Academy Prep, the small private school for disadvantaged boys and girls, is given a connection to a building - becoming increasingly well connected.

A bridge was installed Tuesday at Academy Prep Center for Education, a gift of the Rotary Club of St. Petersburg West.

The metal structure with Monet-like curves spans the pond, filled with ducks and water lilies. It is a practical thing, a more efficient connection to the administration building from the parking lot. The bridge also might be seen as a symbol of the connections this small private school for disadvantaged boys and girls has made during its four years.

Academy Prep opened in 1997 with a simple goal: to provide an education that would change students consigned to probable failure into successes. Based on the Nativity Mission School in New York City, tuition-free Academy Prep began with two fifth- and sixth- grade classes of economically disadvantaged boys. Seventh and eighth grades were added in 1998 and 1999.

The curriculum requires students to attend 12 hours a day, six days a week, 11 months a year. Teachers live on campus, at 2301 22nd Ave. S, which is never closed. Nightly study halls are mandatory, as are uniforms. After eighth grade, the students are placed in private high schools and Academy Prep staff will continue tracking them through college, the ultimate goal.

The rigor has been a far cry from anything the boys and their parents, mostly African-American, have experienced in public schools, says John Effinger, headmaster since its opening.

The first class, which graduated in the spring, had the most problems adjusting to the demands, he says. A few dropped out or were asked to leave. But the nine who stayed and graduated in May all received full scholarships to private schools, locally or as out-of- town boarders.

Most are thriving, he says, and Academy Prep representatives are helping to work out the challenges their former students are having in new environments.

Effinger says that with experience, he and the staff are more adept at choosing students with the greatest chance of success in the program, and the dropout rate is almost non-existent for lower grades. Total enrollment has peaked at 72 students.

New this year is the girls school. A second classroom building was completed last year and it opened in August with 15 fifth-graders. A grade will be added every year, as at the boys school.

Staff has been increased, with four full-time paid teachers and eight full-time "volunteers," teachers who work for a small monthly stipend and receive room and board, health benefits and a car. The turnover at the school is low, with the volunteers signing up for multiple stints and some becoming paid teachers.

Construction is under way for a fourth building, which Effinger says was originally designed as a barn to house animals for the students to care for. Instead, it will be a multi-use facility with small rooms for private tutoring sessions, music lessons, small classes and a technology center.

Academy Prep receives no federal or state funding, except for the free breakfasts and lunches all the students are eligible for. A committed, well-connected board of trustees, led by founders Jeff Fortune and Bob Anders, raises enough money every year to meet operating expenses, this year $750,000, along with special budget items such as the new building.

The school's endowment is growing at a steady clip. The Eckerd Foundation gave the school a $1.25-million challenge grant in April, requiring the school to raise $2.5-million by December. "We are $350,000 short of that now," Effinger says, "and fully expect to meet that soon." The boys school is fully endowed at $5-million, and the girls school has about $1.25-million toward that same goal. The endowments will make Academy Prep self-sustaining at a basic level, so fundraising will focus on improvements and enhancements.

By any measure Academy Prep is succeeding. Success has its price.

"We have so many more applications than spaces for students," Effinger says. "Turning kids away is painful."

And despite Effinger's belief that "the kids now are more in tune with expectations, with the way things are done at Academy Prep," the staff works constantly to mitigate negative influences that wait outside the gates of the school, which is in one of the poorer neighborhoods of St. Petersburg.

Effinger is getting ready for the annual fall tour of schools with the eighth-graders and their parents - the first trip is in the spring of the students' seventh-grade year - to familiarize them with their options and possibilities. Then he will work with each student's family to help them select the school with the best fit.

None are public schools because Effinger believes they do not provide the attention the students need to stay focused.

Academy Prep stays in close touch with the high schools that take its students. The school is committed to tracking them and providing support, financially and socially, through college.

The school's success has spawned an interest in creating more Academy Preps, and schools in north Pinellas and Hillsborough counties might be considered once this one's economic security is guaranteed, Effinger has said.