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September 12. 2007
Men’s Academy Boosts Enrollment
continued
from Front
and Technology.
But Jefferson Principal C ynthia
Harris isn’t satisfied with the pre­
dictions and looks to the single-sex
academ ies to help double enroll­
ment during her tenure.
So far the H arriet Tubm an Lead­
ership Academy for Young W omen
has been m ore successful at at­
tracting m iddle-school enrollm ent
than the John H. Johnson Leader­
ship A cadem y for Y oung Men at
Jefferson, which adm inistrators see
as the result o f city already accus­
tom ed to a large Catholic girl’s high
school downtow n.
H undreds o f fem ale students
from all over thecity quickly signed
up for the single-sex academ y, ac­
cording to A urora Lora, w om en’s
academ y adm inistrator. But o f the
62 students on the m en’s academ y
list at the end o f A ugust, only 10
lived outside o f north and north­
east Portland.
T he leader o f the b o y 's academ y
refuses to get caught up in an en­
rollm ent rat race, claim ing it’s
enough work to run a program that
the com m unity cap be proud'bf.
"T he highest priority is o f course
educating the children,” says W illie
Holm es, m en’s academ y adm inis­
trator. "Jefferson is a political ani­
m al, and right now people are
bogged dow n because o f the past,
but 1 ca n ’t let that stop us.”
Citing kids that have eschew ed
private school and hom e schooling
in favor o f the academies, Holmes is
one o f the many Jefferson adm inis­
trators w ho want to im press the city
with the school before it even at­
tracts m any students from outside
o f its im m ediate area.
T raynham sees the single-sex
academ ies as part o f Jefferson’s
program m ing diversification that
w ould draw a larger student body
with a racial diversity m ore reflect­
ing the area.
H er view follow s the district
policy put in place by form er Super­
intendent Vicki Phillips w hich en ­
courages schools to meet enroll­
m ent expectations by attracting
fam ilies’ favor.
"W e’re ready to help Jefferson
to get back on its feet, ready to get
it back to being a school to contend
with, so that it’s a school o f choice
that people w ant to com e to ,”
Tray nham says. "1 think the district
is re a lly b e in g s u p p o rtiv e o f
Jefferson to make sure that w e’re
g ettin g th e su p p o rt th at o th e r
schools are getting.”
Some find it degrading, however,
for schools to be forced to com pete
with one another for enrollm ent-
based funds, opining that it raises
the stakes too high for schools
struggling w ith an unpopularity
streak for a few years.
Low enrollm ent resulted in the
recent closure o f tw o elementary
schools iÿ the Jefferson cluster,
and parent Lynn Schore filed under
the Freedom of Information Act to
find out what this did to funding
allocations.
Schore found that the closures
would probably result the loss of
$1.1 m illion in federal M agnet
S chools A ssistance m onies d e­
sig n e d to help J e ffe rs o n ’s re ­
now ned art program and to ease
district-w ide segregation.
O ne teacher expressed dismay
w ith J e ff e r s o n 's situ atio n last
m onth w hile packing his belong­
ings in preparation o f transferring
to a neighboring school: "1 hope
things turn around here,” he said,
w ishing to remain anonym ous, "b e­
cause things have to go in the right
direction.”
M any would love to see the dis-
Academy sixth graders (from left) Dominique Bailey, Jacob Davis and Noah Peterson wait on locker
combinations on the first day o f school.
photos by R aymond R tndi taian /T hi P o rii and O bskkyi k
Austin Casey (left) and Lee Miller take a break from basketball
practice at the John H. Johnson Academy for Young Men at
Jefferson High School.
advantaged school getting some
more special treatment.
“ I realize schools are funded
based on student body, and we
d o n 't have many students, but I
wish there w ere some way to get
around that," says Darryl Miles, a
social -studies teacher for the young
m en’s academy.
For now, innovation represents
the biggest tool that the academy
teachers have against any percep­
tion o f stagnation.
Miles and fellow teacher Heather
Stevens briefly discussed w hether
to enforce a separation am ong the
grade levels in the cafeteria, and
Stevens concluded, “ I like seeing
the eighth graders mixing with the
sixth graders.”
Many o f the students had been
mixing and bonding for weeks in a
sum m er cam p at the M oore Street
Salvation Army, where they found
experiences in com m on by sharing
essays on Vanport and Katrina,
and by playing their favorite video
gam es together.
During the first day o f school,
they banded together to discover
w hich pieces o f their uniform s they
could get away with.
A nother contentious point was
where to house the single-sex acad­
em ies, and it was eventually de­
cided that only the young women
needed a separate campus.
H olm es argues that the boys
have more to gain from occasional
interactions with the various stu­
dents in higher grades, saying that
"learning will not be inside the box."
For all the benefits o f older role
models, there will be som e uncom ­
fortable m om ents as well. As the
academ y young men made their
way from basketball practice back
to their classroom s, they had to
pass by the hallways with legions
o f Jefferson High School females,
who said, "Lew. it's the boys. " upon
seeing them on the stairs.
Many of the middle-school boys,
whose greatest prize is to appear
suitably aloof, called out to teach­
ers several times in attempts to
hasten the inevitably awkward pro­
cesses o f the first day of school.
Academy leadership also looks
forward to the day when things
settle down to business as usual,
while maintaining theexcitement of
adynam ic program.
"T hey’re all here because they
want to be here," says Holmes.
"W e've probably doubled expec­
tations, and we expect more once
school starts and parents find out
about us."
Portland Activist, Teacher Remembered
We
want
you to
know
Bobbie Nunn worked tirelessly for civil rights
A cityw ide m em orial service in
honor o f civil rights activist Bobbie
Nunn will be held Sunday, Sept. 16
at 6 p.m. at H ighland C om m unity
Church, 7600 N. E. G lisan St.
C o-Em cees will be Sen. M arga­
ret C arter and Sen. Avel G ordly,
w ith spoken words from Rev. Alcena
Boozer, Dr. W.G. Hardy, Harold Wil­
liams, m em bers o f the Links, the
D eltas and many others.
Nunn was bom in M uskogee,
O k la.o n S ep t. 16,1924. She peace­
fully went hom e to her God on Aug.
24,2007.
She attended high school in
O klahom a and college at Prairie
View A & M and T illotson, com ­
p le tin g h e r e d u c a tio n w ith a
m aster’s degree from the U niver­
sity o f Portland. She w as active in
school bands and played the saxo­
phone.
At a tim e when black w om en
were chaperoned, she formed an al I
w om en jazz group that played in
jazz at U SO clubs throughout Texas.
W hile touring she met her hus­
band, Josiah J. Nunn.
She w as a passionate fighter
against inequality and racism. Her
personal mission w as to inspire
black women to know their "crown,"
to get an education, and to make a
difference for themselves, theirfami-
lies and com m unity.
In 1945 she started a lifetim e of
involvem ent as a m em ber o f the
Bobbie Nunn
N AACP. She was a m em ber o f the
African American C ham berofC om ­
m erce and chaired its education
com m ittee. She was also active in
the Urban League and the Portland
chapter o f “ Links".
The couple led distinguished
careers as educators and inspired
their son, Joe, to pursue a career in
education. The family served over
127 com bined years in Portland
P ublic S ch o o ls ed u c a tin g and
m entoring thousands o f children.
She was one o f the first teachers
to create a science curriculum for
IlK JIorHatth ODbscrucr Established 1970
USPS 959-680 __________________________________
4747 NE Martin Luther King. Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211
E dito * - in -C hif . f . P uki . ishfk : Charles H. Washington
E m ro *:M ic h a e l L e ig h to n
D istkimjtion M anage * : M a rk W a s h in g to n
C eeative D ieecto * : P a u l N e u fe ld t
A dveetising : K a th y L in d e r
O ffice M anage * : S h a ro n S p e rry
R epokif .* : R a ym o n d R e n d le m a n
urban children through the Ford
Foundation. She taught the pro­
gram and encouraged other teach­
ing professionals to stress science
and math skills particularly for in­
ner-city youth.
As a director o f personnel for
Portland Public Schools, she was a
le a d e r in the a d v a n c e m e n t o f
w om en and people o f color as
school principals as well as politi­
cal careers, including Carter, Gordly
and C harles Jordan.
S h e w o rk e d w ith Dr. Jo h n
M cA nulty helping start the M arie
S m ith A lzheim er's C enter. She
served her church, St. Phillips Epis­
copal Church, as a deacon and ju n ­
ior w arden. She received many
aw ards, but was most proud to be
recognized as the City W om an of
the Y ear through the M arch of
Dimes.
She w as preced ed in death by
h er h usband, and d au g h ter D arla
L ouise. She is su rv iv ed by her
son, Joe, d au g h ter-in -law , Jan,
g ran d ch ild ren , T ru d y , Patch, and
T ren to n S trick lan d , T in a his w ife
and g rea t-g ran d so n s, T y ler and
T ravis.
Contributions in her memory can
be m ade to the African-A m erican
C ham ber o f C om m erce, the M IKE
Program, or the Nunn Family Schol­
arship Program at Portland O ppor­
tunities Industrial School which
Josiah Nunn helped found.
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