Up Close with Cathy Unruh; Academy Prep

Oh. The. Phone has a special presentation of w. we do YOU Tampa St. Petersburg Sarasota. Have you ever heard someone say about their child he's so bright he's just not motivated. Well that may be the case for some students but not the ones at Academy Prep. They are taught to be highly motivated and to have high expectations for themselves. Find out why next. Welcome to up close I'm Kathy Honore. Many people today believe that education in the United States could be much better test scores could be higher teacher pay could be a lot higher than it is and children need to be given more options and opportunities to succeed. Well one school that's empowering its students to achieve is Academy Prep.

The school has campuses in Tampa and St. Petersburg and they. Are the Brady was he was never known to be a me was me. Yes. Yes. Yes feet yes he really. Was. We eat. Bread right. That's a job unless you're a kid. 1000 had a school that's half a campus Lincoln to meio joins us today welcome Lincoln.

Kathy thank you very much for having me. What was that hearing all about. Well it comes from my days at Notre Dame Notre Dame of the football players wish to play like champions today. We want our students to work and play like champions every day. And so that is convocation that begins every school day every morning. The same thing all of our students together as a family should get together at the at the dinner table we talk about where we need to go the direction we need to take as a as a community and the school day starts at what time starts at 7:00 in the morning and ends at 6:00 in the evening and we're also in school every Saturday with a field trip for one of our classes and the entire month of June so what we do we do cast ourselves for the wins in the month of July but we're in school 11 months a year. So so. O'clock in the morning it's not a bad thing to do a little touring just to get yourself ready for so absolutely you've got to get focused. Now tell us about academy. Let's start with the basics. What how many it's a middle school for grades or grades. Grade 5 day school. We serve one hundred and twenty students on our Tampa campus and the campus in St. Petersburg. We split our students by gender

so in each class we will admit 15 boys and 15 girls. They take all of their academic classes together as a gender. We don't build a Berlin Wall between the students. We we ask them to have their meals together they take all of their extracurricular activities together and they are there in academic classes until 2:30. Then from 2:30 until 5 o'clock we have extra curricular activities. And then from five to six we have a mandatory study hall for all students who are not on the honor roll. Why do you separate the genders. When I came here Kathy from Boston four and a half years ago I thought that in every aspect of a school's life that boys and girls need to learn how to work together in every setting. But as I've as I've been here now I realize that when our students come to us below grade level in the fifth grade and they also have their budding adolescence the worst thing you can you can have is little Johnny

worrying about what little Mary is thinking next to him and vice versa in the classroom. They really need to stick to what they need to focus on and that's especially literacy and numeracy and we're not getting enough of that in our inner city schools so it's tremendous that our students by gender are able to concentrate on their academic studies. You say when they come to us in the fifth grade below grade level is that a given that every child is functioning below grade level when they come to that. No our average class the class averages indicate that the that the students come in below grade level but not all of our students come in that way. When I look at students who attend these are all students who meet the federal criteria for the free and reduced meals program. And it also mirrors the demographics are of our area so they're about 75 percent black students 25 percent Hispanic. And by meeting the criteria the free and reduced meals program these are students whose families are basically near or below the poverty line

and these are the families who really do not have enough options in our society. We believe very strongly that every child deserves an equal opportunity to an education. And unfortunately in the last 40 years in our society. We have not provided that equal opportunity to too many of our students in the inner city simply because of their skin color or because of their relative poverty but we believe that every child has the ability just like my own children. So you know well aced your schools in the inner city in St. Petersburg your campus is located in South St. Petersburg right off the 22nd Avenue South and in Tampa we are in the worst city just north of Interstate 4 and that is all intentional as you say to mirror the demographics of the neighborhoods in which to. Absolutely. Those are the children the families that we desperately need to serve in our society. And all of your students attend free of charge tuition is paid for by private donation correct. Every penny of every child's education is paid for through individuals

corporations and foundations. How do you pick which students get to attend Is there a competition within the neighborhood is a popular thing is it a weird thing how's it looked at tremendous competition we had actually last year 190 applications for the 40 spots that were that were open that what is it. In Tampa in Tampa and the numbers are very similar in St. Petersburg it's what we do it's a very long process the students have to take a test that is based on Hillsborough County standards in English and in mathematics. They have to do relatively well on that test we don't want to take a child who is a pre reader has no numeracy skills whatsoever when they start with us in fifth grade so they have to do to take that test and do relatively well. The parent and the child and I say parent because the overwhelming majority of our children come from a single parent home the parent and the child have to interview with us. So we do a full battery of interviews with them. They have to apply and the application includes two essays from the child and two essays from the parent indicating their motivation to

come to Academy Prep. And then we finally have a summer session. That begins at the beginning of June and will admit say 20 to 25 fifth grade boys and fifth grade girls to that class. It's a very intensive program for that month. And from there we determine as an entire faculty at the very end of June the final 15 boys and 15 girls I will make it for that class. So who makes the cuts the ones who show the most academic promise or the ones who you feel need the most assists. Not necessarily we are looking for those children and a loving mother or a grandmother behind him or her. Where the true motivation to get up every day and to strive as hard as they can to meet their responsibilities. So we're not looking necessarily at the child who is a young Einstein who is absolutely blowing everything away in their elementary school classes but has a real motivation to learn and has that loving parent behind them that gets them up every day and gets them to school ready to learn. One of the very important things that we also

do with the parent or the family member is require that they spend time with us in school to see what is going on in the lives of their other children so we require all of our parents to provide at least 50 hours of volunteer service per year in order to keep their children. Enrolled at the school so they really have to be vested directly in the lives of their kids. You say a loving mother a loving grandmother I would take it that that comes naturally because most of the kids it's a strong female but are their fathers and faults. Kathy I would say at most 20 percent of our students have a father who is who is involved regularly in the lives of their kids. And that really is one of the scourges in our society over the last over the last 40 50 years fatherhood is just really not honored. Way too often in the inner city we really have to work on that as a society. But in all of these cases there is a loving parent behind these kids who really want something better for their children.

St. Pete campus was the first to open it opened its doors in 1997. Yes. How did Academy. It started the term of the idea the germ of the idea was started by the Jesuits on the Lower East Side of Manhattan one thousand seventy one. They realize that especially in the inner city we were losing many of our children especially as they were moving into the years of adolescence and teenage hood losing many of our kids to the streets and the Jesuits decided to begin what. What was the seed of the Nativity mission networks were. Forty four schools that started from that one seed in New York. And we're following that model here in Tampa and St. Petersburg an academy that has a mission statement. What is your philosophy What's your mission. Our our philosophy is to work is to work with those kids who we believe have a God given ability to succeed and to educate them well and to give them the spirit of giving back to our society regardless of a child's background.

I think it's incumbent upon all of us to educate our children too. To acknowledge what's been given to them in their lives and to give back and to think in those think in those terms at a very young age and then to bring that into adulthood to make the kids do volunteer work and start teaching them how to give back while they're in the absolute is that as a requirement they have to fulfill a certain number of volunteer community service hours in order to graduate from Academy Prep. I'm going to jump back a little bit. You said the applications I believe the number was 190 for 40 spots which would indicate that within the neighborhood if you know the kids are in school all day and on the weekends all they have to do volunteer work. It's a pretty popular thing. Kathy Not only is a very popular but the attendance rate at Academy Prep Now consider the fact that you've got young children who are coming into their teenage years who have friends at home who are getting home from school at 2:30 3:00 o'clock spending all of this free time out on the streets in idle time. That we have the highest attendance rate of

any middle school in Hillsborough County. And in Pinellas County. So that speaks volumes as to the spirit of these children to educate themselves and to open doors for their futures. And you said already that the day starts at 7 o'clock it ends at 6:00 a classical or thereabouts Saturdays. Saturday every Saturday Sunday is a day off. Sunday we have it's the Sabbath day the day of rest. Is there a spiritual component to this. God is not a stranger on our campus we pray every morning. We do not offer religious classes. Our campus is in St. Petersburg and in Tampa are two of the four Nativity missions schools were not affiliated with a church but we believe very strongly that God needs to be part of our lives on the school campus as well. So besides a spiritual component of volunteer work the classes which are regular academics lots of extracurricular activities and a lot they're learning things like dance karate. Kathy in addition to all of the academic classes the academic core classes that are

required we require all of our students to take karate. We require all of our students to take chess to take drama. Dance and visual art. And when you consider the fact that they are there doing all of these things and they are still able to test based on the Stanford test which is a nationally normed test which the state of Florida also gives as part of its battery of test. We are now testing three and four grade levels above grade level for these kids who came to us on average below grade level is again a testament to the God given ability of these children. Is it also a testament to keeping them in school for 11 hours a day six days a week. Yes. It's when you consider the normal public school. Schedule when you've got kids who are leaving at 2:15 and they are left to their too often are left to their own devices for the next five six hours of the day and too often what is left to take care of them as of is a blaring

television in the home or God knows what. Out on the streets. It's and it's vitally important that we provide these children with as much structure time. Run by really responsible adults and caring adults to provide these kids with with what they need to succeed. And I'm sure that with your student body you must have some who grumble about the long day at school but most of them enjoy it. Cathy they all grumble about the long hours as part of human nature. Even while they're doing their work and having a good time more likely and succeeding exactly Well we talked to a few your students as you know and here's what they say they like about Academy Prep. Oh what I like the most about coming from. Like Curly was because it helps me give me some discipline. Also. I really like the academic program because they really test test our knowledge for what we know what we don't know any things every day.

What I like about it kind of approach is that the classes are a lot smaller so you ask questions and you want. And we talked about how the students are selected to attend. What about the teachers. They come from all walks of life. Ted McNair for example who was our karate teacher and chess instructor and had taught English and history for the first three years of our program was a 21 year veteran of the Air Force who taught in the Hillsborough County Schools for the four years before he came to us. We've had students who were teachers who were pre-med students at the University of Florida homemakers who have come back for a second career artist thespians from Broadway in New York come from all walks of life. I have to say though using a sports analogy that pound for pound I have never worked with a more dedicated

group of people in my entire professional life. When you consider that even in the best of circumstances that middle school children are. Very First of all interesting creature to deal with but very very challenging. And in this situation where many of these kids come from very very challenging backgrounds to have the Spirit and the willingness and the character to serve these kids like the teachers I work with do every day for 11 12 hours. I just cannot say enough how proud I am of these folks their salary level compared to other schools salary level we try to and we have been successful in meeting or exceeding the salary scale for both the Hillsboro and Pinellas County schools and another thing I do Kathy I and absolutely insist on that before a teacher is hired by us I have to observe them in a classroom setting for at least two hours if not three to four.

You also use American teachers who live on campus. Tell us about that exactly Americorp is the domestic version of the Peace Corps. So we will take students who have just graduated from college say one to five years and and have them live on campus in a fully furnished apartment which which we provide to them and for the tremendous amount of about six hundred fifty dollars a month. They work easily Cathy 50 to 60 hours to help us basically run the school and to teach our kids. And it also provides that 24 hour. Presence that is far too often missing in our in our schools we really are part of the community right in this way when I child in the neighborhood has a problem he knows he can come to school at any time of the day or night. And that is indeed having me somebody there for him. Yes volunteers you've mentioned that the parents do volunteer are there. Are there people who are not connected with the school in terms of being a teacher or child who also volunteer.

Cathy hundreds. We have we have folks from Merrill Lynch from J.C. Newman cigars just to name just to name two companies literally hundreds of volunteers who come to help our children in study hall who mentor kids one on one like the Big Brothers program. In fact our volunteers in addition to our parents gave us 7500 hours of service just last year alone. That's like having. That's like having another 40 full time folks on campus with you. Aside from the economics and the things that we've talked about what just as an institution sets Academy apart from other private schools. Well from other private schools and especially the fact that we do not charge tuition to our kids and then we do not simply jettison them once we've provided the diploma to them after eighth grade we followed them for the next eight years of their lives. We helped them get into some of the best private prep schools in this area and throughout the country we helped

them get into some of the best colleges throughout the country and that's indeed happened now in St. Petersburg after after 10 years there. So what we are we're basically ensuring that they are making it from from where we leave them off to early adulthood. There's a goal for all of them is after they graduate Academy as you said to get into a good prep school. Yes we have our first graduating class this year on the Tampa campus. We've got Berkeley Tampa prep Jesuit Academy of the Holy Names Cambridge Cambridge School knocking on our doors for for our kids. I just I cannot say enough how proud I am of the students as well to see what they've accomplished in the last four years. Let's hear from the students again. Here's what they had to say about what Academy Prep has taught them besides the three Rs that has taught me to live up to my great potential and to be all that I can be and not to be afraid. My possibilities are scales and you just do what I

need to do to succeed. Academy has taught me how to behave and how to manage my time wisely. So I can feel good about what the school's doing. Absolutely we are. We really are teaching these children how to be a successful viable members of our society. And it doesn't surprise me though Cathy to hear these kids speak this way. I I come to this job as a as a parent as well and I realize how how important it is to to teach our children to be good people not only to be successful academically but to think always of giving back and to be civil because civility we're losing we're losing too much of that feel in our society. But these all children have the ability to do that. And I absolutely insist on holding. The children we serve at Academy Prep to the same standards that we would absolutely insist for our own

children tell us about your background and what brought you to Academy. Well I am not a I'm not a traditional educator by any stretch. I started my my career as an educator coming out of the president's office at Boston University and Boston University runs the Chelsea Massachusetts school system. Chelsea is one of the poorest cities in the United States and by a special legislative act Boston University was given the management authority for that public system. And the president called me into his office one day in the spring of 1997 and he said Lincoln the high school is in is in trouble. I believe you have what it takes to run it go and run it. So off I went to. A huge inner city high school in one of the poorest cities in America and I have to say Kathy that I found within a week or two even though my learning curve was very steep. My true niche in life in service to our society to be in that position either as an administrator and I have a tremendous respect now for teachers

to be in the position almost every hour of every day especially in an inner city setting where the decisions you make determine whether children make something out of their lives or go off into oblivion is tremendously fulfilling. And in that though this is human nature these are human beings there have to be some problems. You must've had problems with children along the way to some of them not make it. We have quite a few NOT NOT NOT a half but a number who don't make it. What happens Cathy is that so many of these children their families are so challenge especially the parents they are struggling immensely sometimes with no job or with two three four jobs just to make ends meet. Too often they are forced to live simply for the moment and they cannot see. Two months ahead let alone two years or two decades and too often they make decisions based on what is what is convenient. The parents do what is convenient for them. Immediately we had one child in the

seventh grade who would have had all kinds of doors open to him to Berkeley the Jesuit to Philips Exeter you name it he could have gone anywhere. His mom pulled him out about two months ago because she had just moved and she needed someone to take care of her 8 year old son who was just getting out of school so she took. She pulled her seventh grade boy out so he can help babysit the younger brother. And now on the flip side the ones who do make it here stay through and graduate as you mentioned. They then have to want to call it a mentor liaison someone who's who advises them all the way through prep school and on to college. We have a director of graduate support to Tura Mills who she is just a tremendous shepherd. And she follows each one of these kids throughout their high school years and college and ensure that they succeed. Is it the first class in college now it have to stop and do the math. We now have juniors in college from the from the St. Petersburg campus. OK and are they all staying in college. Has everyone stayed.

Well they're all if you consider the fact in St. Petersburg that 26 percent of the students who begin in the school system end up graduating from high school. Ninety eight percent of our graduates are still in high school or in college and on their way to graduating. Any idea what the most popular majors are at this point. College Majors what they want to be all the what are called the soft liberal arts history like I majored and English and I want to be well-rounded and have a well-rounded education. Well here's what some of the students told us they want to be when they grow up. I would like to be a neonatal nurse because I love taking care of babies when I grow up. I would like to become an archaeology is because I love to travel and discover new things. It sounds like it might feel over the board as with everyone else all different kinds of careers. Well the kids in middle school are usually all over the board but I doubt if if if Ron Tavy and Queen make it to where they want to go I would not be surprised at all. Do you feel that way about most of your kids.

I feel that way about all of them. Every single student we have admitted to our schools in St. Pete and Tampa have the ability it is it is incumbent upon us as the adults as those who have been given the public trust to educate these kids to see to it that they make it to where they want to go. People out there who are listening and who are interested get in touch right. Yes you have had such and please please visit you'll be wowed those people who come to our campus and see what we actually do with these children every day. You cannot help but leave loving this place. All right well we know you did. Thank you very much Lincoln Franklin County appreciate it if you would like more information about Academy Prep. Log on to w w w dot Academy Prep dot org. For Debbie to you thank you for joining us. I'll see you next time on a clock. Oh.

The teaching children to love learning is a challenging proposition. Maybe not so much in the early grades but on middle school students often rebel against teachers school and authority in general. Coming up on THE NEXT UP CLOSE we learn about a school that's teaching middle schoolers not only to love the three artists but to have a strong work ethic and to become productive members of the.