Chamber Chats | Shaping the Future of Education with Community School of Naples

In this episode of Chamber Chats, we sit down with Paul Selvidio, Head of School at Community School of Naples (CSN), to explore how education, leadership, and community engagement come together to create a dynamic and forward-thinking academic experience.

In this episode, we explore:

• What’s next for CSN and its approach to innovation in education 
• How the school connects students with the broader Naples community 
• What families should consider when exploring CSN 
• How CSN is evolving to shape the next generation of leaders 

Paul also shares how CSN is preparing students to lead with integrity, purpose, and a strong sense of community—both locally and beyond.

Tune in to learn how education and community are shaping the future in Collier County.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

In this episode of Chamber Chats, we sit down with Paul Silvidio, head of school at Community School of Naples, to talk about how education, leadership, and community engagement intersect to create an enriching and forward-thinking academic experience. For nearly 14 years, Paul has served Community School of Naples in a variety of leadership roles. First as the chief financial officer, then as both CFO and COO, and now as the head of school. In this podcast, we'll take a closer look at the future of Community School of Naples, exploring its innovative approach to education, deep connections with the Naples community, and what families should know as Community School of Naples continues to evolve in academics, culture, and impact over the next decade. Welcome, Paul.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

So excited to have you sit down and learn a little bit more about Community School of Naples today.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm excited to share maybe a little bit of my personal story, but most importantly our history here at the at the school and our role in the community throughout these almost 45 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Wonderful. Well, I know your organization and ours have a lot of shared history. You're a graduate of our leadership caller program. Tell me a little bit about our shared history and kind of the background of community school.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Well, really, the you know, the community school started in, believe it or not, our our logo says founded in 1982, but it was actually founded in 1979. And it was originally called the Naples Country Day School. But shortly thereafter, once they realized those founding group of people realized that this was going to be a dream that uh was going to become a reality, or at least taking the big risks that it was going to take to start a school, especially at that time. Um but yeah, we have a lot of a lot of shared leaders in the community, and a lot of them crossed over here at the chamber and through Leadership Collier. Um, you know, principally Clark Swanson and Judy Sprall were two of the chief architects of what we've now become today. And, you know, taking a lot of risk, especially in 1982, uh, developing the school that we have today. It was Judy that said, um, you know, what were you thinking, you know, the critics would say, what were you thinking about building a school out in the middle of nowhere? If you're not familiar with where we're located, it's it's effectively the corner of Livingston and Pine Ridge. And at that time in the early 80s, Pine Ridge Road was just a dirt road. Um, kind of hacked through the woods to an old orange grove. And here we they said we're gonna put a school here. And she said, Don't worry, that one day we'll be the center of Collier County.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

I see she was not wrong.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

She was spot on with that. Um, but we're more than just a location, we've become such an important amenity for our community. Uh those founding partners of ours back in the early 80s had a decision to make. It was do we send our kids elsewhere out of the area to find an independent school experience? Or uh do we do we create our own? And certainly that's a that's a big risk. That's a difficult task.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Um and they took that chance, they took that risk and they developed a school, and it's now become what it is today because of their their vision and their inspiration, of course, their support and the generations that have come after them to support our school. So that now that we have a viable, reliable, independent school entity here in our in our community that allows people to move here without the risk of uh not finding the educational opportunities that they're expecting from wherever they come from. They don't have to wait to retire to move their families down here or retire and then move after the children have graduated. So we've given them that safety, that opportunity to move here comfortably, and then of course, more importantly, for people to grow their businesses, uh establish roots and stay here without having the thought about moving elsewhere to get that rich independent school experience that we're offering here at community school.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

That's wonderful. So for those that may not be familiar, talk to me a little bit about independent school for versus maybe traditional public school.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Right. So independent school is what it is what it is. We don't rely on any other outside entity for funding. We don't rely on outside entities to direct our educational curriculum. Um not that our friends at the public schools are doing anything wrong, uh, but we're not dependent on you know the K through 12 bureaucracy as far as dictating how we teach, who we teach, um, and what we teach. Okay. Um but more importantly, how we fund those. Uh we're a school. Um some independent schools do take some sort of public funding. Uh we're one of the few that don't, especially here in the area. But that's important. Uh we're not we're not dependent on um somebody else's budget timing process or funding. Sure. Uh we don't have to wait for state legislators in the summer to decide what programs they're gonna fund. Uh we're funding it independently. Um and we're not we're not beholden to whatever directives that another body would have to direct our curriculum. So, what does that offer our constituents, our faculty, our students, our parents? It offers nimbleness. Um, it offers us the opportunity to adjust quickly to changing environment like what we're seeing here today with AI. Um we can react a little bit faster. Okay. We're well funded, we're well supported, and we don't have to wait for direction from somebody else when we want to move in a direction that that the world is taking us.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Understood. Okay. Well, talk to me a little bit about the history. You you explained kind of the evolution and what role does community school play in the greater Naples landscape.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Right. So we we are that truly independent school uh offering to our community. And as I mentioned before, it's an opportunity for folks to have confidence with who they're uh where their children are going. One of the most important things, uh attributes that an independent school offers is safety. And so safety is priority number one, and then of course, a kind of seamless and very collegial um experience uh through education. We call ourselves the community school for a reason. We're wholly supported by parents. And so parents are we are parent-directed board of directors. Many of those directors will stay on for a half decade or decade or longer, providing a stability through their experience and their leadership. Um and so we offer a true reflection of what our community is looking for in education. We respond to to new and emerging uh trends in education and and it's it's a it's a platform for for those seeking uh a genuine educational experience we offer at a community school.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Wonderful. So we talked a little bit about our shared connection, right, with leadership collier, and uh with those strong connections, how have those relationships helped to shape your school's role in our community?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

You know, we have a lot of lot of uh parents own small businesses in our community. Uh a lot of parents are, you know, either doctors or lawyers, and quite a few of them um interact in a meaningful way with the chamber. And so not only are chamber members, but change uh chamber boards of directors, uh chamber leadership have a lot of input in how we operate at the school. Either they are current current parents or past parents or grandparents, and so they're familiar with our school. And so anytime there's an opportunity for us to make a connection um with some of the chamber constituents, we we do that. And one one good example is uh Judy Sproul a couple of years ago inspired um the JCS Center, which is the Juliet Collier Sproul um center for us, and it's a focus primarily, it's actually a reflection of the leadership collier experience. Okay. Um I'm a graduate of the Leadership Collier class of 2014. I was at the school and I always brought up my experience and how that was eye-opening to all the things that are going on in our in our county, all the way from what's happening um in the east eastern portions of our county to just even public service uh uh agencies that I wasn't too familiar with. And I wanted to bring that experience to our school. And through the leadership and funding of uh Judy Sproud, we were able to do that. And so that program, uh, which is vertically aligned from our lower school all the way to our our high school, our upper school, um, offers connections and opportunities for our students to interact with many of the same organizations that Leadership Collier has, whether that's you know the Guadalupe Center or Teen Angel Projects or Special Olympics, um Botanical Gardens, Conservancy, all of the all of the great organizations that are doing amazing, incredible work in our community. Um, we have uh a relationship, or at least we offer opportunities for our students to gain some access and a relationship with as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

That is wonderful. Well, you have such a rich history, a strong reputation in our community. What is what is the future? What does the outlook look like for Community School of Naples?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Well, like I said before, we're going to continue to adapt to the educational environment. But we're also one of I I welcomed our faculty back just uh two weeks ago, and I told them that my most important objective is first and foremost to make sure that community school is the very best place to work. If we don't have the brightest, the best and the brightest faculty, then everything else that we're doing is just bells and whistles, and it's not really material to the educational experience of our students. So creating an environment, offering high standards, high support, meaning we expect excellence from our faculty and our students, but we're also going to provide high support, meaning we're going to create an environment that enables the success and excellence. So making sure that we're supporting our faculty, you know, that's professional development, giving them opportunities to adapt to changes in the educational environment, of course, compensation and benefits, and making sure that we're at the top of the class and doing that. Happy faculty, engaged faculty, inspired faculty is going to make for the very best experience for our students. And if our students are doing great, our parents are great. And if our parents are great, the whole community is great. So starting there is my first priority. After that, we're we'll look at some other things. Uh we're going to embark pretty in the sh very short term, later this fall, early this winter, we'll embark on very likely the largest capital campaign that we've ever signed up to do, inspired to do uh at on our campus. We're going to invest a meaningful amount in a new middle school.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Middle schools are quite often overlooked at independent schools. Traditionally, they're inherited spaces from old high schools. Everybody always builds a new high school. We've done that. This is this is our history, building high schools on our campus, and they always get the best, the newest uh equipment. And in middle school, um that the whole middle school experience adapts to these older high school uh environments.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

But we're gonna, for the first time, build our own standalone, very new, perfectly tailored for a middle school student on our campus. So a new middle school would be the big shining object that we have out there, but that's not gonna be overshadowed by what we're trying to do with our faculty and in facult uh faculty enrichment, curriculum enrichment, and investing in that whole experience.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Wonderful. Congratulations on that. We know community school is so involved in our community as a brand, as an institution. Talk to me a little bit about your students and their involvement in our community.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Right. You know, like uh through that through that uh JCS Center and all the other things that we do, from very, very early on in the lower school, we're we're doing as many field trips as we can, as exposing our students um to a variety of different uh unique opportunities in in our area, from the agricultural side of things to the environment. We're blessed to be on the doorstep of the Everglades, so that's important to us, um, educating our our students about how we interact with the environment, especially the Everglades. Um and then of course, all the opportunities and all of the well-funded and and well-principled and um fantastically led organizations that we have in our community, just offering them opportunities to to engage with them is is important to us, and that's embedded in our curriculum starting from a very, very young age. Um and you know, there's other there's other aspects of our school too that are unique. Um we offer theater zone on our campus, which is the only um equity theater that we can find uh on the campus of a of a school um anywhere in the state, and very probably very few around um the country, in fact. And having that interaction is important for for students, uh, theater, performing arts, uh, visual arts uh is just as important on our campus as as any other program, and we like to take advantage of our relationship with the theater zone and the folks that are that are managing that, like uh Mark Danny. Um they do wonderful things, and he's one of our very long-standing faculty, and uh having his program on our campus is a is a difference maker for us too.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Aaron Powell That's wonderful. Not only does it feed the pipeline of skills that we need here for this wonderful arts and culture community that we live in, but all those great skills, right, for public speaking, professional presentation, right? It's just some wonderful skills I think students would pick up.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Aaron Powell That's an important evolution. So uh I you know I have to give a shout out to Lori Oliver too, Naples Performing Arts Center. She she conducts our middle school program for us and does a lot of productions for for NPAC on our campus too. Because of what you just mentioned, um, how are we as people, humans, going to differentiate ourselves in this artificial intelligence world? Um we all I'm uh I I love to write. I love to write messages to to our our families, to our community, but we live in a world where AI has really dominated that space and nobody's gonna give you credit for that. So how do we demonstrate um our abilities and capabilities? And it's gonna be we're gonna ask students and people in the workforce to speak more, to perform more, to demonstrate more, to articulate more. That's where you're gonna get the authenticity from. And so having a strong performing arts program is going to be a part of that. Having a strong public speaking and presentation and teamwork, uh, team building exercises are all gonna be a part, important part of the curriculum and how we integrate it. And of course, athletics. You know, these are things that AI can't duplicate. Um and so we need to embrace that and and engage it and and intertwine it in our in our curriculum. And we're doing that. We're gonna be doing special things with types of you know, certain vocational work. Uh we are we just opened, in fact, uh just this week, as school opened, we built a 1700-foot uh kind of a state-of-the-art shop class. Um really 21st century, where it's yes, it's got your CNC machines and your saws, but it has laser cutters and all of the tools and uh equipment there for for the folks to get hands-on. They're doing AI machine learning things with robots and and probably drones very soon, but they're doing it with their hands, they're building it, it's getting really hands-on. Uh, you know, the machine's not doing it for you. You still have to apply it and work with groups. And so it's kind of a long-winded answer about how does performing arts uh you know put its arms around or integrate into all these other programs, but uh it's important and it's part of the evolution of AI and how it integrates with, and just that's just one example of the new and emerging trends in in education.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

So you're able to adapt to it.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

That's how we're we adapt to it. That's the unique nimbleness that uh an independent school offers.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Aaron Powell And you obviously have a lot of experience at the athletics side of the house, right? Sure. Came from coaching there at CSN?

SPEAKER_00 16:44

I d you know, I've got uh I've been at school for, as you mentioned, for 14 years and I've worn many, many hats. Uh first and foremost, I'm most proud to be a parent of three at the school. So I've got a great perspective for what it's like to be a parent at the school. My daughter's going into my oldest daughter's going into eighth grade, so this will be her 11th year at the school, starting in pre-K three. And, you know, for all three of them, that's the only school that I've ever known. So knowing the school as a parent has been really beneficial. Knowing the school as a faculty member, while I didn't teach, you know, a tremendous uh amount of workload, but having that experience and um, you know, appreciation for what this what the faculty are doing inside of the classroom gives me another unique pers perspective. And then as you mentioned, for 10 years I coached on the football uh for the football program at CSN and we we built it from a fledgling program to a real bona fide um, you know, something, something to be proud of, uh, a point of excellence for us. And so that experience, um, how we how we mentor kids, how me, how we develop young men, uh young boys into young men is important, and then how we interact with the community through community service and and and and then how do we how do we manage our time and how we interact with the faculty and set expectations and communicate and kind of all of those ownership um, you know, executive functioning skills that you have to rush into when you're gonna be an athlete and you're really gonna dedicate yourself to making sure that you're not letting anything fall through the cracks and keeping track of of you know your your workload and managing that and communicating that. So having that perspective as a coach and a mentor has has brought a lot to the table for me too. And so I can see, I can see the school from the lens of a as an outsider, just as a community member before I got there, as a parent, uh as a faculty member, as a coach, and then of course, always for 14 years as a senior administrator. So having having that perspective is uh offered me, you know, it's all each one of those is a humbling experience. Um, but having that um in my uh uh as a way of background is is always helpful.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Well that's wonderful. So many perspectives that are gonna make you such a great fit for this role and for leading the future of Community School of Naples. So that is excellent. Thank you for walking us through your history. What advice would you offer to families considering Community School of Naples for their children's education?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

We there's a lot of great Collier County does offer so many great educational experiences out there. I think our public school system is very well funded, very well managed. They do an outstanding job. Uh as we talked about here, just the nimbleness and the unique um way that we can go about doing things offers a unique experience, a unique opportunity. Um and we offer that opportunity to the entire community. It's not just uh um for for the most well-to-do. About almost 20% of our students are on some sort of financial assistance. We have a very robust um financial aid program, okay starting in sixth grade and up. And we also introduced a couple of scholar one scholarship program opportunity available for veterans and first responders. Uh so certain qualifications for for past veterans, current and past veterans, and and also um for current first responders, police, fire, um, paramedics. Um so the opportunity exists, it's broad-ranging. We try and introduce the school to as many people as possible. But when you're there, the the difference between our school and most other schools is everybody there is highly invested in their personal and academic excellence. And so that whole theme about high standards and high support, the support really does come from it's not just us as administrators or faculty driving that support, it's the entire community. So even as a football coach, it wasn't unusual. You weren't, it wasn't out of the ordinary for you to say, listen, I need to mispractice because you know I have some sort of advanced topic study class that I'm highly engaged in and I want to make sure that I'm properly prepared. That's normal. Um getting the looking for extra help or looking for enrichment, um, that's an ordinary experience at our school. Everybody's driven, uh rowing the boat in the same direction, looking for their own personal excellence, achieving, overachieving in in every every step of the way uh with their goal to go to the very best college for them. And but most importantly, not just get to the best college for them, but to be prepared. And that's the number one thing we hear back from our alumni is how overwhelmingly prepared they were for whatever university experience that they were about to have. Uh within the first year or two of them returning and and certainly thereafter as graduates, they always say how well prepared they were.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

That's the difference is the collegial effort to make sure that we're all moving in the same direction with all the same goals in mind.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Aaron Powell And I'm sure with the longevity of in our community, it must be fun because you've probably got multiple generations of families, right, returning and sending their children through the school that they graduated from.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

I just had the opportunity to meet a few, yes, uh this past uh week when we were welcoming new parents. I think I met three different um families that were previous alum that are now having you know a pre-K3 or pre-K-4 student come to our school. And some of them had um I I offered a quote um from Mr. Pat Stranahan. He was the chairman of our board, president of our board from 1996 to 2003. And he offered a really profound quote in 2007 talking about the history of the school and how the school was developed and and and shepherded and supported by parents and crediting all the risk takers, just like I did when we opened up here, um, all the risk takers that 25 years before were doing. But his words 20 years later still rung true uh today. Um and I had an opportunity, his daughter is actually going to be a parent, is a parent at our school now. And um, and I had an inter a unique opportunity to to introduce myself to her afterwards, but making that whole connecting that loop of 20 years ago, 20, 45 years ago, and then circling back. And I'm sure hopefully um, you know, 20 years from now and 45 years from now, somebody will be having the same reflections and stories about uh hopefully crediting everything that each generation has contributed along the way.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

I love that. Well, such a rich history, such a bright outlook. Um, I've so enjoyed getting to know more about Community School of Naples. Is there anything that we haven't covered you want to make sure our viewers know?

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Thank you for this. This is uh I appreciate it. As you can tell, I'm passionate about our our school. And I say that to everybody. This is our school. This is the community school of Naples. Um did did did community school push Naples to be what it came, or did Naples push community school to become what it has become? That's a debate that that uh that i is fruitful to have. That just shows how important our school is to our community. We've benefited, we've benefited from this community, and our community is com is benefited from us um as well. And so just I think as a from a perspective, from that lens of being an outsider before I got here 14 years ago, um, we are a s a really welcoming school. This is an opportunity that we want to extend to as many people as possible. Um it's not just for the the the well-to-do and well-connected. It is a place that we want to welcome as many people as possible, offer this opportunity to as many people as possible to allow whomever it is that we welcome in to overachieve, to use grit and determination to get to wherever they want to go. And we're gonna offer that environment to support them in doing so.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Aaron Powell Well, thank you for the wonderful support you provide to our community, to the future of our workforce here in our community, and just this opportunity for families that are interested. If someone wants to know more about getting involved with Community School of Naples, how that how should they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Easiest thing to do is visit our website. You'll find all the information that you need to have to uh to answer a lot of questions, but you can of course find my email address on that website. Or actually, it's easy. You can email probably any teacher on our campus, and I'm sure, I hope, but at least the goal is they would be eager to tell you all the wonderful things that that they're doing and that our school can offer. And we're happy to share that story and and tell you all about what we're doing at community school.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Wonderful. Well, shifting gears just a touch. I know that you've been involved, as you mentioned, the leadership call your alumni. Tell me about your leadership caller experience and what that did for your personal and professional growth.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

It was eye-opening. Um, I would say that I didn't take advantage of many of the professional growth opportunities that that are there. So many great people in my class. Uh, we were the the silver anniversary, the 25th anniversary of um Leadership Coulier. And um proud, proud to do that. I promote the program to as many people as I can. It's the number one thing. I even tell my wife all the time, she's she's got a uh wonderful family business that she runs here, and I and she's busy, but I say it it doesn't matter. Um, you'll find the time, they'll make it easy for you. But the connections that you make are one piece of that. Um I there's so many uh folks that make lifelong connections there, business connections, personal connections, dear friends. Even with that aside, all the things that you learn about our community is even equally, or if not more, beneficial. Um, having the opportunity to go out um to the pinhoker's market or um to the cattle ranches, to the tomato farms, or do a sheriff's ride along, or ride with um a paramedic, uh, visit the courthouse, visit other schools, public schools, private schools, independent schools, government services, and then all of the human service organizations that that you get introduced to. Um St. Matthew's House, uh, as if we mentioned before, the Conservancy. I'll do everybody a disservice because I'm not gonna be able to go through that whole list, but you get to interact and see all of these great um uh programs that are being run um in in Collier County and how important they are to our success, but also how well they're led and funded. I mean, we have some of the best the habitat of humanity in Collier County is the best in the country. A lot of people don't know that. Um but almost every organization that has a has a national presence, the local presence here is definitely in the top 1% of the organization's uh mission work that they're doing, they're doing right here in Collier County. And getting to know them, um interacting with them is really important. And just knowing that they exist is is important too. And having that opportunity was tremendous. And um uh I couldn't be a bigger advocate for leadership, Collier.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

I love hearing that. And in addition to being an alumni, you're also a very active chamber member and a member of our board of directors. Tell me a little bit about what your involvement and those roles have done to help shape your connection to our business community.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

You know, that's a new role that's emerging. I like I said, I I wish I could be more uh productive. I want to uh I I have my I hold myself to a lot of high standards too. So I I expect excellence in everything that I do and I want to do more uh to support the chamber, but having being a part of it, being invited to be a part of it was uh was an honor, and I'm glad to participate in any way that I can. And the interactions that I've had, the the few relationships that I've started to develop with folks um have been meaningful. And again, as a community, uh the chamber does such a great job of listening and then helping advocate for uh for not just our own individual causes, but for the community in general. I know um I asked some questions after the hurricane and and uh you know, and I think getting a a good response and being heard is is all that people really could ask for. But knowing there's real professional and there's real leadership spearheaded by you uh about getting things done and making sure that our community is head and shoulders above every other.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Thank you for that. Yep, creating economic opportunity for all. Well, congratulations again. I really enjoy getting to know more about you, our shared history, um, and thank you for all that community school does for Naples. Well, thank you. Thank you, Paul. Thank you again to our guests for joining us and for sharing their insights on today's episode of Chamber Chats. If you are interested in sharing your own story and you would like to be featured on a future episode of the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to the Greater Naples Chamber to learn more about how to get involved. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Chamber Chats.