October 12, 2023 • 30 mins
Have you ever wondered what it's like to step into a struggling school and turn it around? Drawing on my five-month tenure as the interim acting principal at PSIS 224 in New York City, I share the intricate details of my journey, taking a deep, hard look at the school's narrative and finding ways to effect change. From our bold decision to rebrand the school to "Exploration and Discovery", rallying the staff, students, and the community, to even bringing the Chancellor of New York City public schools for a visit, every step was a learning experience.
While the journey was filled with challenges, it was also one of immense learning. I had the privilege of understanding and leveraging public data and resources to comprehend the history of the school, eventually breathing new life into it. But the responsibility didn’t stop at reviving a school; it extends to supporting fellow school leaders on a similar journey. If you're a school leader, you'll appreciate my tips for setting up effective coaching sessions and reminders on how this work is ultimately about shaping better futures for our children. Time to lace up those sneakers, school leaders, and join this enlightening conversation!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When they see me.
They know that every day, whenI'm breathing, it's for us to go
farther.
You know, every time I speak, Iwant the truth to come out.
You know I'm saying every timeI speak I want to shiver.
You know I don't want them tobe like.
They know what I'm gonna saybecause it's polite.
They know what I'm gonna sayand even if I get in trouble,
you know I'm saying that.
Ain't that what we're supposedto do?
It's.
I'm not saying I'm gonna rulethe world or I'm gonna change
(00:21):
the world, but I guarantee thatI will spark the, the brain that
will change the world.
And that's our job.
It's to spark somebody elsewatching us.
We might not be the ones, butlet's not be selfish.
And because we're not gonnachange the world, let's not talk
about how we should change it.
I don't know how to change it,but I know, if I keep talking
about how dirty it is out here,somebody gonna clean it up.
(00:41):
And now he's been promoted hisjob principal.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Good morning everyone .
This is Uchein Joku, sneakerprincipal, and Welcome to this
episode of the snickeringsnickering the sneaker principal
podcast.
Listen, my dyslexia is for real.
Often the words in my head andwhat comes out of my mouth are
(01:16):
two different things.
But, um, it's been a lifelongjourney and it has stopped me
from being who I am today, soit's all good.
So this is the sneakerprincipal podcast.
So in this episode I'm gonnatalk to you about my five month
journey, or marathon, at PSIS224.
(01:41):
This is a school that I amcurrently the interim acting
principal at here in New YorkCity, in district 7 in the Bronx
, and it's been quite a journey.
Last April I've asked you I'dnever even heard the school and
you know an opportunity came up.
I was offered the school, as itwas an opportunity to do some
(02:05):
good work, and I don't shy awayfrom good work.
I have always believed that Forme, this journey of being a
school leader has required thatI go into the most complex of
situations, even spaces where myskill sets might not be fully
complete, and being able toWalking and do what I do or what
(02:28):
I need to do.
I've decided that you know whysometimes you guys jump on a bus
and build or, better yet, fixthe bus as you're driving the
bus.
And this is what definitely oneof those situations To this
episode.
I'm gonna talk to you About thejourney, the beginning, how,
what that was like, you know,going through the process of
(02:50):
rebranding the school, facingchallenges and other things that
weren't quite apparent in thebeginning.
They became very evident thefight to preserve and keep the
history of of the school and toreally change the narrative
(03:13):
about it.
And then what have I learned?
What about learn through thisprocess?
You know, because one thing isBeautiful about being an
educator is that you're alwayslearning something and as well
as teaching something.
But educators, real educators,those who are really about this
craft, learn way more than weever teach, because, again,
(03:35):
that's how it become betterteachers you learn, you
integrate what you've learnedinto your practice and you just
evolve and you become better atwhat you do.
And anyone who's done, who'sbeen in this profession, can
really understand that.
So let's get to the beginningmy initial observations and the
(03:57):
challenges that existed at PSIS224 when I first I'm finding
about it.
So One of the first things thatI did and I have to be
definitely give much gratitudeto my superintendent, dr Roberto
Padilla was being given theopportunity to do a desk audit
of the school.
(04:17):
And I have to be honest with you, I've done miniature desk
audits and but this is the firsttime where I went completely
head in and said, okay, I'mgoing to commit days to just
studying the school.
So those of you who don't knowwhat desk audit is, this is my
definition.
This is where you sit down withthe data and you literally
(04:44):
spend time, work time, reallyreviewing data, not sitting in a
meeting, not sitting, you know,not going to a PD, or I'm doing
looking at school data as anexercise, or you're trying to
find, like you know, some pieceof information to fulfill the
report or some compliance piece.
I'm talking about saying, okay,here's a school, here's a space
(05:08):
I'm going to treat like amystery.
I want to learn as much as Ican about this space, this
school, and I was looking at thetest scores and I was looking
at historical data as far asattendance, looking at, you know
, the history of occurrences atthe school, behavioral
discipline, everything, thehiring trends, who's been here
(05:31):
for how long, anything I can getmy hands on, you know, and
we're talking about generalinformation, general public
information, and one thing aboutpublic schools is that it's out
there.
There's nothing, it's verylittle, that you cannot access.
If you want to see the pastbudget, you can find it right
online.
If you want to know the historyof the school who's been, who's
led the school, where theschool started there are several
(05:54):
websites that will give youthey provide parents with data
about a school.
So I went through all that and Isat in a small office you know
coffee and and my laptop and Ijust was grinding for for about
five days.
I was grinding for five dayslooking at data Okay, what is
this and that?
And whenever I could, you know,I would reach out to people,
(06:16):
colleagues and people that hadmore information and say, hey,
what do you know about this,this school, what do you know
about this?
I read a lot of articles andISPS 24 had quite a few news
reports over the years that werevery interesting.
So I did did all that because Iwanted to make sure I had a
very clear understanding.
I was fully immersed in in thisschool.
(06:39):
So when I walked in, I wasn'twalking in there blind.
I wasn't walking in there notknowing you know or or trying to
figure things out on the ground.
So it was like, like him, to gointo battle.
You know you don't go intobattle or into a any kind of
mission without knowing what isthe landscape you're walking
into.
You know what, you know what isthe terrain, what is what has
(07:01):
happened in these spaceshistorically, and that's how I
approached it.
And then once.
I got in, you know, it wasinteresting because I there were
, no, there were no momentswhere I was like, oh my God,
this is not what I expected.
As I said, I expected and as aturnaround school, this is a
(07:25):
space that you know.
You're walking in there and youknow what the mission is.
This this school strugglehistorically, academically,
performance wise, attendancewise, and you're walking in
there trying to find a way tosolve those problems so the
school could be back on track,moving forward, closing the
achievement gap and really beingan amazing space for kids.
(07:47):
And, and I'll be honest withyou, when I did my, when I did
my, my, my audit, what I saw wasjust more, more, more, more
lines of neglect.
You know, um, often schools inmajor cities have a lot of
turnaround, you know, and moreso recently than in its past.
(08:08):
In the past, you can haveschools where you might have a
school leader who's been therefor you know, we're talking
about 10, 20 years.
That loves stability,especially if the schooling is
what they're doing.
It puts schools, it puts theschool in a good space, good
footing, um, but also when youhave a space where you know
(08:29):
there's been a lot of transition.
And not only that, not justtransition leadership, but just
also transition culture, andthings are just not the way they
used to be.
It impacts school communitiesand it permeates through the
community People just having aharder time maintaining and
building culture.
And these are things that I saw.
(08:55):
And but a great thing about it,when I walked in, I didn't see a
school.
That was like crazy.
And I've been in spaces whereyou walked in you were like okay
, oh boy, what's gonna happentoday?
I just saw a space that justneeded a bit more love Not to
say those who were there hadn'tloved it, but intentional.
You know where you're buildingcommunity, where you're bringing
(09:16):
together parents and studentsand teachers to say listen, what
do we want here, where do wewanna go?
Who do we wanna be?
You know, regardless of thenarrative you know of, there's
been written out there about us.
There's no denying.
You know, and this is just.
This is data that you can findanywhere.
You know ISPS 2224 has beenconsidered the lowest performing
(09:41):
middle school in district sevenin the South Bronx for a very
long time, and only that.
I found an article that listed,you know, psis 224 as one of
the bottom performing schools,middle schools.
I mean, I'm so bottom 100performing schools in New York
City and the system that hasover 1600 schools, that is not a
(10:01):
good look.
But again, I couldn't find athing to say like, oh my God,
this is a horrible place.
You know, there was just a spacethat just needed some
re-envisioning, you know, somerebranding, redefining the
narrative.
So, as I learned, the schoolcommunity learned, the staff
(10:24):
learned, the parents learned thekids.
One of the things that poppedinto my head off the bat was I'm
tired of hearing 224 is aproblem.
I'm tired of hearing thenarrative that 224 is a space
that is not a good space.
So I went head deep, you know,into rebranding.
(10:44):
I made that my part-time job,spending time at home looking at
the school and thinking abouthow to redress the school, how
to go beyond a fresh paint, acoat, to really changing
perceptions about the school.
So one of the things that cameto me, the kids were not very
(11:05):
keen on, the school logo, aswell as the staff and the school
mascot, and I was like you know, those are low-lying fruits,
those are things that you canreach and plug in and make a
difference with really quickly.
So I had a competition, youknow that was done through the
art classroom with Miss B and Iwas like, listen, I need a new
(11:26):
school logo and I need a newschool mascot, but I want to
come from the kids.
So this is the art class andthe kids.
She told the kids and the kidsjumped onto it and within two
weeks or so, you know, we had anew mascot.
We were no longer the cheetahs,we were not the panthers, and
this was a hundred percent fromthe kids.
It had nothing to do with theadults, you know.
(11:46):
It had nothing to do with me.
It was the kids.
You know.
It came down, I think it cameout the lions and panthers, and
the kids picked panthers,specifically black panthers, and
I thought that was awesomebecause now there's ownership
there, there's been conversation, there's been communication
amongst the children and theyknow like this is what we picked
and they know it's a contestfor a new logo.
(12:09):
Part of my rebranding was, youknow, coming up with new core
values, but also beingintentional and putting into the
universe what we want to see.
You know what also, what I wantto see.
So my thing was, you know, thejob is not to just turn the
school around but to make theschool the best middle school in
District seven and in New YorkCity.
So that word best, you know.
(12:31):
I sat and thought about it andI was like how do I take the
word best and make sure it's inour logo?
So psychological people wouldsee it and say, whoa, best.
But also for those of us inschool community we know we
would know what it meant beyondjust the word best as an
adjective.
So came up with the core valuesbelief, excel, strive and trust
(12:57):
.
Because I wanted the schoolcommunity to believe in itself.
I want students that teach youto parents to truly believe in
what we're doing.
You know.
And then Excel.
I tell students all the time Idon't need you to be perfect.
This work that we're doing hasdone no perfection, as
everything do with excellence.
I think I love that excellence.
Excellence is very personal.
(13:19):
You know being your best,pushing beyond your best,
striving for excellence.
It can only be defined by you.
So, so if Excel as to strive,keep moving forward, fall
forward, fail forward, but keepstriving towards.
You know what that thing thatwe want as a community you know
(13:40):
to be, to be, you know, seen asa place where children love to
be, seen as a place wherechildren are successful,
teachers successful, and we'redoing good work towards closing
the achievement gap.
So strive for the S and then TTrust you have.
Trust the system I'm sorry, nottrust the system.
(14:01):
Trust the process.
You have to trust the process,you know.
And not only that.
Students need to trust teachers.
Teachers need to trust students, you know, and parents as well.
We need to trust teachers andstudents and they have to trust
the school.
The principal Trust has to beat the core of what we're doing.
So took the new core value.
(14:21):
You know we had a new mission,a new vision, and the vision was
aligned with the district.
And then, you know, we alignedour school colors with the
school district colors.
You know we have a new logo,which was a paw print designed
by seventh grader, and we went,we ran with it.
You know repainting theclassrooms and putting the
(14:43):
murals in the hallways.
You know, you know I'm fromCalifornia, so I put up a Nipsey
Hussle quote and I put up aTupac quote.
The Tupac quote directly comesfrom the words you hear at the
beginning of my podcast.
You know, you know be.
You know about sparking thebrain.
You know doing something in thecommunity to really change the
(15:06):
world.
So, and then we have Sotomayor,and we have Nelson Mandela and
Ceciárez Sinha Sanchez, and moremurals are coming, but I want
to create a space where kidswalk through.
They were all, but only that thecourse on the wall eventually
was seeping through your mindsand and and be part of the blood
(15:28):
vein and the and the heartbeatof the school.
And so branding has been thething, and then only that you
know we are the science, thescience school for explosion
discovery.
And I said you know we're goingto drop the science, the
science, and publicly we'regoing to drop, you know, not
officially, but when it works.
(15:48):
Drop the science school Of andjust be exploration discovery,
because, at the end of the day,what is it that we want our kids
to do other than explore anddiscover this world and grow in
that process?
So now you know mycorrespondence is our logos are
signed.
You only see explorationdiscovery MS 224, not PSIS 224.
(16:10):
Public school, public school,intermediary school 224.
That's too much.
Ms 224, middle school 224.
And embracing that, you know,and using using all of this to
change the narrative.
And yeah, so that's a snippetof the rebranding process.
But now the unseen hurdles.
(16:32):
They were definitely some unseenhurdles.
You know, when I did the deskaudit, I thought to myself, man,
these numbers, the schoolperformance, which at the time
was about 24 percent proficiencyin mathematics, which for me
says the 76 percent of ourstudents are not proficient.
(16:55):
Then 5 percent proficiency inmath, which means 95 percent of
our students are not proficientin math.
And I saw these numbers and Iwas like, wait a minute, this
has been the story for some timenow.
And not only that, the schoolis in state receivership, and
I'm meaning that the school isbeing it's on the list from the
state and it's being given a lotof supports because it's a very
(17:18):
low performing school.
And I I'm never reading thedesk audit saying to myself, man
, if we're not careful, theschool could be closed at any
given time.
And then that that became thenarrative, not narrative, the
reality.
You know, not only are we, youknow, are we in a space, or am I
in a space, of turning upschool, around, working with my
(17:40):
colleagues and my, you know.
But also now keeping the schoolopen because again, you know one
of the schools not doing welland and it becomes a the ongoing
theme for a number of years,you know one of the options is
to close the school down andrebuild.
Put something else new in there.
They can serve the community.
(18:00):
They can service the communityno-transcript, Me being the
person that.
I am and falling in love withthe school community and the
community as a whole, I was likeno, no, no, no, no, no.
We got to find a way to keepthe school open.
It's not just about turningaround.
It's also not about redefining,putting it into existence,
(18:24):
something to make it very clearthat this school is worthy of
continuous service community.
One of the things that Iconstantly say is if you want to
destroy a school community, I'msorry.
If you want to destroy acommunity, get rid of one or
three things, or, even worse, toget rid of three things.
(18:47):
You get rid of the hospitals,then the community cannot heal
itself.
They have people who areliterally dying because they
can't get medical support andservice.
You get rid of grocery stores,so then what we're putting into
our bodies is actuallyexacerbating and killing us
because we can't get freshvegetables and healthy foods.
(19:09):
Then you close schools down.
You shouldn't doubt our minds.
You're taking the hope awayfrom us.
Our ability to dream isdiminished because the mind has
to grow and school is one of thespaces where you pour into
children, you pour into thecommunity.
So for me, as a school leader,as a principal, as a teacher, at
(19:30):
my core, the thought of schoolclosure was something that I was
like no, can't happen, we'vegot to find a way.
But now the story is different.
Now it's not just about how dowe turn the school around and
how do we keep these doors openfor a foreseeable future.
And I had to rally.
(19:51):
I had to rally the staff, I hadto rally the community, even
talk to the students.
That's what we're doing here,and one thing that I saw that
gave me extreme hope is the factthat every single person
exhibited the same passion thatI have.
(20:11):
Every single person said, ok,now, what do we do?
How do we do this?
And there was a collectiveeffort that went to play.
It began in the summer.
We were under-enrolled byalmost 70 children.
I had staff who worked over thesummer, giving up a lot of
valuable vacation time to say,hey, we're going to pound the
pavements, we're going to thecommunity and recruit students
(20:33):
so that we can meet ourenrollment, and 70 kids is a
huge gap to fill.
But we did it.
We did it.
We've met our enrollment, we'reoff, but like one kid.
And again, that's a testamentto a community that says, no,
we're not giving up, we're goingto make this happen.
So that's been incredible.
(20:58):
This fight to preserve who weare the school.
Their teachers in the schoolhave been here for a very long
time who are just saying listen,this is the work now, including
pushing our kids academically,making sure that they're getting
the best possible product thatwe can provide, and it's a
(21:20):
process.
One of the things that occurredthat I believe had to happen to
ensure that we had a fightingchance is to make sure that the
world can see what we're doing.
I'm a believer that if peopledon't know what you're doing,
then it's not happening.
(21:41):
And one of the things that Iwill share with school leaders
is when you're doing good workor when the community is doing
great work, you have to makesure that the community, the
great community, knows about it,that leadership in the system
knows about it.
And one of the things that Idid do is I campaigned I really
(22:05):
did campaign to get thechancellor of the New York City
public schools to come visit ourschool, because I wanted to
highlight what we're doing.
I knew that if I can get theright eyeballs on our school,
that doors would open, therewould be support for what we're
doing Because, again, if youwalked in here May 1st of 2023
(22:29):
and you walked in October 5th of2023, you would be in shock
because it's not the same place.
You know the same kids One graderemoved, one grade graduated,
another grade came in, but thecore of the students were here
(22:50):
last year.
And the fact that we can saythat again, it's all a work in
progress, but the fact that wecan say we've had consecutive
and multiple 90-plus percentdays of attendance, that kids
have come into school, conflictof minimized students are being
kind to each other and wantingto be in the classrooms and
(23:13):
teachers are working on theirpedagogy and their teaching and
we're all learning and growingtogether.
You know, I've had kids whohave told, who are telling me I
love my school, which to mewarms my heart because, again, I
couldn't find many kids whosaid that last year, just five
months ago, but now kids havesaid I love my school, I love
being here, and again, this isthe work.
(23:36):
But again, if no one knows this, then it's for nothing,
especially when you're possiblyfacing closure.
So, being able to have thechance to have new or T schools,
chance to do the banks comeinto our school, visit
classrooms, and not only that,you know, as God would have it.
You know, he was joined by theBronx Board of President, you
(23:56):
know, vanessa L Gibson who cameas well, and several people from
the CEC, you know, anddifferent entities in the
community were all there andwalked the hallways and they
heard the story and heard mycall to action to ask it was.
It was dope, you know.
(24:17):
And again, all of a sudden anarrative changed.
A narrative change to a spacewhere people are like, wow, this
great thing's happening here.
And I emphasize, we're still inthe embryonic phase, we're
still in the beginning phase ofthis new existence.
But, however, this servedmultiple purposes, because now
(24:46):
there is the eyeballs of thethings and the shifts and pivots
that we've made in the schoolcommunity.
But now there's a higherexpectation of me, my students,
my staff, my parents, becausenow the eyeballs are on us.
So it's great to be in aposition now where, you know,
(25:10):
people pay attention, peoplewanna see when, but and they're
watching and that's funny.
I know this is gonna be such acliche, like I keep saying, I
feel like we are Colorado, weare please.
I am not me on Deion, by anymeans, I'm not Coach Pran, but
however, there's a feeling oflike, wow, they're doing that.
(25:30):
But then it's alsounderstanding that now the
expectation is much higherbecause everybody wants to see
what's happening.
What is, how is this?
What is going to be the endresult of this?
And this is where we are now.
You know, we're doubling downon instruction.
We're asking ourselves how dowe, what is it that we need to
(25:51):
do to really make sure thatwe're building that connective
tissue and we're gettingstronger and we're getting
better at what we're doing?
And the ultimate goal of it'sno longer keeping the school
open, it's no longer aboutturning the school around, it's
about growing.
It's about pushing our kids,it's about pushing our teachers
(26:13):
and having results to say thatthis is the best middle school
in District 7.
But even better yet, in thelong haul, this is the best
model of what a middle schoolcould look like.
Because, again, there's a lot ofschools that are struggling.
There are a lot of schools thatare in that space of the
(26:33):
commutation, of possible closure.
I want, you know, explorationand Discovery MS-224, to be a
model for other schools.
Those schools can say, hey,this comes.
We wanna come see what you didand what you guys are doing so
that we can borrow some things,go ahead and steal some things
(26:56):
and implementing to ourrepertoire, into our journey so
that we can also, you know, bethe best at what we do.
Yeah, so these are some of thethings that I've learned in the
past five months.
It's only been five months, sowe got a whole eight months,
(27:17):
about eight months or so left inthe school year, and I'm hoping
that I can come back to you andshare results.
That blows beyond myimagination.
Whatever I'm thinking, whateverthe goals were reset, I'm
hoping and I know that the endresult is gonna be fantastic.
(27:39):
All right, so I wanna quicklyclose out by thanking man, the
community of Brook Ave and that142nd block back at Hohentau,
that Hohentau Community District7, because, again, the
community staff, the students,the parents, you know, have been
(28:02):
pivotal in the changes thatwe're experiencing right now and
the growth that we'reexperiencing.
I wanna thank you listeners forgiving me space to tell the
story and continue to tell thestory.
Yeah, if I close up, I'm gonnago ahead and do that thing that
(28:22):
I always do, that I should bedoing asking you to engage.
Please leave a comment, tell meabout your school journey and
ask questions, and I am openbook.
I'll share with you anything Ican share with you about this
journey of no longer turning toa school around but keeping a
school open.
That thing that's powerful.
We have turnaround principlesand turnaround school leaders
(28:47):
and all of a sudden, I feel likeI became a keep a school open
principle and so that could be athing.
But please engage, share, like,subscribe, stay tuned for more
insights on my journey as aleader and also many other
topics on this podcast, and I'mgonna put this out there.
(29:09):
If you're a school leader andyou're like man, I'm stuck.
I need help.
Reach out, reach out, send me,leave me a comment, direct
message to me.
Let's jump on a call.
I'm always in support of schoolleaders and my colleagues,
regardless where you are in thecountry.
Set up a coaching session.
That sounds good, you know 15,20, 30 minutes and we'll talk.
(29:33):
But again, this work that we'redoing is for the betterment of
our children, and I wanna be ofservice to you as well.
This should not just be me justtalking about what I've done,
but also sharing with you, youknow, whatever I can to help you
in your journey as well.
All right, folks, this isUchein Joku.
It's been a privilege.
(29:55):
It's been a privilege to be inthis space to talk to you, and I
look forward to talking to youagain.
All right, be well and we'lltalk soon.
When they see me.
They know that every day, whenI'm breathing, it's for us to go
farther.
You know, every time I speak, Iwant the truth to come out.
You know I'm saying every timeI speak I want to shiver.
You know I don't want them tobe like.
They know what I'm gonna saybecause it's polite.
They know what I'm gonna sayand even if I get in trouble,
you know I'm saying that.
Ain't that what we're supposedto do?
It's.
I'm not saying I'm gonna rulethe world or I'm gonna change
(00:21):
the world, but I guarantee thatI will spark the, the brain that
will change the world.
And that's our job.
It's to spark somebody elsewatching us.
We might not be the ones, butlet's not be selfish.
And because we're not gonnachange the world, let's not talk
about how we should change it.
I don't know how to change it,but I know, if I keep talking
about how dirty it is out here,somebody gonna clean it up.
(00:41):
And now he's been promoted hisjob principal.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Good morning everyone .
This is Uchein Joku, sneakerprincipal, and Welcome to this
episode of the snickeringsnickering the sneaker principal
podcast.
Listen, my dyslexia is for real.
Often the words in my head andwhat comes out of my mouth are
(01:16):
two different things.
But, um, it's been a lifelongjourney and it has stopped me
from being who I am today, soit's all good.
So this is the sneakerprincipal podcast.
So in this episode I'm gonnatalk to you about my five month
journey, or marathon, at PSIS224.
(01:41):
This is a school that I amcurrently the interim acting
principal at here in New YorkCity, in district 7 in the Bronx
, and it's been quite a journey.
Last April I've asked you I'dnever even heard the school and
you know an opportunity came up.
I was offered the school, as itwas an opportunity to do some
(02:05):
good work, and I don't shy awayfrom good work.
I have always believed that Forme, this journey of being a
school leader has required thatI go into the most complex of
situations, even spaces where myskill sets might not be fully
complete, and being able toWalking and do what I do or what
(02:28):
I need to do.
I've decided that you know whysometimes you guys jump on a bus
and build or, better yet, fixthe bus as you're driving the
bus.
And this is what definitely oneof those situations To this
episode.
I'm gonna talk to you About thejourney, the beginning, how,
what that was like, you know,going through the process of
(02:50):
rebranding the school, facingchallenges and other things that
weren't quite apparent in thebeginning.
They became very evident thefight to preserve and keep the
history of of the school and toreally change the narrative
(03:13):
about it.
And then what have I learned?
What about learn through thisprocess?
You know, because one thing isBeautiful about being an
educator is that you're alwayslearning something and as well
as teaching something.
But educators, real educators,those who are really about this
craft, learn way more than weever teach, because, again,
(03:35):
that's how it become betterteachers you learn, you
integrate what you've learnedinto your practice and you just
evolve and you become better atwhat you do.
And anyone who's done, who'sbeen in this profession, can
really understand that.
So let's get to the beginningmy initial observations and the
(03:57):
challenges that existed at PSIS224 when I first I'm finding
about it.
So One of the first things thatI did and I have to be
definitely give much gratitudeto my superintendent, dr Roberto
Padilla was being given theopportunity to do a desk audit
of the school.
(04:17):
And I have to be honest with you, I've done miniature desk
audits and but this is the firsttime where I went completely
head in and said, okay, I'mgoing to commit days to just
studying the school.
So those of you who don't knowwhat desk audit is, this is my
definition.
This is where you sit down withthe data and you literally
(04:44):
spend time, work time, reallyreviewing data, not sitting in a
meeting, not sitting, you know,not going to a PD, or I'm doing
looking at school data as anexercise, or you're trying to
find, like you know, some pieceof information to fulfill the
report or some compliance piece.
I'm talking about saying, okay,here's a school, here's a space
(05:08):
I'm going to treat like amystery.
I want to learn as much as Ican about this space, this
school, and I was looking at thetest scores and I was looking
at historical data as far asattendance, looking at, you know
, the history of occurrences atthe school, behavioral
discipline, everything, thehiring trends, who's been here
(05:31):
for how long, anything I can getmy hands on, you know, and
we're talking about generalinformation, general public
information, and one thing aboutpublic schools is that it's out
there.
There's nothing, it's verylittle, that you cannot access.
If you want to see the pastbudget, you can find it right
online.
If you want to know the historyof the school who's been, who's
led the school, where theschool started there are several
(05:54):
websites that will give youthey provide parents with data
about a school.
So I went through all that and Isat in a small office you know
coffee and and my laptop and Ijust was grinding for for about
five days.
I was grinding for five dayslooking at data Okay, what is
this and that?
And whenever I could, you know,I would reach out to people,
(06:16):
colleagues and people that hadmore information and say, hey,
what do you know about this,this school, what do you know
about this?
I read a lot of articles andISPS 24 had quite a few news
reports over the years that werevery interesting.
So I did did all that because Iwanted to make sure I had a
very clear understanding.
I was fully immersed in in thisschool.
(06:39):
So when I walked in, I wasn'twalking in there blind.
I wasn't walking in there notknowing you know or or trying to
figure things out on the ground.
So it was like, like him, to gointo battle.
You know you don't go intobattle or into a any kind of
mission without knowing what isthe landscape you're walking
into.
You know what, you know what isthe terrain, what is what has
(07:01):
happened in these spaceshistorically, and that's how I
approached it.
And then once.
I got in, you know, it wasinteresting because I there were
, no, there were no momentswhere I was like, oh my God,
this is not what I expected.
As I said, I expected and as aturnaround school, this is a
(07:25):
space that you know.
You're walking in there and youknow what the mission is.
This this school strugglehistorically, academically,
performance wise, attendancewise, and you're walking in
there trying to find a way tosolve those problems so the
school could be back on track,moving forward, closing the
achievement gap and really beingan amazing space for kids.
(07:47):
And, and I'll be honest withyou, when I did my, when I did
my, my, my audit, what I saw wasjust more, more, more, more
lines of neglect.
You know, um, often schools inmajor cities have a lot of
turnaround, you know, and moreso recently than in its past.
(08:08):
In the past, you can haveschools where you might have a
school leader who's been therefor you know, we're talking
about 10, 20 years.
That loves stability,especially if the schooling is
what they're doing.
It puts schools, it puts theschool in a good space, good
footing, um, but also when youhave a space where you know
(08:29):
there's been a lot of transition.
And not only that, not justtransition leadership, but just
also transition culture, andthings are just not the way they
used to be.
It impacts school communitiesand it permeates through the
community People just having aharder time maintaining and
building culture.
And these are things that I saw.
(08:55):
And but a great thing about it,when I walked in, I didn't see a
school.
That was like crazy.
And I've been in spaces whereyou walked in you were like okay
, oh boy, what's gonna happentoday?
I just saw a space that justneeded a bit more love Not to
say those who were there hadn'tloved it, but intentional.
You know where you're buildingcommunity, where you're bringing
(09:16):
together parents and studentsand teachers to say listen, what
do we want here, where do wewanna go?
Who do we wanna be?
You know, regardless of thenarrative you know of, there's
been written out there about us.
There's no denying.
You know, and this is just.
This is data that you can findanywhere.
You know ISPS 2224 has beenconsidered the lowest performing
(09:41):
middle school in district sevenin the South Bronx for a very
long time, and only that.
I found an article that listed,you know, psis 224 as one of
the bottom performing schools,middle schools.
I mean, I'm so bottom 100performing schools in New York
City and the system that hasover 1600 schools, that is not a
(10:01):
good look.
But again, I couldn't find athing to say like, oh my God,
this is a horrible place.
You know, there was just a spacethat just needed some
re-envisioning, you know, somerebranding, redefining the
narrative.
So, as I learned, the schoolcommunity learned, the staff
(10:24):
learned, the parents learned thekids.
One of the things that poppedinto my head off the bat was I'm
tired of hearing 224 is aproblem.
I'm tired of hearing thenarrative that 224 is a space
that is not a good space.
So I went head deep, you know,into rebranding.
(10:44):
I made that my part-time job,spending time at home looking at
the school and thinking abouthow to redress the school, how
to go beyond a fresh paint, acoat, to really changing
perceptions about the school.
So one of the things that cameto me, the kids were not very
(11:05):
keen on, the school logo, aswell as the staff and the school
mascot, and I was like you know, those are low-lying fruits,
those are things that you canreach and plug in and make a
difference with really quickly.
So I had a competition, youknow that was done through the
art classroom with Miss B and Iwas like, listen, I need a new
(11:26):
school logo and I need a newschool mascot, but I want to
come from the kids.
So this is the art class andthe kids.
She told the kids and the kidsjumped onto it and within two
weeks or so, you know, we had anew mascot.
We were no longer the cheetahs,we were not the panthers, and
this was a hundred percent fromthe kids.
It had nothing to do with theadults, you know.
(11:46):
It had nothing to do with me.
It was the kids.
You know.
It came down, I think it cameout the lions and panthers, and
the kids picked panthers,specifically black panthers, and
I thought that was awesomebecause now there's ownership
there, there's been conversation, there's been communication
amongst the children and theyknow like this is what we picked
and they know it's a contestfor a new logo.
(12:09):
Part of my rebranding was, youknow, coming up with new core
values, but also beingintentional and putting into the
universe what we want to see.
You know what also, what I wantto see.
So my thing was, you know, thejob is not to just turn the
school around but to make theschool the best middle school in
District seven and in New YorkCity.
So that word best, you know.
(12:31):
I sat and thought about it andI was like how do I take the
word best and make sure it's inour logo?
So psychological people wouldsee it and say, whoa, best.
But also for those of us inschool community we know we
would know what it meant beyondjust the word best as an
adjective.
So came up with the core valuesbelief, excel, strive and trust
(12:57):
.
Because I wanted the schoolcommunity to believe in itself.
I want students that teach youto parents to truly believe in
what we're doing.
You know.
And then Excel.
I tell students all the time Idon't need you to be perfect.
This work that we're doing hasdone no perfection, as
everything do with excellence.
I think I love that excellence.
Excellence is very personal.
(13:19):
You know being your best,pushing beyond your best,
striving for excellence.
It can only be defined by you.
So, so if Excel as to strive,keep moving forward, fall
forward, fail forward, but keepstriving towards.
You know what that thing thatwe want as a community you know
(13:40):
to be, to be, you know, seen asa place where children love to
be, seen as a place wherechildren are successful,
teachers successful, and we'redoing good work towards closing
the achievement gap.
So strive for the S and then TTrust you have.
Trust the system I'm sorry, nottrust the system.
(14:01):
Trust the process.
You have to trust the process,you know.
And not only that.
Students need to trust teachers.
Teachers need to trust students, you know, and parents as well.
We need to trust teachers andstudents and they have to trust
the school.
The principal Trust has to beat the core of what we're doing.
So took the new core value.
(14:21):
You know we had a new mission,a new vision, and the vision was
aligned with the district.
And then, you know, we alignedour school colors with the
school district colors.
You know we have a new logo,which was a paw print designed
by seventh grader, and we went,we ran with it.
You know repainting theclassrooms and putting the
(14:43):
murals in the hallways.
You know, you know I'm fromCalifornia, so I put up a Nipsey
Hussle quote and I put up aTupac quote.
The Tupac quote directly comesfrom the words you hear at the
beginning of my podcast.
You know, you know be.
You know about sparking thebrain.
You know doing something in thecommunity to really change the
(15:06):
world.
So, and then we have Sotomayor,and we have Nelson Mandela and
Ceciárez Sinha Sanchez, and moremurals are coming, but I want
to create a space where kidswalk through.
They were all, but only that thecourse on the wall eventually
was seeping through your mindsand and and be part of the blood
(15:28):
vein and the and the heartbeatof the school.
And so branding has been thething, and then only that you
know we are the science, thescience school for explosion
discovery.
And I said you know we're goingto drop the science, the
science, and publicly we'regoing to drop, you know, not
officially, but when it works.
(15:48):
Drop the science school Of andjust be exploration discovery,
because, at the end of the day,what is it that we want our kids
to do other than explore anddiscover this world and grow in
that process?
So now you know mycorrespondence is our logos are
signed.
You only see explorationdiscovery MS 224, not PSIS 224.
(16:10):
Public school, public school,intermediary school 224.
That's too much.
Ms 224, middle school 224.
And embracing that, you know,and using using all of this to
change the narrative.
And yeah, so that's a snippetof the rebranding process.
But now the unseen hurdles.
(16:32):
They were definitely some unseenhurdles.
You know, when I did the deskaudit, I thought to myself, man,
these numbers, the schoolperformance, which at the time
was about 24 percent proficiencyin mathematics, which for me
says the 76 percent of ourstudents are not proficient.
(16:55):
Then 5 percent proficiency inmath, which means 95 percent of
our students are not proficientin math.
And I saw these numbers and Iwas like, wait a minute, this
has been the story for some timenow.
And not only that, the schoolis in state receivership, and
I'm meaning that the school isbeing it's on the list from the
state and it's being given a lotof supports because it's a very
(17:18):
low performing school.
And I I'm never reading thedesk audit saying to myself, man
, if we're not careful, theschool could be closed at any
given time.
And then that that became thenarrative, not narrative, the
reality.
You know, not only are we, youknow, are we in a space, or am I
in a space, of turning upschool, around, working with my
(17:40):
colleagues and my, you know.
But also now keeping the schoolopen because again, you know one
of the schools not doing welland and it becomes a the ongoing
theme for a number of years,you know one of the options is
to close the school down andrebuild.
Put something else new in there.
They can serve the community.
(18:00):
They can service the communityno-transcript, Me being the
person that.
I am and falling in love withthe school community and the
community as a whole, I was likeno, no, no, no, no, no.
We got to find a way to keepthe school open.
It's not just about turningaround.
It's also not about redefining,putting it into existence,
(18:24):
something to make it very clearthat this school is worthy of
continuous service community.
One of the things that Iconstantly say is if you want to
destroy a school community, I'msorry.
If you want to destroy acommunity, get rid of one or
three things, or, even worse, toget rid of three things.
(18:47):
You get rid of the hospitals,then the community cannot heal
itself.
They have people who areliterally dying because they
can't get medical support andservice.
You get rid of grocery stores,so then what we're putting into
our bodies is actuallyexacerbating and killing us
because we can't get freshvegetables and healthy foods.
(19:09):
Then you close schools down.
You shouldn't doubt our minds.
You're taking the hope awayfrom us.
Our ability to dream isdiminished because the mind has
to grow and school is one of thespaces where you pour into
children, you pour into thecommunity.
So for me, as a school leader,as a principal, as a teacher, at
(19:30):
my core, the thought of schoolclosure was something that I was
like no, can't happen, we'vegot to find a way.
But now the story is different.
Now it's not just about how dowe turn the school around and
how do we keep these doors openfor a foreseeable future.
And I had to rally.
(19:51):
I had to rally the staff, I hadto rally the community, even
talk to the students.
That's what we're doing here,and one thing that I saw that
gave me extreme hope is the factthat every single person
exhibited the same passion thatI have.
(20:11):
Every single person said, ok,now, what do we do?
How do we do this?
And there was a collectiveeffort that went to play.
It began in the summer.
We were under-enrolled byalmost 70 children.
I had staff who worked over thesummer, giving up a lot of
valuable vacation time to say,hey, we're going to pound the
pavements, we're going to thecommunity and recruit students
(20:33):
so that we can meet ourenrollment, and 70 kids is a
huge gap to fill.
But we did it.
We did it.
We've met our enrollment, we'reoff, but like one kid.
And again, that's a testamentto a community that says, no,
we're not giving up, we're goingto make this happen.
So that's been incredible.
(20:58):
This fight to preserve who weare the school.
Their teachers in the schoolhave been here for a very long
time who are just saying listen,this is the work now, including
pushing our kids academically,making sure that they're getting
the best possible product thatwe can provide, and it's a
(21:20):
process.
One of the things that occurredthat I believe had to happen to
ensure that we had a fightingchance is to make sure that the
world can see what we're doing.
I'm a believer that if peopledon't know what you're doing,
then it's not happening.
(21:41):
And one of the things that Iwill share with school leaders
is when you're doing good workor when the community is doing
great work, you have to makesure that the community, the
great community, knows about it,that leadership in the system
knows about it.
And one of the things that Idid do is I campaigned I really
(22:05):
did campaign to get thechancellor of the New York City
public schools to come visit ourschool, because I wanted to
highlight what we're doing.
I knew that if I can get theright eyeballs on our school,
that doors would open, therewould be support for what we're
doing Because, again, if youwalked in here May 1st of 2023
(22:29):
and you walked in October 5th of2023, you would be in shock
because it's not the same place.
You know the same kids One graderemoved, one grade graduated,
another grade came in, but thecore of the students were here
(22:50):
last year.
And the fact that we can saythat again, it's all a work in
progress, but the fact that wecan say we've had consecutive
and multiple 90-plus percentdays of attendance, that kids
have come into school, conflictof minimized students are being
kind to each other and wantingto be in the classrooms and
(23:13):
teachers are working on theirpedagogy and their teaching and
we're all learning and growingtogether.
You know, I've had kids whohave told, who are telling me I
love my school, which to mewarms my heart because, again, I
couldn't find many kids whosaid that last year, just five
months ago, but now kids havesaid I love my school, I love
being here, and again, this isthe work.
(23:36):
But again, if no one knows this, then it's for nothing,
especially when you're possiblyfacing closure.
So, being able to have thechance to have new or T schools,
chance to do the banks comeinto our school, visit
classrooms, and not only that,you know, as God would have it.
You know, he was joined by theBronx Board of President, you
(23:56):
know, vanessa L Gibson who cameas well, and several people from
the CEC, you know, anddifferent entities in the
community were all there andwalked the hallways and they
heard the story and heard mycall to action to ask it was.
It was dope, you know.
(24:17):
And again, all of a sudden anarrative changed.
A narrative change to a spacewhere people are like, wow, this
great thing's happening here.
And I emphasize, we're still inthe embryonic phase, we're
still in the beginning phase ofthis new existence.
But, however, this servedmultiple purposes, because now
(24:46):
there is the eyeballs of thethings and the shifts and pivots
that we've made in the schoolcommunity.
But now there's a higherexpectation of me, my students,
my staff, my parents, becausenow the eyeballs are on us.
So it's great to be in aposition now where, you know,
(25:10):
people pay attention, peoplewanna see when, but and they're
watching and that's funny.
I know this is gonna be such acliche, like I keep saying, I
feel like we are Colorado, weare please.
I am not me on Deion, by anymeans, I'm not Coach Pran, but
however, there's a feeling oflike, wow, they're doing that.
(25:30):
But then it's alsounderstanding that now the
expectation is much higherbecause everybody wants to see
what's happening.
What is, how is this?
What is going to be the endresult of this?
And this is where we are now.
You know, we're doubling downon instruction.
We're asking ourselves how dowe, what is it that we need to
(25:51):
do to really make sure thatwe're building that connective
tissue and we're gettingstronger and we're getting
better at what we're doing?
And the ultimate goal of it'sno longer keeping the school
open, it's no longer aboutturning the school around, it's
about growing.
It's about pushing our kids,it's about pushing our teachers
(26:13):
and having results to say thatthis is the best middle school
in District 7.
But even better yet, in thelong haul, this is the best
model of what a middle schoolcould look like.
Because, again, there's a lot ofschools that are struggling.
There are a lot of schools thatare in that space of the
(26:33):
commutation, of possible closure.
I want, you know, explorationand Discovery MS-224, to be a
model for other schools.
Those schools can say, hey,this comes.
We wanna come see what you didand what you guys are doing so
that we can borrow some things,go ahead and steal some things
(26:56):
and implementing to ourrepertoire, into our journey so
that we can also, you know, bethe best at what we do.
Yeah, so these are some of thethings that I've learned in the
past five months.
It's only been five months, sowe got a whole eight months,
(27:17):
about eight months or so left inthe school year, and I'm hoping
that I can come back to you andshare results.
That blows beyond myimagination.
Whatever I'm thinking, whateverthe goals were reset, I'm
hoping and I know that the endresult is gonna be fantastic.
(27:39):
All right, so I wanna quicklyclose out by thanking man, the
community of Brook Ave and that142nd block back at Hohentau,
that Hohentau Community District7, because, again, the
community staff, the students,the parents, you know, have been
(28:02):
pivotal in the changes thatwe're experiencing right now and
the growth that we'reexperiencing.
I wanna thank you listeners forgiving me space to tell the
story and continue to tell thestory.
Yeah, if I close up, I'm gonnago ahead and do that thing that
(28:22):
I always do, that I should bedoing asking you to engage.
Please leave a comment, tell meabout your school journey and
ask questions, and I am openbook.
I'll share with you anything Ican share with you about this
journey of no longer turning toa school around but keeping a
school open.
That thing that's powerful.
We have turnaround principlesand turnaround school leaders
(28:47):
and all of a sudden, I feel likeI became a keep a school open
principle and so that could be athing.
But please engage, share, like,subscribe, stay tuned for more
insights on my journey as aleader and also many other
topics on this podcast, and I'mgonna put this out there.
(29:09):
If you're a school leader andyou're like man, I'm stuck.
I need help.
Reach out, reach out, send me,leave me a comment, direct
message to me.
Let's jump on a call.
I'm always in support of schoolleaders and my colleagues,
regardless where you are in thecountry.
Set up a coaching session.
That sounds good, you know 15,20, 30 minutes and we'll talk.
(29:33):
But again, this work that we'redoing is for the betterment of
our children, and I wanna be ofservice to you as well.
This should not just be me justtalking about what I've done,
but also sharing with you, youknow, whatever I can to help you
in your journey as well.
All right, folks, this isUchein Joku.
It's been a privilege.
(29:55):
It's been a privilege to be inthis space to talk to you, and I
look forward to talking to youagain.
All right, be well and we'lltalk soon.
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Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.