Learn About School Development Group, Inc.
School Development Group, Inc. is designed to franchise a business model for private and charter education. We have over 25 years of experience in the charter school industry, and our educational consultants have 70 years of experience. Our format is classical education, which has been proven as a successful program everywhere it has been implemented. We believe our programs and business background combined create a successful educational business package that can be replicated throughout our country.
Educational Consultants and Experience
Mark Gotz
Mark Howard Gotz has been involved in the commercial real estate business since 1974. His firm (MH Realty Associates, Inc.) has been established since 1980. His activities include the development, purchase, and sale of shopping centers and office buildings. He has held a Florida Real Estate Broker’s license since 1978, and has been a development partner in over 300,000 square feet of office and retail properties. He was responsible for obtaining bond financing and developing a new middle/high school facility in Florida City, Florida, for the Miami Community Charter School, which opened in August 2011.
Mr. Gotz has been a co-founder and active member of charter schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, Lee, and Osceola Counties. Mark has been extensively involved in the business of charter education for over 25 years. He has also assisted charter schools with their facility needs in Florida, Texas, Nevada, Louisiana, Georgia, Ohio, California, Colorado, and Alaska. In 2003, he organized School Development Group, Inc., a charter school management organization that facilitates the development of real estate for charter schools and operates the business side of charter school operations.
Mark began his charter school involvement in 1995 as the owner and manager of a shopping center in North Lauderdale, Florida, called Kimberly Square Shopping Plaza. Needing a replacement for a grocery store tenant, Gotz began investigating inserting a charter school in the vacant grocery store space.
A few months after his investigation began, the plaza received an offer to purchase from a local church, and the research into a charter school ceased. The idea of how charter schools could be utilized to create better education opportunities for parents and students was firmly planted in his mind. The sale to the church was closed a few months later, but Gotz began working on an entity to create, facilitate, and operate charter schools. It should be noted that the sold shopping center was home to the first municipal charter high school in the country, North Lauderdale Academy High School, 1997-2007.
In 2004, Mark created a founding board to apply and start charter schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Lee Counties. All three charters (Miami Community Charter School, Broward Community Charter School, and Lee Charter Academy) were approved and opened in 2005. Gotz has continued to create, facilitate and operate charter schools for the last 17 years. Other schools that Gotz played a major role in are Paragon Academy of Technology, Pompano Charter Middle School, Sunshine Elementary Charter School, Miami Community Charter Middle, and High Schools, and American Classical Charter Academy (St. Cloud).
Mark has been searching for the best education program even before he entered the charter school industry. His search has led him to the classical education format. This successful program has educated students for over 3,000 years. Eisenstein, Curie, Van Gough, Jefferson, Adams, and Washington were all educated in this format.
On the public service side, Mr. Gotz has served on the Broward County School District Facilities Task Force, has been a member of the J.P. Taravella Innovation Zone, SAC Team Member for Ramblewood Elementary School, SAC Chairman Westgate K-8 in Saint Lucie County, and a Member of Business for Better Education in Saint Lucie County. In 2011, Governor Rick Scott appointed Mark to a position on the Saint Lucie County Fire District Board of Commissioners. Mark held the position of Chairman of the Saint Lucie County Republican Party (2018‑2020).
Mark is a graduate of Miami-Dade Community College with an associate degree in business management.
Dr. John Carvelli
As founder of Carvelli and Associates, Dr. Carvelli brings over 35 years of quality experience as an educator and elected official to help your organization achieve success. Dr. Carvelli's background as a teacher, principal, curriculum specialist, and area and central office administrator has helped him to understand every aspect of a school system.
He has served as principal of both an 'A' rated elementary school and an inner-city high school. As coordinator of a public/private partnership adult apprenticeship school, his students achieved success in winning gold in the V.I.C.A National Skill-Olympics.
From 1994-2010, Dr. Carvelli was elected to the St. Lucie County, Florida School Board. In 1997, as chairman, he worked to bring the community together and brought resolution to the 27-year-old Federal Desegregation Order, personally sitting in Federal Court at the defendant's table and testifying to the school district's unitary status. During his elected service, Dr. Carvelli was appointed to the national board of the National Vocational Honor Society. He served as Vice-Chair of the 1998 Florida Blue Ribbon Committee For Reorganization of Education, and served in various capacities for three Florida Commissioners of Education and the University of Florida Education Alumni Council.
Serving as a Port St. Lucie, Florida City Councilman From 2016-2020, Dr. Carvelli worked to reduce the city’s debt by $250 million and was part of the team that passed a half-cent sales tax for new infrastructure. Dr. Carvelli graduated from the University of Florida Educational Administration program and received his Doctorate of Education from Clemson University. He holds professional licenses in Florida and South Carolina.