The Times-Picayune, October 11, 2004
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Transformed School Builds Parents' Hopes: State May Use Capdau as Model for Takeovers

By AESHA RASHEED, Staff Writer

Teacher Kim Honore Keith cried as she walked the halls of P.A. Capdau Charter School in August. In May, she had left a school scarred by neglect. Its ceilings leaked onto floors with broken tiles, its hallways were dark and dingy under muted or broken lights. She returned to repaired and freshly painted classrooms and brightly lighted hallways. "The transformation is already overwhelming," she said.

She said she knew the makeover, while impressive, was merely a cosmetic symbol of deeper changes at the school. Year after year, the school has lost its struggle to adequately educate most of its middle-schoolers. In the spring, more than half of the eighth-graders failed the LEAP test. Seventh-graders, on average, scored below 81 percent of their peers nationwide on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Over the past decade, the school has had eight principals and has shifted its instructional program each of the past three years.

After years of issuing warnings and sending in outside help, the state in April moved to take over the school, handing control to the University of New Orleans (UNO) this summer. It is the first time the state has taken over a locally controlled school for academic failure. And the transformations began.

UNO used a $250,000 Hibernia National Bank donation to paint and make repairs. It hired Principal Shannon Verrett, a Jefferson Parish schools veteran with a get-tough reputation. With the exception of Keith, every teacher was replaced. The school implemented a curriculum tailoring instruction to each student. And the school was put on the path to become a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, adding the three earliest grades this year, with plans for the rest later.

As UNO begins this first-of-its-kind takeover, plenty of people are watching. State officials are looking for a success that can be replicated at the other 16 failing schools in the state, 15 of which are in New Orleans. And more important, the parents and faculty who have put their faith in a new kind of school want to see Capdau transformed into a school they can be proud of.

Answering the Call

Verrett knew the statistics. As a teacher and principal in Jefferson Parish, he'd heard the stories and myths about New Orleans public schools. But he also believed in UNO's plan and welcomed  the challenge. "If a situation seems undesirable or impossible, I'm the man for the job," Verrett said.

Verrett sees some of himself in Capdau students. He remembers struggling in middle school algebra and being told by a counselor that he wasn't cut out for college. But he dreamed of being a doctor, so he ignored the counselor and enrolled at UNO. He couldn't make it past introductory science and math classes, and after a year he gave up and joined the Army.

In the Army, he became a field nurse and had to master complex math and science concepts. His self-confidence grew, and he began to dream again of college. While deployed in Saudi Arabia for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Verrett said he realized he was meant to be an educator. Deeply religious, Verrett said he heard a message from God.

Through a Tennessee program designed to lure young black men into teaching, Verrett earned a teaching degree from Austin Peay State University and took a teaching job in Kentucky. After a year in the Bluegrass State, Verrett was ready to come back home to Louisiana. He took a special education position at John Ehret High School in Marrero and began a quick climb toward a principalship.

As a principal, Verrett is in a position to fulfill a vow he made that no child he knew would have to grow up without the influence of a strong male role model. His own father suffered a stroke when Verrett was a small boy and was unable to walk or communicate. "I have stories, but I don't have memories like my brothers and sisters," said Verrett, the youngest of seven siblings. "I promised God and myself that everything I didn't get from my father, I would make sure that first, my kids got that, and that I would provide that for every child I came across."

Waiting List

Uranie Stewart listened anxiously as a certified public accountant pulled numbered slips out of the metal lottery basket one by one and read them aloud. Stewart, 14, checked each one against her own. When finally the numbers matched, she could not hold in her enthusiasm. "Yay!" she yelped before clapping a hand over her mouth, embarrassed by her outburst. "I'm excited," the slender seventh-grader explained with a wide grin. "I think it's going to be a better environment." Stewart and her mother, Ruth Jackson, joined about a dozen others in the UNO student center to wait out the lottery, held in July.

More than 500 students applied for the 264 available spaces at the school. "I'm finding cousins I never knew," Verrett joked one afternoon after taking another call from a parent eager to secure a spot at the school. His response to each call was the same: "Go through the application process."

First to be selected in the lottery were students who live within the school's 5-square-mile attendance boundary. More than 200 students who live outside the attendance zone and are assigned to another of the city's 41 academically unacceptable schools were put on waiting lists.

The response from parents and community members surprised school officials. More than 200 people crowded into church pews to participate in each of three public forums held to unveil plans for Capdau. They wanted to know what could be done for the school. They wanted to know how their children could get into the school. And they wanted to thank UNO. Certainly there were skeptics, but they were far outweighed by voices of hope and faith. "May the Lord bless you for what you're doing at that school," Loyce Sparrow, a grandmother of two Capdau students, told state and university officials. At a crowded forum at New Genesis Baptist Church, Sparrow said the takeover was the answer to her prayers for the school.

Reaching the Teachers

Drawing students proved somewhat easier than pulling in teachers. The applications trickled in. New Orleans teachers who have been through dozens of changes labeled "reform" were wary of joining another turnaround effort. Ultimately, the campaign launched by UNO to win the faith of parents and the community drew in teachers as well.

"The more public forums we had, the more applications came in," said Jim Meza, the dean of UNO's Education School, who is helping lead the charter school effort. "And the hiring of Shannon Verrett was a great plus. A lot of people were on hold waiting to find out who would be the principal."

Keith needed no convincing. "Everybody kept asking, 'Are you going to apply?' But I knew from day one I wanted to stay. If Mickey Mouse was principal, I was going to be here," she said. Keith was already familiar with Accelerated Schools, the school reform model UNO is using at Capdau, and with some of the key players who were her mentors when she was a student at UNO. It seemed a perfect fit. And there was another reason to stay: "I want to know what's going to happen to my babies," she said. So do her former colleagues, who regularly call her to find out how Capdau is progressing, she said.

In all, more than 60 teachers applied for the 16 available positions. The teachers selected are all certified, and most have taught in New Orleans or Jefferson Parish schools.

Two weeks before school, Capdau's new faculty gathered in a classroom to talk about their fears and aspirations for the school. "We've all heard the rumors about those children at that school," said Darlene Brown, who was leading a training session. Perception is reality, she warned them. If they expect students to be unruly and incapable, they will respond to those expectations. "I want you to grab those perceptions and toss them on the floor."

Coming out of that session, the group was optimistic but not naive. They know that some of their students have serious educational, emotional, and social setbacks. And they know that the eyes of the city and the state are on them.

Test Case

As the first Louisiana school to be taken over for academic failings, Capdau is a test case, said Leslie Jacobs, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education who championed a constitutional amendment to allow state takeover of failing schools. If the school proves successful, it will be a model for other failing schools. It will also provide proof to skeptics who believe that public schools cannot work and to those who claim that they don't have enough money to succeed, Jacobs said.

But most important, it is another option for hundreds of New Orleans school children who are trapped in failing schools, she said. "This is not a district takeover, and it's not a solution to a district-wide problem. But for the kids who go to that school, it will make a very big difference," she said.

Given the response from parents eager to enroll their students, and community leaders who were praising the school before it even opened, some question why the state took over just one school. Aside from the fact that UNO was the only entity that applied to run a takeover, state officials said they wanted to start small and work out the kinks.

"We're building this plane as we fly it," UNO's Meza said. Operating like a district superintendent, Meza has had to deal with all the tedious and complex details of the takeover. And like most superintendents, Meza's biggest problem has been money. As a public school, Capdau will continue to draw local, state, and federal money based on the number of students it enrolls, but that money was not available until late July, a nerve-wrackingly late start for staffing and preparation.

UNO was lucky to have a supportive administration and about $1 million left over from a federal grant for teacher training and charter school development, Meza said. "Without some kind of start-up money, I don't know how a non-profit could do this," Meza said. [State officials] "have got to find funds to support this if it's going to work."

But there have been lots of smaller problems, too, such as getting contracts for necessary services through the lengthy state-approval process. Jacobs acknowledged that there are obstacles in the still-developing policies. The hope, Jacobs said, is that the Capdau project will clear the way for other universities and nonprofit groups interested in following UNO's lead. "Capdau is really a trailblazer," she said.

Path to School

From the sidewalk outside Capdau, Meza watched a trail of children parade up the school's front steps for their first day of school, and he finally felt at peace. "We are finally going to do the right thing for children," he said. Meza had waited three years for this day.

In the bubble of optimism that came with the dawn of former schools chief Al Davis' tenure, all seven of the city's universities and colleges joined with the Orleans Parish School Board to work with some of the district's most academically troubled public schools by training teachers and nurturing reform efforts.

Meza and then-UNO Chancellor Gregory O'Brien saw an opportunity to go further. The university was eager to get more involved in the city's public schools and to shift its teacher training programs toward preparing teachers for the hardships of big-city schools, particularly New Orleans public schools. So, during the summer of 2001, UNO pitched a bold proposal to create a charter school district of 10 existing public schools and turn those schools into laboratories for national reform models.

The School Board was skeptical. UNO's proposal set off a rash of debates as the board at first rebuffed and then grudgingly agreed to try a scaled-down version of the concept after it was whittled from 10 schools to four and eventually to one, Medard Nelson Elementary. But the tentative deal between UNO and the school system to run Nelson fell apart amid finger-pointing and bitter feelings as concerns over the district's teachers union contract stalled negotiations shortly after the start of the 2002-2003 school year. "I was deeply disappointed," Meza recalled. "It was disappointing because we lost an opportunity to make a difference for children. "

Far from defeated, Meza kept the plans ready, and he waited for another chance, which came last year with the passage of the constitutional amendment. "We don't have to do this, but it's the right thing to do," he said. "Anyone who walks into the school and sees the faces of these students could not stand by and do nothing."

When state school board members began pushing for takeover, most Orleans Parish School Board members questioned the state's motives and credentials. The local board passed a resolution opposing state takeover in 2003. Now with takeover a reality, approved by a majority of voters across the state and in New Orleans, board members have warmed to the idea and wish the university well. Meanwhile, a newly elected majority on the seven-member School Board touted UNO's progress at Capdau and said they are advocates of creating more university-run schools.

Brenda Mitchell, head of the New Orleans teachers union, questioned whether the takeover would shed light on the problems facing most New Orleans public schools. She also raised concerns that teachers at the school are not protected by a collective bargaining agreement and that the takeover would usher in privatization of public schools. "I hope that the school does well, however I wish that it would have been configured the way it was originally," Mitchell said referring to the original plan to make Capdau just a middle school. "I thought the goal was to help us understand middle schools and develop a model to help our middle schools."

'Guard Your Spot'

By Aug. 30, when Capdau opened for its first day of school, the hours of planning and preparation seemed to have paid off. There were glitches, of course. The school's finicky intercom system took the day off, and six pupils showed up for school who weren't enrolled, but those snags weren't noticeable inside the school's 12 classrooms. "It's very organized," Keith said of the first day of school. "That's a welcome change."

That morning, Keith stood sentinel at the school's north door, seeking out the familiar faces of the 40 returning eighth-graders. To each one, she offered a hug and a whispered word of encouragement. "Guard your spot," she told them.

That afternoon, Keith repeated that message to every eighth-grader. She tried to transmit her hope for the coming year and issued a challenge. "There are people waiting to take your spot," she told them. "You are lucky to be here. You are blessed. Guard your spot. Take advantage of every opportunity, because if you don't, there's somebody else who will."

Aesha Rasheed can be reached at arasheed@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3378.

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