V.M. YBOR - Six years ago, Lincoln Tamayo walked into Chelsea High School near Boston, expecting to do what other principals had not: Make it work. The school district as a whole had performed so poorly that Boston University had been asked to manage it.

Tamayo, who had worked for the university but was never a teacher, inherited Chelsea, which swarmed with 1,200 students. Of those, 70 percent spoke a language other than English at home and 90 percent were poor. The school had a double digit dropout rate.

Tamayo knew only one thing that first day: "I had found my love."

By the next year, the graduation rate had increased from 80 to 93.5 percent. The average SAT score rose from 802 to 850.

Such work has led Tamayo home to Tampa, where he now walks the campus of Academy Prep, as headmaster of the new school in V.M. Ybor. The mission here is the same: Make an education system that will work for these students.

He has 27 fifth-graders who study in same-sex classes, and will add 30 more students each year until the school reaches 120 students in grades 5-8. They come from low-income families, which qualifies them for the free education. Educators say poverty is a predictor of failure, but Tamayo refuses to accept excuses.

"Education forms the very foundation of success in our society," Tamayo said, stressing each word with a pump of his hand. "Other than the bedrock of family and the bedrock of church, without education, you go nowhere."

Putting it mildly, Tamayo is passionate about learning.

It began in childhood. He was born in Cuba, son of a doctor, but his family resettled in Tampa.

Here, in seventh grade, one incident helped shape his life. Tamayo went to a restaurant with friends and, trying to be cool, ran out without paying. The restaurant called the principal to alert her to what some of her students had done. The principal visited Tamayo's basketball practice and asked who had been at the restaurant that day. Tamayo raised his hand.

She admonished him in front of his parents, remarking: "Don't expect much of him because he's just an average kid."

The comment shook him up.

"I remember coming out of the meeting thinking, "I'm not just going to be a C and B student,' " he said.

After that, he put a laser focus on community service work and studies. He became an honor student and graduated in the top 10 percent of his Jesuit High School class. Hoping to join the the FBI or the CIA, he studied at the University of Notre Dame and earned a law degree from the University of Florida.

While finishing law school in 1985, he began applying to the agencies. A background check showed he had an uncle by marriage who once served in the Cuban army. That made Tamayo a security risk, he said. He was refused positions in both agencies.

"I was devastated," Tamayo said.

A friend suggested a job in education, particularly admissions, where Tamayo could work with students and their families. He looked at Boston because his future wife was heading back to her home there.

Tamayo began working at BU and earned his master's degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1990. Promotions came, making him an assistant to John Silber, then university president.

"Doors really began to open, and I began seeing the issues of our country," Tamayo said, his hands and voice rising again. "The lack of accountability in our schools, the troubling issue of social promotion. I began to become extremely interested in public education."

When Tamayo arrived at Chelsea in 1997, he banned students from wearing caps and carrying beepers, and he instituted penalties for missing class. He pushed Advanced Placement courses. Some students walked out in protest; some teachers balked at a guy with no classroom experience instituting his tough love.

He didn't waver. That's one of the attributes that makes him successful, friends say.

"He's one of those guys you wish could go out and lecture every kid, every morning, around every flagpole," said Belinda Womack, a professional singer and Academy Prep's volunteer music teacher. "It's from the heart. He doesn't pull any punches."

Tamayo served as Chelsea's principal until 2001, when he left to work for a successful campaign to change bilingual education policies in Massachusetts. He was ready for another challenge when the St. Petersburg campus of Academy Prep extended its reach to Tampa. A friend connected Tamayo to Paul L. Whiting, president of the school's board.

The Tampa campus was still a dream when Whiting spoke to Tamayo, but Tamayo was ready to move his family for it.

"He accepted this program, this challenge, knowing we were just vapor, hope and a promise. There were a lot of risks," Whiting said. "But he did it. He has a wonderful sense of humility because he cares about people and he really wants to serve."

It hasn't been easy. The Academy Prep program requires parents to volunteer at least 50 community service hours each year, and some don't want to commit to the work. Parents grumble about having to drive kids to school. Tamayo has lost three students since Academy Prep opened this summer.

His mother, Maritza Tamayo, has seen her son work with students. She marvels at how well they respond to him. She couldn't be more proud.

"He graduated as a lawyer, but he wasn't born for that," she said. "I know he loves what he does."

Tamayo can't imagine doing anything else.

"Every decision we make, on a day-to-day basis, determines if children make something out of their lives or are jettisoned into oblivion," he said.

"It's extremely hard work, it's frustrating and fulfilling. But it's what I want to do."

- Denise Watson Batts can be reached at dbatts@sptimes.com or 226-3401.

Lincoln Tamayo
AGE: 42

EDUCATION: University of Notre Dame, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Harvard Graduate School of Education

JOB: Head of Academy Prep Center of Tampa in V.M. Ybor

HOME: Old Hyde Park

FAVORITE HOBBY: Collecting baseball cards

CHILDHOOD AMBITION: Working for the FBI or CIA

FAVORITE POEM: A Cradle Song, by William Butler Yeats

FAMILY: Wife, Joanne. Children, Olivia, 10; Daniel, 8; William, 5.

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