Detroit Cesar Chavez

Detroit Cesar Chavez Academy is a K- 12 public school district in Detroit, Michigan committed to educational excellence. THE SCHOOL SEAL: The sun and book represent the dedication of the CCA community to providing an education that provides a future to all students. Teaching, Learning and achieving (Ensenanza, Aprednizaje and Altas Expectativas) are evident as you walk through the hallways of the three campuses and see first hand that “Yes We Can” (Si Se Puede). The grape vines surrounding the inside crest symbolize the growth of the students as well as paying homage to the workers whom Cesar Chavez dedicated his lifelong struggles for. The Aztec Eagle – a prominent symbol for the Farm Workers of America reminds us of the struggle that “If you want peace work for justice”.

THE BEGINNING - LIFE FROM DEATH: The idea for Cesar Chavez Academy started with the death of lifelong Southwest Detroit resident and community volunteer Roland “Irish” Irwin in September 2005. 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. THE DREAM TAKES SHAPE - INITIAL STEPS:

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, 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 1st 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.

GETTING STARTED - STUDENT GROWTH AND GRADE SCHOOL RENOVATIONS:

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 divestiture from a quasi public think tank/advocacy group to a privately owned for profit corporation. The Leona Group LLC, is headquartered in Lansing, Michigan and is now one of the nation’s largest charter school management companies and continues to be owned and operated by Bill Coates. The reason that The Leona Group was chosen to manage the school – and continues to manage the school is several fold. First, The Leona Group’s philosophy is to allow each of its schools to select and implement a curriculum framework best designed to meet the needs of its students and community – as long as that framework is aligned with State of Michigan standards, the No Child Left Behind Act and demonstrates the school is making yearly annual progress. Secondly, the Leona Group does not keep any surplus monies the school has based upon appropriate budgeting. Thirdly, the Leona Group partners with its school boards in an attempt to facilitate consensus based thinking and decision designed to give children the best of possible educational outcomes. Many other school management firms, such as the Edison company, etc., do not return school surpluses to the schools they manage, do not allow for school by school curriculum creativity (many schools receive a standard curriculum plan by their management firms).

Cesar Chavez initially opened with grades K through 3 and shared the St. Gabriel school building initially 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 1st 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.

THE ROLES OF THE CCA BORD OF DIRECTORS AND THE ROLE OF THE LEONA GROUP MANAGEMENT FIRM

The Board has a negotiated contractual agreement with The Leona Group, LLC. 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 nor 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 3 school buildings. The agreement between The Leona Group and the CCA Board is three (3) years in length and had been renewed at each time of expiration since the first agreement was singed 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.

HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL NAME:

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.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CCA MIDDLE SCHOOL

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 (1) year and his predecessor was Abelardo Batista. 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 out grew the St. Gabriel location and needed to add on the grades 6 through 8. On/about the year of 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 5 miles away from the grade school necessitated the establishment of a bussing transportation system between the 2 campuses. While all agreed that the location was too far away in distance from the grade school, there were no other suitable building locations closer and this was the best the Board could do at that time The first middle school principal was Terry Blevens and Ms. Blevens 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.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CCA HIGH SCHOOL

To finance the construction of the school the Board - through the Municipal Capital Markets Group - issued a ten (10) million dollar 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 (Reference: "Los Patricios" who fought on behalf of Mexico, Mexican people and Civil Rights).

TIME TO MOVE - THE PROCESS TO BUILD A NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL:

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 modulars built in Indiana and shipped to Detroit, then lifted into place by crane and augmented 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. 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 undertaken by developer Norman Lopatin of the “Lopatin Company” located in Southfield, Michigan.

GENERAL CESAR CHAVEZ ACADEMY GENERAL FACTS

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. The Motto of the school is “Si Se Puede” – “Yes We Can”. The school campuses are as follows: Grade School: 8668 West Vernor, Detroit, MI 48209. High School and Middle School 1761 Waterman, Detroit, MI 48209. Each school building as its own school leader, assistant leader and the all 3 schools are overseen by a school superintendent. As a public 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".

CESAR CHAVEZ ACADEMY GOVERNING STRUCTURE:

Chartering University: Saginaw Valley State University

Managing Partner: The Leona Group – Lansing, Michigan

1995 Original Founding Board Members of CCA: Patrick F. Irwin (President), Beatrice Esquivel (Vice-President), Delores Ramirez, Ignacio ("Ziggy") Gonzalez, Anna Garcia, Tina Galvez, Dolores Gonzalez Ramirez and Louis B. Smith, Jr.

Inscription from the High School Dedication Plaque: "All glory comes from daring to begin"

Inscription from the Middle School Dedication Plaque:"Be the change you wish to see take place in the world" Gandhi - Humanitarian, advocate for peace, love and understanding.

CCA COLORS:The colors of CCA are Red, White and Blue. These colors were chosen to visibly demonstrate to all that we are Americans and proud of our country. They also demonstrate that as Americans we can be simultaneously proud of our country while at the same time celebrate the pride and identity we feel for each of our unique ethnic backgrounds, heritages, faiths, religions and cultures.

Blue: The color of blue symbolizes the idea of strength though its deep luster while at the same time reminding us of greatness that is found in the nature of the world through the depths of the blue oceans or the unending blue found in our skies above.

White: The color of white symbolizes peace and forgiveness – the neutrality of a person and the desire of all mankind to live together in harmony. These are the principal colors of CCA: Blue and white, strength and peace.

Red: The color red is the accent color at CCA and is meant to show the commitment, fiery determination and passion of the entire Southwest Detroit community and of who we are as a people. The color red is principally used in the color of the Cesar Chavez Aztec Eagle mascot. The color is used in the Eagle as a reminder that as the Eagle soars in the skies above, it does so gracefully but with keen senses, a sense of purpose and a sense of righteousness. Our Eagle at CCA must also soar with these qualities but must also do so with passion, mission and urgency. As a passion color, red reminds us of that we are called upon to make a positive difference in not only our own lives, but also in the lives of others.

CCA MASCOT:The mascot of CCA is the Aztec Eagle. The Aztec Eagle, an important symbol of the migrant farm worker cause and has for many people transcended it’s initial meaning into having become a symbol of justice and equality for all. Cesar himself one said about the Aztec Eagle that: “A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec eagle. It gives pride...When people see it they know it means dignity."