Dearborn Academic Turnaround and Building Renovation Campaign

As part of its school organizing, GBIO began organizing in partnership with GBIO members - Roxbury Presbyterian Church (RPC) and Trinity Church Boston (TCB) - at the beginning of last school year (Fall 2009) at the Dearborn Middle School. Since we began organizing at the Dearborn, we have had enormous success. From a school that was likely to get closed down, our GBIO parent, teacher, and community leaders have breathed new life into the school, securing the money to turn the school into a modern, renovated 6-12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Academy, the first of its kind in the Roxbury/Dorchester area. Below is a picture of the Dearborn-GBIO leaders huddling together and celebrating after their latest successful 400 person action with the Mayor and State Treasurer.



Read the details of the Dearborn story on the next page.

The Dearborn Story

GBIO began working at the Dearborn in early Fall 2009. As GBIO organizers began to do their one on one's and house meetings with students, parents, teachers, and administrators, the whole school body seemed to be clamoring for the antiquated Dearborn building to get renovated and modernized - something they had been pleading for the last 10 years without any success.

So we started organizing. In Sept 2009, our GBIO organizer brought parents into a house meeting at the school where they decided to do a building audit of the Dearborn. With maps in their hands, seven parents documented paint chips falling, radiators terribly dirty, bathroom mirrors broken, mold growing in some classrooms, risk of asbestos in a school playroom, no Bunsen burners working, and cracks everywhere. The parents were angry and wanted immediate action. The next week, leveraging GBIO’s power and relationships, these parents met with Dr. Carol Johnson, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools, who at a public meeting with 50 students, teachers, parents, and community members agreed to partner with the school to make short-term repairs. Within the next three months, the district finished its short-term repairs. The school community was excited by the district's work, yet still yearned for the building's complete renovation/modernization due to its structural problems.

On November 18, 2009, the Dearborn was hit with a crisis when the superintendent put the Dearborn on a list of Turnaround Schools due to its low academic performance. This meant that the school could potentially be shutdown. Yet, our GBIO students, parents, and teachers felt that gradual but important steps were being made to improve the school, particularly with the assignment of a new dynamic and committed principal and growing support from local partners like GBIO, RPC, TCB, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and the Boston Urban Youth Foundation (BUYF).

Working with GBIO’s organizer, the Dearborn parent, teacher leaders, and RPC, TCB, DSNI, and BUYF leaders – now formally known as the Dearborn Leadership Team - began to organize. Soon after the “Turnaround” Announcement, they put together a 90 person action, including 50 students, followed by a 150 person action a week later, also including 50 students. At these actions, the Dearborn Leadership Team grew its partnership with the district. Both Academic Superintendent of the Middle Schools Jeff Riley and the Superintendent Dr. Johnson agreed to (1) fight to keep the Dearborn school open, (2) to fight to secure money to renovate and modernize the school building, and (3) to work with the Leadership Team to create an Academic Turnaround Plan. At the district's request, the team also organized a vote on the future model of the school: 70% of students, parents, teachers, and community folks decided to turn the school - upon renovation - from a 6-8 into a 6-12 high school.



By mid-January the Dearborn Leadership Team worked out an acceptable Academic Turnaround Plan with Mr. Riley for the school when renovated. The school would become a 6-12 Extended Day Learning Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) School - the first of its kind in all of BPS - with modern and green facilities. Mr. Riley also got a letter of support from the executive director of Northeastern’s STEM Center as well as Chris Gabrielli, former candidate for governor and chair of MASS 2020 - an extended day learning program. Additionally, the Boston Science Department committed to devoting its resources in teacher training when the new school would open, and also built a partnership with the Boston Museum of Science. In the meantime, GBIO worked to get a letter of support from Partners Health Care for a future partnership around student internships when the school would be renovated. In mid-January 2010, the Dearborn Leadership Team - along with Mr. Riley - presented this Academic Turnaround Plan to Katherine Craven, executive director of the Massachusetts State Building Authority (MSBA), the authority in charge of dispersing the 70-85% of the dollars needed for the renovation of the school. Ms. Craven came away extremely impressed with the team’s unity and Academic Turnaround Plan. Working with Ms. Craven, the team submitted its proposal to the MSBA Board on January 27, 2010 to start the feasibility study for the school’s renovation. The Board accepted the proposal!

Though elated, the Leadership Team recognized that they still needed (1) to build a partnership with the city, as it would need to support and help implement the school's Academic Turnaround Plan and also contribute 15-30% of the money for the school’s modernization and (2) to strengthen their partnership with the MSBA, so that the school’s renovation happens in an expedited timeline of 2-3 years. The Dearborn Leadership Team decided to hold a 300 person action at the school where the team would seek commitments from both Mayor Thomas Menino and State Treasurer Timothy Cahill to support the Academic Turnaround Plan for the Dearborn and to renovate the building as soon as possible – as the Academic Turnaround Plan required the modernization of the building.

On April 26, the team was nervous. But as the evening came, the Dearborn auditorium started to swell. Within minutes of the start of the event, over 400 students (73 in total), parents, teachers, and community members – a community of care - had come! Student, parent, and teacher leaders, each told their stories of why the Dearborn needed the city’s and the state’s support for its Academic Turnaround Plan and specifically the building’s renovation. At the event, Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino and the State Treasurer Timothy Cahill affirmed their partnership with the school and stated unequivocally that they will do everything in their power to support the Dearborn's Academic Turnaround Plan and to renovate the building as soon as possible.

Through this campaign, the GBIO - Dearborn Leadership Team has started to build ownership of the school by the community, parents, teachers, and students. As one teacher remarked recently, "it's like we have everyone on board; it's brought a new spirit to the school and a renewed commitment to make sure our students succeed." The leadership team will continue working with its partners - the district, the city, and the state - to make the Academic Turnaround and Building Renovation a reality within the next 2-3 years.