Cesar Chavez Academy

Cesar Chavez Academy of Detroit
Location
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Information
Type	Private
Motto	"Si Se Puede- Yes We Can"
Religious affiliation(s)	None
Head teacher	Juan Martinez
Campus	Urban
Color(s)	Red, white, and blue
Mascot	Aztec Eagle
Website	www.ccahs.net

Detroit Cesar Chavez Academy is a K-12 public charter school in Detroit, Michigan. It is operated by The Leona Group, an operator of charter schools in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio.

History

The idea for Cesar Chavez Academy started with the death of lifelong Southwest Detroit resident and community volunteer Roland “Irish” Irwin in September 1995. In recognition of the Rev. Don Hanchon’s services and kindness during the time of Irish’s passing and funeral, Irish’s son Patrick offered to assist Rev. Hanchon in exploring options for the vacant and former parochial High School and Grade School owned by St. Gabriel Catholic Church. Patrick had attended St. Gabriel’s elementary school when it was still open and run by the Parish. Over time however, as the building sat primarily vacant, significant disrepair had occurred and the building was filled with numerous roof leaks, faulty plumbing, electrical system problems, sewer back-ups, failing boilers and windows, etc. With the approval of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Rev. Hanchon and Patrick began discussions with the Michigan Partnership for New Education (MPNE) about the possibility of establishing a charter school in the long-closed building. At the time these discussion began charter schools were a relatively new concept for the State of Michigan and very few existed nor was there a great deal of understanding at large on how to start a charter school or manage a charter school.

At the same time that Fr. Hanchon and Patrick Irwin were firming up their vision for the school and exploring management companies to operate this potential school, the Michigan Partner for New Education (MPNE), led by educator Bill Coates and businessman Al Taubman. as well as several other business leaders, were seeking an opportunity to establish their first management oversight for a charter school. Prior to this time MPNE had been a quasi-public think tank that advocated for on behalf of charter school issues and concerns across the State of Michigan. Based upon presentations made by MPNE to Fr. Hanchon and Patrick Irwin, a decision was reached to assemble a tentative Board of Directors from the community at large to work toward the establishment of a charter school. Negotiations between the leaders of this initial Board and MPNE progressed quickly, and at the same time, this tentative Cesar Chavez Academy (CCA )Board and the MPNE were able to make a successful overture to Saginaw Valley State University to grant a charter establishing the school. By the close of 1995 an agreement was reached between MPNE, the representatives of Cesar Chavez’s first school board, and Saginaw Valley State University (chartering university of Chavez) to open the school. At the time of this agreement there were relatively few charter schools open, and Cesar Chavez was one of the first handful of charter schools to begin these initial steps toward operations.

Enrollment increase and grade school renovations

Grade school buildings

Not long after Cesar Chavez opened, MPNE was renamed "The Leona Group" in honor of Bill Coates' mother, Leona Coates. This name change reflected MPNE's change in focus from a quasi-public think tank/advocacy group to a privately owned, for-profit corporation.

Cesar Chavez initially opened with grades K through 3 and shared the St. Gabriel school building with the Vista Nuevas Head Start program. The founding principal of the Cesar Chavez Academy was Dr. Carlos Lopez – whom later left and became Superintendent of the Oak Park School System. As Cesar Chavez continued to grow, Vista Nuevas eventually left portion of the building they were using for another building just down the street from St. Gabriel's and Cesar Chavez took over all of the available space in the St. Gabriel school building. In order to bring the school building up to code and to properly educate the students of Cesar Chavez, the building required approximately $3.5 million dollars of renovations which included fire prevention systems, gutting of the former high school on the first floor to turn it into a hall/cafeteria area, and numerous other infrastructure repairs. The costs of this renovation were covered by the Archdiocese of Detroit and repaid through rent payments from Cesar Chavez to the Archdiocese of Detroit.

History of the school's name

Playground dedication (!998)

In January 1996 a community meeting of over 100 residents was held in the school basement to announce the intention to establish a school and if there was interest in the community for establishing a school – gathering suggestions for a school name. This first meeting was held prior to a school board having been established and was led by Fr. Hanchon and Patrick Irwin. At this meeting the residents unanimously supported the establishment of a charter school in the mostly vacant building. When the assembled group was asked by Patrick Irwin as to what the school should be called, Maria Chavez – a lifelong resident of the community stated to the assembled audience “Cesar Chavez”. Another attendee of the meeting stood up to ask "Who is he" - to which Ms. Chavez replied "He's our Martin Luther King" – to which everyone in the room began applauding. No other names were offered to name the school and on a one voice recommendation – the name and destiny of the school was selected. The Cesar Chavez Academy honors the legacy of Cesar Chavez who dedicated his entire life to the cause of social justice and the rights of all people to dignity and respect. During his lifetime Cesar Chavez, as a human rights and labor leader, spent many hours and days in the Detroit community in his pursuit of support and assistance for his labor and peace struggles. Cesar Chavez was as a close friend to Monsignor Clement Kern (deceased) former pastor of Most Holy Trinity Church in Detroit - and Cesar spent many nights at the rectory of Holy Trinity when he stayed in Detroit.

Introduction of the CCA middle school

Art on the high school (detail)

The first year students enrolled at Cesar Chavez was in the fall of 1996 in grades K through 3, with slightly over 100 students. The first CCA grade school principal was Dr. Carlos Lopez, who stayed for one year. The first year was particularly difficult as the new board, teachers, students and parents all grappled with the enormous responsibility involved with providing a quality education for the community. Over time additional grades were added to the Cesar Chavez Academy one class at a time until the school eventually outgrew the St. Gabriel location and needed to add grades 6 through 8. In 1998 the Cesar Chavez School Board rented a building off Trumbull and Labrosse to house the establishment of a middle school in a building that once was the headquarters of the Joe Muer restaurant chain. This middle school building location – some five miles away from the grade school necessitated the establishment of bus transportation system between the two campuses. While all agreed that the location was too far away in distance from the grade school, there were no other suitable building locations in the area, and this was the best the Board could do at that time. The first middle school principal was Terry Blevens, who was then followed up by founding school board member Beatrice Esquivel who left the Cesar Chavez Academy Board of Directors to become the middle school principal.

Introduction of the CCA high school

The original high school

As each grade continued to progress through the Academy – it only took another two years before the Board of Directors was faced with the dilemma of having soon to be 8th graders who would graduate and have no Cesar Chavez high school to go to. As a result, school growth once again necessitated a third building decision from the Board of Directors and the Board purchased temporary modular buildings which were placed on the middle school campus to house high school students until a more permanent solution could be found. Middle school principal Beatrice Esquivel moved to become the founding high school principal and longtime middle school assistant principal Rick Guerra moved to become the middle school principal. These modulars stayed in place for two years at the middle school location while the Board worked out a purchase agreement in the year 2000 for property at 1761 Waterman. This location housed a three-story abandoned office building and truck repair warehouse and was also used as a dumping ground for abandoned cars, building materials, etc. The property was purchased for the sum of approximately $350,000. The owner of the property, however, attempted to commit fraud by selling the property to two parties at once, and it was only after the involvement of the Board's land acquisition and project developer, Norman Lopatin of the firm Lopatin and Company, did the situation become resolved. Norman was also able to secure a significant financial concession on the purchase price for the Cesar Chavez Board because of the attempted fraud.

Front of the high school

To finance the construction of the school the Board - through the Municipal Capital Markets Group - issued a $10 million Wall Street bond to build the high school. This bond financed a renovation of the existing office building, a building extension to house additional classrooms and a cafeteria, along with the renovation of the former truck warehouse into a gymnasium and classroom building. The Board decided to "save" rather than tear down the former warehouse as a testimony to the history of the community and to build a unique gymnasium/classroom experience. The Board also commissioned builder and artist Carlos Huerta to design historical era art work to ring the outer top walls of the building which depict various cultural symbols important to the Mayan, Aztec and Toltec worlds. Interspaced within the art works are occasional shamrocks which reflect upon the long and positive history of multi-culturalism and peaceful co-existence of the many peoples within Southwest Detroit. These shamrocks also reflect the historical friendship between the Mexican and Irish communities ("los patricios" (from St. Patrick) who fought on behalf of Mexico, Mexican people, and civil rights).

Preparation to build a new middle school

Middle school building

Once the high school was completed in 2003 the former high school modulars were moved over to the new high school campus and the Board then embarked upon its 5th building decision - to move the middle school from its far too distant location on Trumbull to a location closer to the High School. After unsuccessful attempts to purchase the vacant YMCA building on Clark and Vernor (offer made for $400,000 - owners sought $1.5 million) and an unsuccessful attempt to purchase property adjacent and across the side street from the high school, a decision was reached to build the middle school directly behind the high school on property already owned by the Board. In 2005 a bond issuance of $6.1 million dollars was issued through Municipal Capital Markets Group once again to build the middle school. An innovative approach was chosen for the construction of the building: pre-fabricated structures were built in Indiana and shipped to Detroit, then lifted into place by crane and finished by on site/traditional construction methods (i.e. glass lobby, stairwells, bricking of the building, etc.). The entire construction project took only 6 months (starting in March) and was completed in time for school to start in August 2005.

Field house

The bonds for both the High School and Middle School are payable over a 30 year period with dedicated time intervals for early repayment or refinancing at the decision of the Cesar Chavez Board. The issuance of these bonds – all done at the behest of the Cesar Chavez Board’s community volunteers – represent the largest investments ever taken in Southwest Detroit by a volunteer, community-based board. The oversight construction of the schools was also undertaken by Lopatin.

Today

Cesar Chavez Academy has an enrollment of approximately 1,650 students in grades K through 12 with 600 of those in the high school, 600 in the middle school and approximately 450 in the grade school. The mission of the school is to be the top urban based school district in the country as evidenced through motivated and prepared instruction, a disciplined learning environment and a commitment to providing students with all of the many tools, resources and educational experiences which they will need to be successful in life. Each school building has its own school leader^[1] and assistant leader, and all three schools are overseen by a school superintendent. As a publicly-funded school within the State of Michigan, Cesar Chavez students are required to follow all State of Michigan public school requirements, including participation in MEAP testing, and to remain in compliance with the Federal "No Child Left Behind Act".

Organization

Art on the middle school

The Board has a negotiated contractual agreement with The Leona Group to manage the business, curriculum, academic, personnel and most of the day-to day affairs of the Academy. As such the Board does not hire employees, perform any review of management of Cesar Chavez employees, administer any benefits or pay structures, or become involved in the day-to-day management of the school. The Board meets on a monthly basis – the 2nd Monday of each month – rotating between all three school buildings. The agreement between The Leona Group and the CCA Board is three years in length and has been renewed at each time of expiration since the first agreement was signed in 1995. In terms of compensation for The Leona Group’s services, the Board pays the Leona Group approximately 10% of annual revenues (approximately $1.5 million annual based on school revenues of approximately $15 million in 2006) to manage the affairs of the school. These dollars are on top of the Board’s responsibility to fund all of the salaries and benefits for all Cesar Chavez employees as well as all other expenses of the Academy. In many ways it is applicable to consider The Leona Group as the “central office” administration for all of the many activities needed by the school, such as paying bills, administering contracts, hiring, performance, grant writing, etc. The Board is responsible for Academy policies and procedures, all budgetary issues and approval, negotiating the management agreement with the school management firm (The Leona Group) as well as ensuring that The Leona Group is meeting all of the agreed upon provisions of the contractual management agreement.

References

1. ^ In The Leona Group, all principals are also called School Leaders

External links

• School's webpage