New charter school on the horizon
| Sunday, Oct 11 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Sunday, Oct 11 2009 12:00 PM
The Greenfield Union school board will hear public comment at its next 7 p.m. meeting Oct. 28. A vote is likely at the November meeting. 1624 Fairview Road, Bakersfield; 837-6000.
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Michael Fagans / The Californian Head coach Damon Smothers keeps an eye on his academy's football team as they run wind sprints behind Granite Pointe Elementary School on Thursday night in Bakersfield.
Michael Fagans / The Californian The Smothers Academy football team throws themselves into "up downs" during practice behind Granite Pointe Elementary School on Thursday night in Bakersfield.
If all goes according to Damon Smothers' plan, a new charter school focused on closing the achievement gap among black and Hispanic students will open in fall 2010.
The Preparatory School for Arts and Sciences would open with 160 kids in grades three to six. It would expand to K-12, and accept students from across Kern County.
Smothers has applied to operate a charter school in the Greenfield Union School District.
High expectations for college, service learning and leadership would be key tenets of the school, Smothers said.
If approved, it would be the second charter to open in the county in two years, following the Paramount Bard Academy in Delano this fall.
Greenfield Union Superintendent Chris Crawford is reviewing the application.
"I'm not opposed to charters, I just want to make sure things are in place for it to be successful," said Crawford, who gave input for a county-run charter school in San Luis Obispo County before moving to Greenfield.
Among Smothers' charter plans: a rigorous curriculum, small class sizes and intensive intervention programs to pull up low-performing students. Many schools already use these techniques. Differences include an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. school day, a signed student contract and required parental participation "at every PTA" board meeting, said Smothers, a child psychologist.
Students would do community work. A strategic curriculum design would prioritize standards for students, and Smothers expects a school culture that would lead to college.
"The numbers are ambitious, but do we sacrifice now, or later?" said Smothers, who attended McDonald #35, an all-black, college-prep public school in New Orleans, where the attitude was everyone went to college.
Among his ideas for a "new approach to education" is school uniforms. His reaction to parents' questions about clip-on ties is indicative of his plans: "People ask and I say, 'No clip-ons.' These boys are going to learn how to tie a tie if it takes them 100 times"! Smothers said.
Smothers runs Smothers and Associates, an educational psychology services company. He also directs the Bakersfield Junior Black Chamber of Commerce.
Tammi Fanning, mother of six adopted children, has known Smothers for the five years he's worked with her kids.
"You're looking for that village, and he has been that village for me," Fanning said.
Community support for a new approach to educating Bakersfield's at-risk population is growing.
"I think kids need a solid education at an early level, and I don't think that's happening in the public school system because too many of our kids are failing," said Fred Haynes, a principal in the Bakersfield City School District for 21 years, and the education chairman of the Bakersfield National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Haynes led an attempt to start a charter school in Bakersfield in 1996.
He said a school needed to reach out to parents who weren't involved enough and help them understand "what they can do" for their low-achieving students.
Harriet Edwards, a board member of the charter, said what's needed is to create a new mindset for students that instills the belief they are valuable to society.
Edwards, who has taught for 25 years, currently as a special education teacher with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, said the charter would offer more cultural and political awareness for black children, and give them a sense of purpose to make a difference in the world.
"When children's self esteem and self-worth is brought up, those are the ones who blossom," said Edwards, whose nephew would be eligible to attend the school.
At a recent community meeting about the city's escalating gang violence, the idea of a charter school that could help inoculate young, pre-gang kids was the "number one" item of discussion, said Bernard Anthony, president of the Bakersfield chapter of the NAACP.
The chapter supports the charter and will send recommendation letters and help build community support, Anthony said.
