Commercial Appeal Article About School Choice in Frayser

Options reshape education landscape

Charters, other choices available in Frayser such as

Charter School:  Memphis Business Academy

Regular Public School:  Unified Shelby County Schools

State of Tennessee:  Achievement School District

Private School:  New Hope Christian Academy

Private School:  Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School

Charter School:  Frayser Community Schools

By Jane Roberts

Originally published 08:19 a.m., August 4, 2013

Updated 08:26 a.m., August 4, 2013

Vinessa Brown home-schooled her son for two years while she visited seven charter and private schools on a quest to find the right school to address his attention deficit disorder.

“I didn’t care where I had to take him, just as long as he could get what he needed,” said Brown, a mother of six who co-founded a ministry in Frayser with her husband, DeAndre Brown.

Her quest ended at Our Lady of Sorrows, a small Catholic Jubilee school in west Frayser.

“The main reason I chose it is that the classroom size is no more than 15 children. They also have teachers’ aides,” Brown said. “I needed to make sure my son could have the attention he needed. He is very smart and loves to read, but when fidgety time comes, is there someone who can help him stay on task?”

As most K-12 schools reopen Monday, parents like the Browns are finding an unprecedented array of school options that have changed the education landscape in Shelby County. School choices once available to the affluent now are available in almost every ZIP code for every parent and child.

Frayser’s 19 K-12 schools provide a good example. The neighborhood’s nearly 50,000 residents can choose among traditional public schools, charter schools, private faith-based schools, and state-run Achievement schools, as well as virtual schools.

The expanded choices are encouraging to current and soon-to-be residents. ASD seeks change Tori Thomas, who is moving to Frayser, is placing her hope in the Achievement School District, based on the fact that this year alone it is serving 2,000 students.

“We’ve had other choices, but they’ve been small. The ASD has the potential to change life for a large segment of students at a time,” she said. “I think it’s very possible that Frayser will look completely different in a few years.”

The ASD is the state experiment in turning around failing schools. By state law, it has five years to move schools from the bottom 5 percent to the top 25 percent.

It set up shop last fall in Frayser, where 11 of the 14 public schools are chronic underperformers, the largest number of failing schools in one place in the state.

ASD took over Corning and Frayser elementaries and Westside Middle, which feed into Frayser High, hoping that an influx of better-educated students will eventually lift the high school, too. This year, it adds Whitney and Georgian Hills elementaries in Frayser.

“We have decent houses, including low prices. But we have a couple of dilemmas: crime and schools. If the ASD can help turn the schools into places where people of modest means are comfortable sending their kids, that would be a big thing.”

More inquiries ASD plans to continue to take over Frayser schools — or assign them to charter school organizations. The new district’s focus on Frayser has had a big impact on other schools in the neighborhood.

As a result, New Hope, which serves 400 children in Jr.-K through eighth grade, is looking to add more neighborhood families. Traditionally, New Hope has accepted new students only for prekindergarten and kindergarten. This year, it is marketing a few openings in first and second grade.

“We would love to have more students from Frayser come and fill those spots,” Steiner said. “We are trying to reach the primary community in which we exist and become more of a neighborhood school.”

Tuition is no barrier to enrolling at New Hope or Our Lady of Sorrows. Tuition is based on family income with a minimum contribution of $35 a month or less. ASD schools, like traditional public schools, are free.

Until charter schools and other low- and no-cost K-12 options began flourishing in lower-income neighborhoods, the only way for parents in those neighborhoods to get their kids into better schools was to stand in line for transfers to optional schools. Last year, the line for optional school transfers began forming five nights before time, a record.

“Not all parents can camp out three days to get kids in optional schools,” ASD Supt. Chris Barbic reminds people wherever he speaks. “In 2013, the vast majority of kids are assigned schools based on their ZIP code. The idea in 2013 of assigning kids is crazy.”

Frayser’s 38107 ZIP code leads the county in a number of negative economic and social indicators — teen pregnancy, infant mortality, crime rates, subprime mortgages and foreclosures, as well as failing public schools.

Building trust “We have lots of people commuting to Snowden, White Station, Ridgeway Middle,” said Marron Thomas, executive director of the Leadership Empowerment Center.

“Parents who have been really concerned about schools, that’s what they have done. With the ASD, we have a chance to build trust in the community. Once that is done, I think the community will look at Frayser a little different. ‘We don’t have to take our kids to Snowden, Ridgeway and White Station. We have valuable education right here in Frayser.’ It would do wonders. We want kids to be able to go school in our community.”

Perception lingers More choices aren’t necessarily changing perceptions overnight. Delano Elementary is the only optional school in Frayser and one of the few with frequent openings.

Georgian Hills Middle is among several dozen “reward” schools in the city. People are not standing in line to be admitted.

When Thomas, who was the volunteer head football coach at Georgian Hills, led the team to city and state honors, “no one flocked to us,” he said. “Normally when you win, you have kids beating down doors to get in play. We didn’t have that.”

The growing number of choices also has created a little confusion. For example, charter schools are not private schools: some are part of the Shelby County Schools system, others are part of ASD.

Memphis Business Academy was Frayser’s first charter school, opening in 2008 with the approval of the then-Memphis City Schools.

“There was a bit of skepticism,” said Menthia Clark, director of education. “Our male students wear shirts and ties. Our girls wear skirts. We appeared to be a private school.” ‘We are public’

“We think there were people who didn’t even come to look because they thought it was private,” Clark says. “We had to constantly say ‘we are public.’ Even though it looks like, feels like private, there is no tuition.”

Five years later, MBA expects about 850 students in grades K-3 and 6-12 this year. Elementary enrollment has grown between 50 and 25 percent since 2011. Two years ago, the middle and high school (in the former Kmart on Overton Crossing) maxed out at about 630 students. Almost all of them are from Frayser.

At Our Lady of Sorrows, enrollment increased to 150 last year when Deacon Henry Littleton recruited foundations to help with tuition. “This year, I could have grown it to 200, but subsidies to help with tuition are a little less,” he said.

Littleton is more skeptical about the opportunities available to lower-income families, even in Frayser. “The more affluent can afford to send their kids anywhere. People who are working class are able to buy homes in neighborhoods with good schools. Choice exists for everyone but the poor,” Littleton said.

Brown, who searched the city for a school for her son, and then found it in her own backyard, sees things differently. “I see Frayser being an awesome place in five or six years. I see people moving back to Frayser. I see economic development. I see a lot could happen here. My husband and I are planted here. We are not leaving Frayser.”