Key Largo charter school surprises assistant principal with rare honor

At Ocean Studies Charter School in Key Largo, 180 students filled the gym to honor the assistant principal many families say has helped shape the daily rhythm of the campus for more than a decade. Jessica Martinez was named a Champion School Leader by the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, a recognition reserved for a small group of educators statewide and one that school leaders said reflected her steady work with students, teachers and parents.

The school turned Martinez’s walk to the gym into a surprise. She was told she needed to respond to a fake water leak, only to step into a room packed with the entire student body, staff members and family members ready to shout, “Surprise!” The moment was loud, emotional and unmistakably personal for a campus that says Martinez has long been one of the people holding it together.

Principal Jon Shoffstall said Martinez has worked tirelessly to create a welcoming, supportive environment for students, staff and families. That description fit the response inside the gym, where students and employees were clearly not celebrating a name on a plaque so much as a presence they see every day in hallways, classrooms and meetings. Tracy Malden, the school’s office coordinator, helped organize the surprise and made sure Martinez’s husband was there for the moment.

The award itself carries weight beyond one school. The Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools announced 18 winners of its 2025 Charter School Champions of the Year awards on June 5, 2025, covering the 2024-2025 school year. Only three of those honorees were school leaders. FCPCS said the program was in its 12th year and that the winners included nine teachers, three school leaders, three governing board members, two charter school pioneers and one innovator.

Martinez’s path at Ocean Studies stretches back to 2013, when she started as a first- and second-grade teacher after her son began kindergarten there. She later moved into the assistant principal role and has held that post for more than seven years. That timeline made the recognition feel less like a one-day honor than a public acknowledgment of years spent learning the school from the inside and serving the families who walk through its doors at 100360 Overseas Highway.

Ocean Studies describes itself as a free public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade and says it is A-rated. The campus has also built a reputation around marine-science enrichment, which makes day-to-day leadership especially important in a small Key Largo school where students, teachers and families often depend on the same people for both structure and encouragement.

Martinez was also highlighted by the school in 2017 as Teacher of the Year, when she helped lead a KaBOOM! playground grant effort after Hurricane Irma. Together, those milestones show why the applause in the gym felt earned. At Ocean Studies, Martinez has become part of the school’s foundation, not just its administration.