Pearl-Cohn remains at center of rezoning debate

Ask Principal Marva Blanchard-Woods what Nashvillians don’t know about her school, Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive High, and Blanchard-Woods has a long answer.

On the heels of a summer in which school district rezoning has dominated public discussion of education, Pearl-Cohn has been at the center of the debate. The school would be significantly affected by implementation of the new student assignment plan — potential effects of the plan upon the school have been referenced by supporters and opponents of the plan.

If the new plan is implemented as has been approved by the school board, Pearl-Cohn would gain an additional 126 students — provided that none of those students exercise their options to remain at Hillwood High, where they are currently zoned.

The percentage of African-American students would increase from 88 percent to 93 percent, and the percentage of students considered “economically disadvantaged” would decrease, from 73 to 71 percent.

George Thompson, a longtime north Nashville resident who until recently was the school board member representing Pearl-Cohn’s district, said he believes the rezoning will cause problems at the school by adding students who have not previously been part of the disciplined student culture fostered by Blanchard-Woods.

That, combined with the assignment of students who live in neighborhoods in which competing gangs are active, would have a major effect on school climate — and potentially derail some of the progress Pearl-Cohn has made in recent years, Thompson said.

Because despite so much negative news about Metro’s low performing schools, Pearl-Cohn is currently considered in “good standing” under federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) laws.

Blanchard-Woods did not, on Thursday, dismiss the concerns, but she said the school would do what it needs to do to extend the work being done to any new students who may arrive, and to help new kids “adjust.”

“We’re here to serve our students, whoever they are and wherever they may come from. And that’s what we will do,” Blanchard-Woods said. “We’re already an inner city school. … Our concerns had nothing to do with who was coming. It was just wanting to be clear that we had what we needed, that things are in place for us to accommodate the students that will be coming.”

Silenced by rezoning talk

While Pearl-Cohn, together with Hillwood High, has been among the schools discussed most frequently throughout rezoning talk, Pearl-Cohn Ninth-Grade Assistant Principal Tavis Massey does not believe that reflects community concern about the school.

From his conversations with those outside the school, he said he has gotten the feeling that plan detractors are more upset with how they perceive the process was carried out, rather than with zoning kids to Pearl-Cohn itself.

“It really didn’t have anything to do with us as a school,” Massey said. “A lot of people felt like their voice didn’t matter. … They are very proud of what the students have been able to achieve, what the community has been able to achieve.”

The student assignment plan was passed, in a five-to-four vote, by the Board of Education in July. The plan eliminates busing of students from noncontiguous school zones, and considers students in those areas as residents of “choice zones.”

For the Pearl-Cohn cluster, this means that kids living in several MetroCenter neighborhoods who have been transported to the more affluent Hillwood cluster will instead be zoned to Pearl-Cohn. Those students can, however, still opt to attend Hillwood.

While the change has a small impact on the demographic makeup of Pearl-Cohn, greater attention has been paid to the change that would be caused at Hillwood High.

The number of students at Hillwood would drop from 1,406 to 933, bringing the school down to 53.5 percent of its total capacity. The percentage of African-American students would decline from 49 to 24 percent, and the percentage of “economically disadvantaged” students would decline from 48 to 33 percent.

Success under NCLB

Pearl-Cohn moved into “good standing” under NCLB this year, after meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements for the last two years.

Opponents to the student assignment plan have cited the fact that there are more academic advanced placement courses at Hillwood than at Pearl-Cohn as a problem with the plan. But while Pearl-Cohn is in “Good Standing” under NCLB, Hillwood is in “Improving” status after reaching “Restructuring I” status under NCLB. That means Hillwood students have the legal right to choose a different school, and the “choice school” designated for those students is Pearl-Cohn.

Blanchard-Woods said the academic performance of Pearl-Cohn is something she is proud of. When she recently met Mayor Karl Dean, she said, she introduced herself as the principal of Pearl-Cohn, a school in “good standing.”

Blanchard-Woods has a ready list of school attributes to cite, when asked what the community at large does not know about Pearl-Cohn.

She cites the number of tutoring and scholarship programs available to Pearl-Cohn students, including the more than $80,000 in scholarship money brought in each year by the Jobs for Tennessee Graduates program, and the new tutors being made available by a recent grant obtained through the PENCIL Foundation.

Pearl-Cohn also benefits from a Family Resource Center, which includes Vanderbilt University’s Imagine College as well, Blanchard-Woods said.

The school’s band and athletics program are sources of pride, too. Blanchard-Woods highlighted successes ranging from the number of scholarships earned by Pearl-Cohn athletes [with the help of football coach Tony Brunetti, 15 kids earned football scholarships last year] to the quality of the locally well-known sports concession stand.

Pearl-Cohn, not unlike many Metro schools, is driven by teachers and volunteers who work hard. And Pearl-Cohn has access to an involved network of Pearl High alumni.

Pearl High was a school attended by many Nashville African-Americans during years of segregation. The name Pearl-Cohn is in homage to Pearl High, as well as to the old Cohn High, and Blanchard-Woods says the affiliation leads to high expectations, as well as a degree of involvement, from Pearl alumni.

“Many of them also support this school, and see this as a part of them,” Blanchard-Woods said.

Under capacity, but enrollment rising

Pearl-Cohn is among Metro’s schools currently under capacity. The school building has room for 892 students, and based on 2007 data from MNPS, the school has operated most recently at about 70 percent of its capacity.

The student assignment plan will, if it is implemented as the school board has approved, add students in the 2009-2010 school year. Blanchard-Woods said the school has grown on its own, in the meantime. Enrollment currently stands at about 675 students, up by about 50 kids since 2007.

Many Pearl-Cohn students opt in, through special transfers and the school’s business magnet program. Declines in the number of students at Pearl-Cohn, over the years, haven’t been related to kids opting out, Blanchard-Woods said.

“We’re only this size because we were zoned this way. This was through no making of our own,” Blanchard-Woods said.

Closure of two public housing communities — Preston Taylor and John Henry Hale — each had the effect of decreasing the number of students at the school. The reopening of Preston Taylor brought about an increase in students, and administrators expect increases to continue as John Henry Hale reopens.

But according to Blanchard-Woods, the school is struggling to recover from the setback caused by resources being reduced, after being moved into “Good Standing.”

Under NCLB, schools that fail AYP benchmarks have access to more federal dollars than other schools. Losing the resources that helped the school achieve “Good Standing” status is a big problem, Blanchard-Woods said.

“In less than 24 hours [of learning of the schools move to “Good Standing” status], I was getting phone calls of things we were losing,” Blanchard-Woods said. “You get the resources to help you get there, then all of a sudden, it’s snatched out from under you.”

If the new student assignment plan is implemented, the school stands to receive millions more in additional resources, including funds for lower-than-district-average ratios of students to teachers and guidance counselors. Those resources would not entirely make up for what has been lost after the move into “Good Standing,” Blanchard-Woods said.

The school is working hard to overcome this obstacle, Blanchard-Woods said, as well as to prepare for the flow of students who could arrive in 2009. In the meantime, administrators are working to sustain the current track of school improvement by cultivating a “family atmosphere” at the school, Blanchard-Woods said.

“Relationships are No. 1,” Blanchard-Woods said. “People want to be here.”