A community meeting of educators from the Tri-Cities High School cluster in Fulton County held this past summer revealed some startling information for Termerion McCrary-Lakes, who took over the helm of the high school two years ago.
“We saw all sorts of data for our area, and it was eye-opening to see the needs of our community,” she said. “And I’d seen some of those gaps here at the high school, particularly around literacy issues.”
McCrary-Lakes and principals from the Tri-Cities feeder schools realized they needed to work together more closely. “For us to truly impact educational outcomes for students, we all need to talk about our strategies to improve and to all get on the same page.”
Developing closer working relationships among the high school, the local middle and four elementary schools is the goal of the Bulldog Bound Initiative, launched in late November to improve the educational outcomes at all grade levels and to keep students on track to attend Tri-Cities, whose mascot is the bulldog.
Shateena Love, principal of Hamilton E. Holmes Elementary, spearheaded the initiative with colleagues who had been sharing concerns about teacher recruitment and educational standards. “We wanted to change the narrative around the rap of not having good schools,” said Love.
Rallying around the idea that “we do school well,” the cluster schools began having what McCrary-Lakes calls “organic conversations” about what needs to happen from kindergarten through 12th grade to prepare students.
“If I see my kids are struggling in mathematics, we can ask what we can do in our cluster to ensure that kids are leaving elementary and middle are coming to high school prepared for more advanced coursework,” she said. “Next semester, we’re planning to look at literacy classes at elementary, middle and high school levels to see the strengths and opportunities for growth. But it’s not just about remediation; we’re looking at different opportunities now for our advanced kids, too.”
The initiative also focuses on increasing parental involvement at all levels. “Our parents are working, so we’re thinking about how we can help them to use their time efficiently,” said McCrary-Lakes. “We’ll have events where parents can meet with administrators, counselors and others without an appointment. Let’s get everybody in the room and have those conversations about how to support the students.”
The cluster has also reached out to community stakeholders to share success stories as well as challenges and concerns. Some groups have already become partners: The 100 Black Men of South Metro has adopted the cluster and assigned a representative to each school. Local religious and civic groups have signed on to mentor and read to students. Major companies such as Porsche and Delta have also provided mentors and funding.
“We realize if our schools aren’t doing well, that impacts the community and its economic development,” said Love. “At the same time, those partners can expose our students to a variety of career and college opportunities.”
But the initiative starts with keeping everyone aware of what’s happening in the schools, said McCrary-Lakes. “We’ve created these great communities in our schools, so now it’s time to connect those communities,” she said. “If we work together and share ideas, we have a think tank or brain trust that can come up with ideas to tackle the challenges we’re seeing at any participating school. Together, we can achieve our goals.”
Information about Tri-Cities cluster is online at fultonschools.org.
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Each week we look at programs, projects and successful endeavors at area schools, from pre-K to grad school. To suggest a story, contact H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or 770-744-3042.
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