“Where will my kid go next year?”

This was the question at the core of the ASD and Yes Prep’s third community forum at Airways Middle tonight. I had the chance to attend the entire forum and speak with several of the attendees afterward.  Given the drama at previous forums, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew I should be prepared for anything.

The Feel

I entered the partially filled auditorium in Airways middle. I was immediately greeted by the smell of pizza and saw about 80 parents, community members, teachers and ASD staff all seated at the round tables waiting for the forum to get under way. A few more trickled in throughout the night, but I don’t think the crowd ever topped 100. We saw and heard from several state representatives including Raumesh Akbari, teachers from the school and other community members. We even saw a contingent of teachers from Southside Middle show up.

Throughout the night, questions centered on where students would attend next year, what would happen to kids currently at Airways, and how would services continue going into next year. There was no protesting or raucous opposition.

Overall the meeting was well organized. This runs counter to what I had heard from previous meetings such as Raleigh Egypt, where one attendee informed me that the meeting took almost a half hour to get started. It started on time and went right to the Q&A portion, which ran smoothly throughout the night. The moderators seemed in control, but the community was still able to express their thoughts and feelings through their questions.

The substance of the questions was about what I expected and the crowd was somewhat subdued compared to what I’d read about previous ASD meetings. However, beneath the questions I consistently sensed fear and anger. This is very understandable given what is at stake.

I heard the fear come out as fear about the unknown, fear from parents worrying about their children’s future, and fear about what would happen to the school that they loved.

I also heard anger. Anger expressed at a process that they felt hadn’t taken their perspectives into account. Anger expressed through shouts and clapping when community members stood up criticize and at the ASD and Yes Prep.  Anger expressed at how they couldn’t understand someone else coming into their community and telling them what they were doing wrong with their kids.

We also heard some interesting and unexpected questions. For example, one of the most common questions was not “why are you coming in here” but “why are you not taking over the entire school?” It seemed as if parents would have been more comfortable with a whole school takeover rather than a phase in model.

All night, the ASD, Yes Prep and SCS did their best to alleviate the fear and the anger. Brad Leon from SCS was on hand to field questions about co-location, and the ASD’s representative fielded questions about the ASD takeover process and what things would look like. And Supt. Durbin responded to parents concerned about the new operator that would be potentially taking over their school next year.

What We Learned

During the forum, we learned several things about this takeover process. First, we learned more as well about Yes Prep’s plans in Memphis. The ASD has ‘matched’ them with three schools, and they intend to open two in Memphis at either A. Maceo Walker, Airways or American Middle.

Second, we learned more about Yes Prep’s staffing needs. Ten Yes Prep teachers are planning to move up to Memphis from Houston (Yes Prep’s home), and at one point in a public response Supt. Durbin’s staff indicated that the projected number of teachers in each school would be 11 teachers, for a total of 22 teachers district wide.

We were cautioned that this may change based on actual enrollment, we were informed, but my guess is that it would likely not change that much.

Third, we also got specifics as to what happens if an ASD school doesn’t perform. When asked what happens if a school doesn’t improve, the ASD stated that if after three years a school isn’t performing well, that the district would re-engage in a matching process to engage an operator who “will do right by the school” according to an ASD staff member answering questions. She said that “if the adults aren’t doing right, students deserve a different group of adults.” It will be interesting to see if this plays out in the coming years if ASD schools do in fact under perform.

Staff Responses

We also learned a few things about the staff running the process. Mr. Leon was very astute in his answers, able to get his point across efficiently. He wasn’t typically challenged in the same way that Yes Prep or the ASD folks were.

Supt. Durbin did a solid job of fielding questions all night. He continued to come back to his belief in the importance of providing the kid at Airways with a quality education.  Throughout his answers he consistently displayed the humility that I would want to see from someone in his position. He consistently brought it back to the kids and the importance of their education. He made continuous appeals to teachers, speaking to the need for their expertise and asking them to stay.

For some reason, the ASD staff responses all struck me as rather cold and emotionless. They were very factual and number oriented, but had very little warmth. This would make sense in a business meeting, but not in a forum trying to alleviate the concerns of parents. Something to work on for next time.

Post Meeting

After the meeting I had a chance to catch up with several attendees and ask their thoughts on several issues. I spoke with one teacher who, when asked how many teachers would be applying to Yes Prep from Airways, responded “probably one.” When asked why, this teacher indicated that there’s a lot of misinformation about what would happen regarding benefits and salary, and that most teachers don’t want to leave the district for fear of loosing benefits or seniority.

There might be some truth to this. From what I could gather, teachers that are accepted to Yes Prep would continue to have the same benefits in Tennessee’s consolidated system as they do in Shelby County. They would potentially take a salary pay cut, though I couldn’t determine the exact amount. And of course, they would have to leave the Shelby County system, loosing seniority.

I also had a chance to catch up with Superintendent Bill Durbin of Yes Prep. Mr. Durbin has been living in Memphis the past 6 months to get to know the city before Yes Prep opens their first schools next year. When I asked him about how he would sum up the last three nights of meetings, he responded that he had one goal – to honor parents and community members with more info. As a next step, he said that they would need to have “one million one on one’s to build trust” in the community.

When asked what he is taking away from the meetings, he expressed his belief that the parents and community were frustrated because of a lack of information. He again iterated his belief that what is needed next are those one on one conversations to help people through the process.

His last thought was one that struck me, and again contributed to my belief in his humility and I think sums up the entire ASD community meeting process: “they might not agree with me, but it’s important to understand where we are both coming from.”

Final Thoughts

By all accounts I went to the most ‘boring’ meeting, that is, the one with the least action and protest. However, it was good to see what an ASD meeting could look like if both sides were given a chance to engage in a constructive dialogue.

Where the ASD is coming from, of course, is that it’s been tasked to improve the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state. Yes Prep is coming from a place where they have been selected to implement that plan. And parents, as Supt. Durbin so aptly stated, are coming from a place where they often lack information and knowledge about the process and want to find out those details for themselves.

I think that this meeting went as well as it could have given the benchmark set by previous meetings. Parents had their first chance to meet Yes Prep staff as well as share their thoughts and opinions. None of the community members that I saw leaving seemed satisfied, and some indicated through their questions that they intended their children to attend SCS schools and not Yes Prep next year.

Overall, the entire meeting indicating that more work has to be done to win over the community. Its possible for Yes Prep to be successful here, but they have a long way to go to win over support from a skeptical community.

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