Academy Ignored

[December 5th, 2007]

Ten months before Portland Public Schools opened the doors to its newest rejigger of Jefferson High School, then-principal Leon Dudley told district administrators and School Board members he already had concerns that math classes for some students would be inadequate.

Yet when the first bell rang in September at the John H. Johnson Leadership Academy for Young Men, a small school for boys housed at Jefferson, there was no certified math teacher. That’s still true today.

Due to a strict district staffing formula that gives schools a certain number of teachers based on how many students are enrolled, the Young Men’s Academy got just three teachers to cover everything from language arts to algebra—from the elementary- to the high-school level. That’s one more than the formula requires.

Today, about 55 boys in the sixth through ninth grades attend the North Portland school, which was supposed to offer a “rigorous college preparatory curriculum,” according to marketing material.

Now, parents of at least 10 percent of the students want out. They’re on the verge of transferring their boys—midway through the semester—because the school can’t offer adequate instruction in the basics, they say.

“It’s getting to the point where I’m ready to pull my sons out,” says Jerry Lincoln, who has two boys, in the sixth and seventh grades. “The School Board needs to support the school a lot more.”

But because the program’s future success depends on having more students at the school, administrators have already tried to block some parents from taking advantage of what’s known as a “hardship” transfer. One mother granted such a transfer for her son was then told the district preferred coming up with a plan to keep her son at Jeff.

“That has been the overall strategy,” says Cynthia Harris, the school’s top administrator. As of Monday, six students had petitioned to leave the school so far this year. Only one has been given permission.

That resistance has further angered some mothers and fathers.

“They can’t define a parents’ responsibility to make decisions for their children,” says one mother, who refused to be identified. “The Young Men’s Academy lacks everything.”

The unrest is discouraging because:

• The district spent $30,000 in grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to recruit students and plan a curriculum beginning in January.
• Brochures promised classes in business and law that haven’t been put in place.
• The district has made exceptions to its staffing formula to add extra teachers elsewhere, such as the Winterhaven K-8 magnet school last year, when it used the district’s general revenue money to pay one bonus teacher’s salary.
• Parents and community leaders have been working back channels without success since September to make improvements for their children.

“The district has had enough time to address the staffing problem,” says Jeff Miller, president of the Portland Association of Teachers union.

Many problems, however, remain. A teacher certified in science is also teaching math, a class one eighth-grader called pure “craziness” because students throw markers and otherwise disrupt instruction nearly every day.

The teacher is well meaning and kind but seemingly unprepared, parents say. She has written numerous disciplinary referrals this year, according to the district.

The new academy’s principal, Willie Holmes, who must attend meetings off campus, frequently is unavailable to assist teachers with lunch duty or disciplinary problems, according to one teacher. There is no Saturday School, no law class and no emphasis on careers in the sports industry, as promised. The school has, however, found new lunchroom space for the academy so boys aren’t mixing with older students from the two other academies at Jeff, which include girls.

Holmes, who was recruited from Texas to lead the school, doesn’t blame parents for considering leaving. He understands what they’re facing. “We need more resources for a better program,” Holmes says. “What I have to do is use what I have.”

Some parents are holding out hope that change is imminent. But in a testament to how sensitive the issue has become, only one out of the five dissatisfied parents interviewed by WW was willing to be identified.

“It’s a new school and there are going to be some bumps in the road,” one father says. “People are doing the best that they can. I don’t want to be negative.”

Another father says he’s ready to abandon the experiment. “I don’t want my son at a school that’s going down,” he says.

Carole Smith, the new superintendent who’s often said the academies at Jeff will be “great,” now says administrators are doing what they can, but she avoids talking about “details.” Miller of the teachers’ union says the answer is obvious.

“The solution has to be in one shape or form to give the school more staff,” Miller says. “To expect one teacher to teach 14-year-old kids four or five subjects is completely unrealistic.”