessment taken on a single day is not the full measure of a school.
Greatness is measured by both outcomes and transformation. Are students showing up consistently, growing academically, discovering their talents, becoming more confident, building strong relationships? Is the school a place where students feel safe and the adults around them truly believe in their potential? Are real and consistent opportunities being built by the school for students who may not otherwise be able to access them?
Greatness is who our students are becoming, the choices they are equipped to make, and the impact they will have once they graduate because their school prepared them for college, career, leadership, and life. Great schools have a culture where lifelong learning is real. Lifelong learners level up every day for the rest of their lives.
Where Are You Now?
The first step toward greatness is honest, data-driven diagnosis and clarity about this moment in time without making excuses or casting blame. Great schools don’t have vague goals and unclear expectations. They don’t dodge the truth or pretend. They admit they have work to do.
HFCA was founded as a college prep public charter school in 2004 by former Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Fuller and eight community clergy members on a belief that all students are capable of education, regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, family situation, and environment. HFCA’s mission is to nurture scholars capable of transforming their world by sending them to and through college. While 100% of our graduating seniors since 2012 have been accepted to college, only 16% complete a degree in six years.
We have work to do.
Where Do You Want to Go?
A great school doesn’t just want to improve; its leaders know what “great” looks like in a classroom – what teachers do differently and what students experience and can envision for themselves. It works toward greatness every day after diagnosing what specifically is needed.
HFCA is growing because our city is in crisis. Milwaukee has one of the nation’s largest achievement gaps between Black and white students. Many public and charter schools are consolidating or shuttering their doors on Milwaukee’s north side, leaving Black families with reduced access to high-quality options.
HFCA is unique. It is the only Black founded, Black led, and Black serving charter school in Milwaukee, and one of only a few in the country.
HFCA raised $35 million through a capital campaign in 2022 to build a new, state-of-the-art high school in the Bronzeville cultural and entertainment district just north of downtown – a neighborhood that is recapturing the vibrance and vitality of its past as an anchor of a thriving Black community. As part of the 2022 capital campaign, HFCA also renovated its former high school campus into a vibrant new middle school and acquired Milwaukee Excellence Charter School, a public charter that served grades 6-12.
Adding a middle school allowed our college prep high school model to reach students earlier, before they fall behind and enter high school unprepared for the rigor of college-level coursework through dual enrollment. Our renovated middle school and state-of-the-art high school that opened in Fall 2024 are quality facilities our students deserve to dignify their being.
We needed to do more for HFCA to fulfill its mission of sending scholars to and through college. Too many students were already far behind by sixth grade and had to catch up before they could accelerate. So HFCA acquired another public charter school, Central City Cyber School (grades K-12), and created an HFCA elementary school campus in a public housing development on Milwaukee’s near-west side. The elementary school opened in Fall 2025, boosting HFCA’s total enrollment from 365 two years earlier at one campus to 960 students across three campuses.
We know that third grade is the single most important academic year for children – the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. We are investing in early literacy. We also know that completing the first two years of college is a key benchmark for earning a degree. We leveled up our staffing to include a director of our new Fuller Forward initiative, which provides a summer bridge to college for our new graduates. This initiative provides continued HFCA coaching and mentoring the first two years of college, and emergency financial assistance to keep them in school.
The HFCA Way
Now that our K-12 model is built, our sole focus is on the fidelity of our academic model. We’ve hired teams and built around instructional process to ensure our teachers have what they need. This summer, we revisited the strategic plan our board adopted in 2025 to fill the framework with granular details – the work we need to do to improve the outcomes for our three-campus school.
HFCA’s capacity is 1,500 students. We are building toward greatness:
- A school culture where students feel known, safe, and challenged.
- Consistently strong instruction across every grade to narrow achievement gaps.
- Strengthened literacy outcomes so students can access grade-level learning and be prepared to level up in high school with college coursework that provides college credit.
- Improved classroom management to reduce behavioral issues and protect learning time.
- Systems that allow teachers to both collaborate meaningfully and ensure seamless transitions between subject-specific classrooms as well as grade levels.
- A school culture that does not punish attempts but uses them as information to level up.
- Buy-in from everyone in the building – staff and students — that courage is not a motivational slogan. It is overcoming fear to make decisions and change old habits when you don’t have perfect certainty. It is protecting learning instead of protecting comfort.
We have work to do.
Our stakeholders should see each year how our school is becoming more aligned, more effective, and more capable of delivering greatness for every student.
Rodney Lynk, Jr., CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer)