SOUTHEAST RALEIGH ELEMENTARY: Community adds programs to level the playing field for students there.

I heard from a native Arkansan yesterday about a community school in Raleigh, N.C. — a school with add-on services aimed at a needy neighborhood, an idea Little Rock has been discussing in the Little Rock School District. Spoiler alert: It isn’t cheap.

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BARLOW HERGET

What follows is an op-ed sent to me by Barlow Herget, which was published yesterday in the Raleigh News and Observer. (The newspaper included a video about the creation of the school.)

Herget, who grew up in Paragould and got an undergraduate degree at the University of Arkansas, started a newspaper career in Arkansas that led him to a Nieman Fellowship, years with the Raleigh paper and a stint on the Raleigh City Council. He’s been a writer, radio commentator and government policy analyst. He’s also a member of the local YMCA, which is a significant partner (almost $25 million worth) in the Raleigh school experiment.

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As Little Rock embarks on the idea to invest in select “community schools” with added services it’s worth remembering that talk is cheap.  Pre-school, health services, nutrition, housing, after-school facilities and programs tailored to a specific neighborhood’s needs are not. In Little Rock, there’s talk of private foundation help. The city has committed some support, but it is short of funds. The state, which controls the Little Rock School District, has smiled on the idea but so far hasn’t committed money to the cause.

Herget describes what’s underway at Southeast Raleigh Elementary, shown in the photo above from the Wake public school district.

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New school and YMCA offer laboratory for learning in SE Raleigh

By J. Barlow Herget

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If you’re driving east on Rock Quarry Road from downtown in Raleigh, you will pass a new development on the right, immediately before you cross over the I-440 beltway. The development is an interesting combination of a new YMCA building and Wake Public School System’s Southeast Raleigh Elementary School.

This is not an ordinary school and it represents an excellent opportunity for the school system to test some long-held ideas about education. So many studies that have examined why some schools fail and others succeed point to the surroundings of the students.

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The schools in economically poor neighbors often lack resources. The buildings are inadequate. The students’ families are overwhelmed by poverty. Children don’t get enough food. The neighborhoods are unsafe and short on healthy activities. Discipline is often cited as a big issue.

Southeast Raleigh Elementary cannot answer for all of these problems, but it offers a kitchen full of ingredients that lessen if not abolishes some of them. Children, for example, are served breakfast and lunch free and packed meal for supper for all who qualify which is a majority of the students. Plus, some will be able to grow their own vegetables.

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The school is located on a 32-acre piece of property, and a community of affordable houses is being built on the same land by DHIC (formerly Downtown Housing Improvement Corporation), an experienced and successful developer and manager of such housing. The apartments are located about two blocks away and children can safely walk to school. No need for cars.

There are four pre-school classes for younger children to get a head start on their education. A recent essay on this page noted the importance of early education and argued that current research shows that 90 percent of the human brain develops in the first five years of life. Other modern countries recognize this and in Japan, for example, public schools begin at age 3 for children.

Between the public school system and the YMCA, there are numerous programs to support parents and their children. The YMCA, for instance, has a diabetes prevention program and there are a multitude ofclasses sponsored by other organizations on health and parenting. There is also the harder to measure impact of YMCA personnel, especially younger employees. Anyone in Raleigh who has been around these young people knows they are a good influence on their charges. (The YMCA is the biggest summer employer in Wake County of such youth.)

Most exciting for the school and the community is the YMCA outdoor swimming pool and the “Y’s” plans to teach pupils how to swim. It’s a life- saving lesson for a mostly African American population that suffers drownings between the ages of 5-19 at five times the rate of whites in swimming pools.

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The 35,000-sq. ft. YMCA offers subsidized membership rates for adults and children and the response from the neighborhood to date (over 1,200) has been far above expectations (700). It has a full basketball court and the school has a smaller court as well. There is an elevated, indoor running track around the pool, and a baseball field also is on the grounds and a multi-sport field for other sports such as soccer.

The population of the school is about 500, near the optimum enrollment of 400 recommended by the Gates Foundation for elementary schools. Class sizes are about average for most of the Wake County public elementary schools, between 25-28.

This has not been a cheap project. “The YMCA committed to raise $24.6 million for the Southeast Raleigh project,” said Holly Yoest, major gifts officer for the organization.

Doug McMillan, CEO for the Triangle Wide YMCA, is optimistic about the partnership with the school system. “This is a great start because we are just at the starting line. Many people have contributed to the work. The race is ahead of us and will be defined not by what we have done, but by how we work together to make the vision become all that the volunteers and staff imagined years ago.”

It presents the Triangle education establishment such as the Friday Center in Chapel Hill or the Public School Forum in Raleigh or NCSU’s College of Education a laboratory for learning. Assuming that their teachers will be as good as others in the Wake public school system, the children have as close to a level playing field as those in wealthy suburbs or selective public charter schools.

The facilities are new. Food is not in short supply. School and class size are optimal. Discipline will be reduced by YMCA activities. Parents will have extra support systems. There’s a community vision growing. Keep an eye on what happens at this space.

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