EVERETT—It with absolute pleasure that the Lynnwood Times staff has named Dr. Paul A. Stoot, founder/CEO or Rise Up Academy, as its Person of the Year for 2024 for his faith-based community service and dedication to providing accessible, and affordable, quality early childhood education especially to underserved communities.
“After being in this community and working in this community for over 30 years, it is quite humbling that [the Lynnwood Times] would come to me in this season of my life and tell me that what I’ve done matters,” said Dr. Stoot. “What I’ve done wasn’t for me. It was for the voiceless young people that we so often overlook.”
Paul A. Stoot Sr. was born and raised in Houston, Texas, to a low-income family. He informed the Lynnwood Times that both of his parents worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, so when he turned 13-years-old he began offering to mow neighbors’ lawns to help pitch in for groceries. This, he said, is ultimately what fostered his entrepreneurial spirit.
Dr. Stoot joined the United States Navy in 1983 where he served in San Diego for seven years—four on active duty and three on reserve. He entered the aerospace sector shortly after being honorably discharged from the military as an Operation Specialist for General Dynamics Space Division in Southern California.
It had always been a dream of Dr. Stoot’s to join the Boy Scouts of America when he was younger, but his parents could not afford the membership fee. To actualize this dream, Dr. Stoot decided he would begin a Boy Scouts chapter of his own while living in South San Diego. His program was such a success it would later be adopted by the Boy Scouts of America handbook in the 1980’s, and these editions of the handbook even feature photographs of himself and his troop. Dr. Stoot credits his time working as a Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts as the first time his love for teaching, and mentoring, children truly took flight.
In 1990 Dr. Stoot accepted a job as a Manufacturing Engineer for The Boeing Company and relocated to Everett, Washington.
Shortly after, being a man of faith who grew up within the church, he began leading church sermons out of a Holiday Inn in South Everett, unable to afford a church of his own until a team of local Deacons believed in his message so much they chipped in to buy what would later become known as the Greater Trinity Academy—the future site of Rise Up Academy.
Dr. Stoot became well known for his energetic and profound spiritual messages, even attracting the likes of Jesse Jackson, former Senator, civil rights activist, and protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960’s. Jackson and Dr. Stoot formed a close friendship over the years and would meet up every time Jackson visited Washington State.
Immediately after moving to Everett, Dr. Stoot noticed a lack of quality early childhood education opportunities there, particularly for low-income BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) families. He informed the Lynnwood Times that he believes the best way to eliminate the achievement gap that exists in our society today is by making a high-quality and innovative Early Childhood Education program accessible for all students, especially for those who would otherwise not be able to afford it.
He founded Rise Up Academy in 1999 out of his old church, alongside his good friend former Seattle Seahawks Safety and NFL Hall-of-Famer Kenny Easley who was the first to donate to Dr. Stoot’s cause in the amount of $1,000.
Rise Up Academy is an early learning center in South Everett for Preschool to Kindergarten students that also offers after school programs. With 65 enrolled students and a student-teacher ratio of 5-to-1, the school prides itself on its pupils exceeding standardized tests by its accelerated learning methods.
Over the last 25 years, Rise Up Academy has developed into a highly respected Early Childhood Education center recognized by the Bezos family, Bill Gates Sr., former CEO of Alaska Airlines Brad Tilden, and NBA Hall-of-Famer Lennie Wilkens who was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team and carried the Seattle Supersonics to a championship victory in 1978 as head coach, to name a few.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee paid a visit to Rise Up Academy in January 2024 seeing firsthand an education curriculum that refuses to let any child “fall through the cracks.”
“Trudi and I have been trying to help for the last four years on this by creating resources for early childhood education,” Governor Inslee said.
And speaking of local professional athletes, Seattle-born NFL running back Terry Metcalf, who played for the Washington Redskins in the 1980’s, helped Dr. Stoot design the curriculum taught at Rise Up Academy.
“If they can pick up a phone and figure it out before I can, then there is a lot they can do,” Dr. Terry Metcalf, said of his curriculum. “We take young children who are underage, based on public school criteria, and teach them first and second grade information and they exceed, they excel,”
A former Rise Up student Mariame Toure, whose parents immigrated to South Everett from West Africa when she was younger, struggled in school from an early age. Being a native French speaker and having to learn English alongside her parents, the curriculum taught in public school was difficult for her to understand. She enrolled at Rise Up Academy and, through its program, ended up graduating high school by the age of 16.
“Growing up I’ve always known Dr. Stoot to be someone I can count on and someone who’s really loving, and in particular really there for me and my family,” said Mariame Toure, a former student of Dr. Stoot’s and later a teacher at Rise Up Academy. “Working with him made it even better because I was able to gain a closer relationship [and] got to know his funny side and his personality. He’s really just a great person and someone I can always count on.”
Rise Up Academy, under Dr. Stoot’s leadership, made such an impression on Toure that she ended up returning years later to become a teacher there. Now she’s studying to be a nurse at a University in Spokane.
Another Rise Up student, Dominque Gibson, who is now a volunteer at the learning center, shared with the Lynnwood Times her reading level was below average when she began attending Rise Up as a child. The Academy raised her reading level above standard and is now an avid reader. Dominque now gives one-on-one instruction to children for reading at Rise Up.
“It feels like a loving family to give back to an environment where so many people are so caring,” said Gibson about returning to volunteer at an institution which gave her so much. “My favorite part about coming here is the children. They’re nice, they’re lovely, and they’re almost like your younger sibling in a way.”
In July of 2023 Snohomish County approved allocating $2 million of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to Rise Up Academy to expand its services and serve a larger number of children with high-quality education.
Rise Up also hopes to secure additional federal funding for an expansion that will add two stories to its learning center. The result will be nearly 65,000 square feet making room for affordable housing, early child care, and expanding services from 75 to 165 children.
With a total project cost of the expansion at $12.5 million and including a $1 million grant provided by the Washington State Department of Commerce in 2022 and some additional donations, the Board of Directors for Rise Up Academy is about to launch an aggressive capital funding campaign this quarter to raise the $9 million still needed. The goal is to break ground when the project is 50-75% funded.
The proposed new Early Learning Facility will be built on the grounds of the existing South Everett campus and include six classrooms from three, a multi-purpose performing arts space to accommodate STEAM learning, an expanded library and technology space, and a new cafeteria.
Currently, 15% of its students are in foster care and 20% have an incarcerated family member. At a cost per pupil of $1050 per month, approximately 94% of students receive some form of financial assistance.
Rise Up Academy is located in what the county calls extreme “child care deserts” which is a census term to indicate an area has at least 50 children under the age of five that contains either no child care providers, or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as licensed child care slots. Additionally, these areas largely serve families that are at, or below, 65% of the area median income.
Dr. Paul A Stoot, now joins Dr. Steve Woodard (2023), Karina Gasperin, Olympia Edwards, Jesse Hayes (2022), Van Dinh Kuno (2021), and Dr. Chris Spitters (2021) as a Lynnwood Times’ Person of the Year.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
