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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.

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Speaker 1: We continue now with part two of our conversation with

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Speaker 1: Chris Brewster right after these brief messages from our general sponsors,

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Speaker 1: Haven't I read something that you've said that I don't know?

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Speaker 1: Almost two thirds of kids in Oklahoma don't read on

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Speaker 1: grade level by fourth grade. If I mess that up correctly.

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Speaker 2: We've got seventy according to the NAPE, seventy six percent

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Speaker 2: of kids the national three quarters. Yeah, three quarters are

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Speaker 2: not reading at grade level in our fourth grade. Well ever,

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Speaker 2: but by third grade, yeah, even through the course of.

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Speaker 1: Well, then that would indicate that seventy five percent of

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Speaker 1: kids in Oklahoma City are then two thirds more likely

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Speaker 1: to not have a job and not be productive citizens.

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Speaker 3: Worse than that, because it's.

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Speaker 1: Worse than that that we're talking about two thirds of

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Speaker 1: seventy five percent of your population.

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Speaker 3: In the state.

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Speaker 2: So that includes the affluent, high performing districts. When you

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Speaker 2: concentrate that data in the earth environment, that's correct.

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Speaker 3: That's correct.

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Speaker 4: So it's worse, it's worse.

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Speaker 2: So a small example, there was a school being shut

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Speaker 2: down by a local district. It had proficiency rates in

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Speaker 2: reading at two percent when they were going to shut

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Speaker 2: it down two percent. Ninety eight percent of the kids

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Speaker 2: were not proficient in this elementary school. I mean, it's

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Speaker 2: just so virtually none of the kids in the entire school.

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Speaker 2: So the community.

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Speaker 3: Case, it's not a school, it's not school.

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Speaker 4: They're not teaching anything.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's and we could talk about this, but

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Speaker 2: it's the only institution that we pour billions into but

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Speaker 2: have zero accountability for the one thing we actually pay

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Speaker 2: what's the one thing we pay taxes for in public

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Speaker 2: education to teach your kids for the public to be educated, right,

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Speaker 2: which is a measurable outcome, Right, you can actually measure this,

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Speaker 2: but we don't do that, but we put billions in.

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Speaker 2: Some of our highest paid public servants are superintendents in

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Speaker 2: school districts that have some of the lowest outcomes because

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Speaker 2: we don't hire people to have academic outcomes. We hire managers,

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Speaker 2: people to manage to kind of keep the fights down

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Speaker 2: or hopefully have a good football team or whatever we need.

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Speaker 2: But we're not producing educated.

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Speaker 4: Let's not get sued.

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Speaker 3: No, no, that's exactly right.

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Speaker 4: Let's protect our backs.

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Speaker 2: Well, have you ever heard in your state or others

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Speaker 2: of a public school superintendent being fired because of academic outcomes.

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Speaker 1: I have heard of them being fired all the time

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Speaker 1: by elected boards yep. Based on political crop yep. I

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Speaker 1: don't think I can ever think of one that's been

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Speaker 1: fired because kids weren't doing well.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the number one thing we should be held

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Speaker 2: accountable for superintendents are the academic outcomes of children reserve.

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Speaker 3: That's really the only thing.

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Speaker 2: And yet we don't hold our chief executive officers in

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Speaker 2: our public school systems accountable for that role.

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Speaker 3: It's amazing.

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Speaker 2: They can get fired for fiscal malfeasans or embarrassing the public,

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Speaker 2: or even poor athletic programs.

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Speaker 1: They can also get fired for you know, if a

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Speaker 1: twenty six dollars lunch receipt.

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Speaker 3: Didn't turned down, Yeah, that kind of still enough.

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Speaker 1: A twenty six dollars lunch receipt didn't turn down. Yeah, meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: a thousand kids in their district can't read it cannot read.

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Speaker 1: But the lunch receipt, Now that's something we need to

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Speaker 1: be worried about.

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Speaker 2: And so you hire managers, and they hire managers to

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Speaker 2: manage buildings, and they hire managers to manage classrooms. But

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Speaker 2: this isn't a pedagogical skill set issue. And so unless

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Speaker 2: we're really requiring people to be skilled and held accountable

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Speaker 2: for the outcomes in their classrooms, in their buildings and

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Speaker 2: their districts, we're going to get exactly what we keep getting.

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Speaker 1: All right, So you've had it after six years and

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Speaker 1: you bolt and I think you're going to become a

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Speaker 1: minister now?

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Speaker 4: Or what's your wife's name?

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Speaker 3: Christy?

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Speaker 1: All right, you must be like up to this point, Christy,

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Speaker 1: this is dripping crazy.

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Speaker 3: What does she do? Well?

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Speaker 2: She's been my partner in crime through everything. So she's

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Speaker 2: worked with me in church ministry. She's my accompanist in

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Speaker 2: the choirs I'm teaching. Yeah, because I wasn't the real

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Speaker 2: musician she was. She has her master's in performance. I

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Speaker 2: was just a hacke. So I'm up there a way

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Speaker 2: in my arm. She's really the skilled musician. She makes

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Speaker 2: it where I can keep my job basically, So what is.

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Speaker 1: She doing while you're teachings, raising our kids?

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Speaker 3: Volunteers?

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Speaker 1: So you have to be coming home? So this has

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Speaker 1: to evolve over six years. Were toward the end she's

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Speaker 1: even saying to you, you're miserable, do something else.

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Speaker 2: I think I think she's more like, you know, you

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Speaker 2: keep running your mouth about this stuff. You should just

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Speaker 2: She's more like, kind of suck it up, princess, get

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Speaker 2: to work.

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Speaker 3: I mean she's a little bit she's very supportive work.

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Speaker 2: I mean she's not all about the feels right. When

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Speaker 2: we got work to do, right, we've loved this is

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Speaker 2: the work you've chosen. I'm with you in this. We

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Speaker 2: don't have any money, but this is this is the goal, right.

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Speaker 2: We're working with kids. We love kids. And she's always

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Speaker 2: been my partner in crime. We started dating when she

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Speaker 2: was sixteen and I was seventeen, so we've been married

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Speaker 2: first in the Pines and the Philippines missionary kids. She's

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Speaker 2: a missionary kid too. Okay wow, And so we're in

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Speaker 2: it through thick and thin. But I said, I think

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Speaker 2: I think I got to get out do something, sell insurance,

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Speaker 2: be youth passed or something. And she said, okay, well,

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Speaker 2: let's pray about it, which meant she needed me to

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Speaker 2: think about it a little bit more. And I talked

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Speaker 2: to my principal and he said, well, you should go

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Speaker 2: back and get your administrative degree. I'm like, or what

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Speaker 2: he said, to become a principal. I said, well, your

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Speaker 2: job sucks. Why would I want to be a principal?

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Speaker 2: He goes, well you should, you should go get your degree.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, that would be it.

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Speaker 3: That's an awful idea.

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Speaker 2: But he was my mentor and doctor Raoul font so

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Speaker 2: I listened. I listened and went back to University of

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Speaker 2: Oklahoma and I began to study to get my administrative degree,

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Speaker 2: and I focused on school reform, and appropriately, I just thought, well,

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Speaker 2: if I'm here, I might as well read about some

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Speaker 2: school reform. And what I found was, much to my chagrin,

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Speaker 2: is that there were places around the country where there

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Speaker 2: were some real bright spots. There were things happening with

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Speaker 2: populations like ours that were exceptional.

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Speaker 3: Kids were learning where I mean, do you remember there

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Speaker 3: were places in Memphis that we're starting.

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Speaker 2: To see some results, Like I didn't even know where

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Speaker 2: Memphis was really at that point, right. We looked at

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Speaker 2: in some places in California, in Texas and New York

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Speaker 2: like these little bright spots, like how are they taking

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Speaker 2: this radically impoverished community mostly black and brown kids English

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Speaker 2: language learners and having academic outcomes?

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Speaker 3: What what is the secret sauce here? Like? What's going on?

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Speaker 2: We began to sort of unpack what really was taking

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Speaker 2: place in those and I thought, well, if it's happening

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Speaker 2: somewhere else, maybe we were obligated now to see that

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Speaker 2: it happens in our city. So that the shift in

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Speaker 2: my mentality was like, to me, it was God saying, look,

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Speaker 2: look there are places where it is this. There is

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Speaker 2: hope in this work, so you just need to learn

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Speaker 2: how to do it. We began to think differently about that,

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Speaker 2: and then yeah, the sort of ironic thing was as

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Speaker 2: I as I finished my coursework, my first administrative post

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Speaker 2: was Deer Creek High School in Edmund, Oklahoma, and so

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Speaker 2: it was about seventeen eighteen minutes away on the highway

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Speaker 2: from Capitol Hill, and Capitol Hill was ninety eight percent

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Speaker 2: pre and reduced Lunch qualified ninety eight percent poverty and Deer.

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Speaker 3: Creek was two percent. Wow.

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Speaker 2: The soccer team I coached at Deer Creek or at

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Speaker 2: Capitol Hill had one white kid on the team, and

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Speaker 2: we were very good because this culture valued soccer, so

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Speaker 2: we were pretty good. And with the Deer Creek we're

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Speaker 2: at one Hispanic kid on the team and they valued football.

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Speaker 2: They were two A state champions the next year. But

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Speaker 2: our soccer team was just it was not good. And

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Speaker 2: a parking lot full of mostly beater cars and those

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Speaker 2: were the teacher cars to a parking lot full of

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Speaker 2: BMW's and and land Rovers and those were the kids cars.

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Speaker 2: And I'm like, fifteen miles apart, what what You're not

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Speaker 2: in Kansas And well fifteen minutes apart about twenty two

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Speaker 2: miles away.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so but not two separate universes literally.

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Speaker 2: Same Maria code right across what And I was just just,

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Speaker 2: I mean, it was jarring how radically different it was

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Speaker 2: to be born in this community versus this community.

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Speaker 1: Okay, next, pontification. I say it every day everybody who

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Speaker 1: will listen. The zip code at the time of your

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Speaker 1: birth should not predetermine your ability to succeed in our country.

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Speaker 3: But it does.

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Speaker 2: It does because the systems are embedded in those zip

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Speaker 2: codes that sort of maintain those cycles we're talking about,

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Speaker 2: maintaining the cycle of affluence and opportunity, or the cycles

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Speaker 2: of poverty and all kinds of social scess.

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Speaker 1: Truth, and we need to look ourselves in the mirror

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Speaker 1: and realize so much of what we have in this

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Speaker 1: country and the world is luck of.

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Speaker 2: The drawing we didn't earn it either way, right when

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Speaker 2: we're born into it. And again, this was that thing

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Speaker 2: that just continue to be churned in me, that the.

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Speaker 1: Way that eats people up when you hear that, though,

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Speaker 1: And honestly, let me tell you something.

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Speaker 4: My mom was married and divorced five times.

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Speaker 1: I worked hard to get over some of that trauma

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Speaker 1: and get through college, and I started a business with

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Speaker 1: seventeen thousand dollars that now employees one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: two people and we do business in forty two countries.

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Speaker 4: I worked hard, and I earned that.

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Speaker 1: I did not earn the access I had to capital

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Speaker 1: to start that business. I did not earn the access

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Speaker 1: I had to scholarships to go to college. Those things

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Speaker 1: I didn't earn. So when someone says, well, you didn't

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Speaker 1: earn that as a result of a result of your privilege,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't mean everything you have in the world is

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Speaker 1: just handed to and you're lucky, and we need to

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Speaker 1: quit being so self conscious over that concept. But it

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Speaker 1: also means the kids whose luck of the draw at

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Speaker 1: the time of their birth of the zip, they didn't

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Speaker 1: earn the crap that they're surrounded with, like the ticking

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Speaker 1: fan and everybody needs to drop this weird reaction to

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Speaker 1: the truth of privilege and just look at things for

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Speaker 1: what they are and understand them and quit taking them

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Speaker 1: so damn personally.

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Speaker 2: I don't understand why it's even an issue. Why don't

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Speaker 2: either if we can help kids, why don't we want

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Speaker 2: to help kids.

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Speaker 1: And why and to understand how kids are where they

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Speaker 1: are and why we need to help kids. We have

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Speaker 1: to be honest with ourselves about privilege and earn and

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Speaker 1: zip codes and births and reading levels at third grade

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Speaker 1: and just drop all these preconceived notions that we like

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Speaker 1: like plan ourselves into it.

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Speaker 4: It's destructive to our society.

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Speaker 2: The whole society. It hurts us as well, it hurts everybody.

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Speaker 2: It's a worse place for my kids to grow up.

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Speaker 2: I've got nine kids, there are four biological and five adopted.

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Speaker 3: You're nuts, well, you are insane, and your wife is

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Speaker 3: a warrior. She's a wonder woman. Actually that's her other gig.

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Speaker 2: But the difference in what each one of those kids

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Speaker 2: needs to be successful is right in my face. So

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Speaker 2: they're all, as you can imagine, very very different. So

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Speaker 2: at the micro causm I know I have to do

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Speaker 2: something different for each of our children so they can

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Speaker 2: have success.

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Speaker 4: I thought you said you were a Baptist. You're a

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Speaker 4: Catholic up.

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Speaker 3: In a Catholic country. We didn't just kidding, We didn't.

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Speaker 3: We didn't mean to adopt five. We were open to adoption.

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Speaker 2: Then the first adoption was the Siling set of three,

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Speaker 2: and then birth mom had two more and we adopted those.

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Speaker 3: So it it's phenomenal.

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Speaker 1: That's a whole another story. Okay, so you're at deer

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Speaker 1: what's it called.

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Speaker 3: Deer Creek Deer Creek super athlete.

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Speaker 4: That the juxtaposition is just smoking you in the face.

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Speaker 2: And I said, well, I mean I loved it. The

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Speaker 2: district was amazing. I mean, uh it was. It was

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Speaker 2: while before the first home football game. One of the

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Speaker 2: the Booster Cubs called members called me and said, hey, coach,

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Speaker 2: what do you want for What do you want for

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Speaker 2: your your pregame meal? How do you want your steak cooked?

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Speaker 2: I'm like, what are you talking about? Well, we cooked

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Speaker 2: steak for the kids before.

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Speaker 3: The home games. What are you talking about? I mean

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Speaker 3: sometimes we.

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Speaker 2: Give a bag of burgers from McDonald's and feed them

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Speaker 2: some you know, Chief pizza or something. But they were

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Speaker 2: custom slicing steaks for their football team before the home games.

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Speaker 2: I want to know how I wanted mine cooked. And

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Speaker 2: in that moment, I thought, man, this is just another

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Speaker 2: one of those infinite examples of complete differences in how

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Speaker 2: we're approaching the rearing of children in our society. These

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Speaker 2: kids are incredible kids. They were kind, they worked hard,

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Speaker 2: they were great athletes. But so were the kids at

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Speaker 2: Capitol Hill. But there was nobody calling me up before

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Speaker 2: the soccer game saying, how do you want your steak cooked?

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Speaker 2: It was nobody in the stands, right, it was.

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Speaker 1: And I guarantee you there's no kid being hit with

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Speaker 1: by brick in the back of his head laying in

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Speaker 1: a pull of book street outside that school with folks

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Speaker 1: rolling up and taking them off.

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Speaker 4: In a car.

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Speaker 2: And if it had happened, it would have been national

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Speaker 2: news in that neighborhood.

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Speaker 3: That's right. It's a good point, a beautiful point.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, every one of the news stations would have been

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Speaker 2: there talking about this tragedy at Deer Creek or outside

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Speaker 2: of derri Creek, and nothing in South ok See. So

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Speaker 2: I had lots of those experiences where I just was

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Speaker 2: reminded of this completely obvious disconnect between how we reared

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Speaker 2: children in this community versus how they were being supported

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Speaker 2: in this community. So I got this weird phone call,

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Speaker 2: and this the late winter of two thousand and one

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Speaker 2: from somebody. I thought it was a network marketing scheme.

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Speaker 2: You know you get those calls from your friends, said

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Speaker 2: to call you and okay, and he said, I want

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Speaker 2: to talk to you about an opportunity to start a

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Speaker 2: school in South ok See. And this was a Jose

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Speaker 2: Gomes and Joe Gomez had founded an organization called Oro

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Speaker 2: Development Corporation and basically with a nonprofit that had been

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Speaker 2: around serving migrant farm worker populations as they migrated through

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Speaker 2: the central part of the US. And his heart had

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Speaker 2: been he was Hispanic, had grown up, he was US

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Speaker 2: military vet, and had said, we need to take care

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Speaker 2: of the community. Just a remarkable, just quiet servant, deep

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Speaker 2: man of faith who had built this small nonprofit just

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Speaker 2: serving people who were underserved. And he had seen some

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Speaker 2: sister nonprofits in Arizonna, in Texas and places starting these

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Speaker 2: things called charter schools to serve that same population, and

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Speaker 2: so he thought, well, let's start a charter school.

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Speaker 3: I could not remember what a charter school was had

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Speaker 3: no idea.

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Speaker 2: I had to go back and look at whatever chapter

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Speaker 2: that was in my graduate textbook that talked about what

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Speaker 2: charter schools were, because in ninety nine Oklahoma started.

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Speaker 3: Its first charter school.

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Speaker 2: I had it first charter school law on the books,

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Speaker 2: but it was two thousand when the first charter school opened,

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Speaker 2: so this was brand new.

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Speaker 3: This was two thousand and one.

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Speaker 2: Went down and sat with he and a couple other

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Speaker 2: members of the community in a storefront. The weirdest job

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Speaker 2: interview I've ever had. It ended in, you know, handholding

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Speaker 2: in prayers. These people were Pentecostals on a Southern Baptist

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Speaker 2: I didn't know what was going on. My arms were

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Speaker 2: being raised and people were praying out loud. I don't

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Speaker 2: know if it was Spanish or in tongues. I'm like,

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Speaker 2: what is going on here? This is the strangest job

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Speaker 2: interview ever ever had in my life. And Christy, my wife, said, well,

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Speaker 2: how did it go? I was like, I have no idea.

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Speaker 2: I have no idea what just happened. I'm excited because

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Speaker 2: they're talking about serving kids in South o k See,

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Speaker 2: but I don't have any idea what this looks like. Well,

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Speaker 2: I went back a couple of bits he had. Joe

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Speaker 2: had been trying to find somebody to lead a school.

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Speaker 2: He wasn't an educator. I had no idea, but he

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Speaker 2: wanted somebody who knew education. What I found out later

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Speaker 2: is I was about fourth on the list and the

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Speaker 2: other three had said no, thank you, we're not interested.

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Speaker 2: So I was like not JV. I was like the

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Speaker 2: bench on the ninth grade team. I was not even

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Speaker 2: I was barely a name on the list when he

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Speaker 2: called me in. So I was just the only one

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Speaker 2: that said yes at that point, and crazy, though crazy

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Speaker 2: well ignorant.

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Speaker 1: I think one of the three above you were probably

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Speaker 1: chased off by the by the talking and tongues, the

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Speaker 1: pentacle maybe.

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Speaker 4: But it's like, I can't work with these people.

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Speaker 2: They were all three actual educators who knew what they

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Speaker 2: were doing too, So I think they said, there's just

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Speaker 2: no way for this to This can't succeed.

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Speaker 3: You have any students, no, do you have any money? No?

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Speaker 3: Do you have the charter written? No?

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Speaker 2: Well we're just not thinking that's a good professional move

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Speaker 2: for us.

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Speaker 4: And this business plan as a whole, there's no.

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Speaker 3: There was no business plan. There was no business plan.

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Speaker 3: There was nothing. The business plan is all yeah.

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Speaker 2: It was like, here, we want to start a school.

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Speaker 2: Will you start a school? That was the whole conversation.

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Speaker 3: We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2: I go back to Christian and she goes, well, I said,

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Speaker 2: I think we're supposed to start a school in South

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Speaker 2: Okay see.

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Speaker 3: And I was thinking in the back of my mind

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Speaker 3: she because the interview was so convincing.

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Speaker 2: Because I honestly felt like she was going to speak truth. Right,

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Speaker 2: She's like Holy Spirit Junior in my life, and she's

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Speaker 2: the one that's in Holy pumped the brakes a little

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Speaker 2: bit there, boy, we need to slow this down and.

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Speaker 4: Go back and tell them what kind of stake you want?

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Speaker 4: Next week?

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Speaker 3: Well exactly.

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Speaker 2: So I'm in Deer Creek and I've got this, I

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Speaker 2: mean the pathway, and we think about this, we pray

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Speaker 2: about this, and my superintendent comes to me a couple

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Speaker 2: weeks later and she said, I want to talk to

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Speaker 2: you about next year and she starts to lay out

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Speaker 2: that there's an administrative role that's coming open and she'd

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Speaker 2: liked me to think about it. And I mean, I'm

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Speaker 2: thirty two at this point. This is looking pretty good

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Speaker 2: on paper. And I said, well, doctor Flood, Well, I

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Speaker 2: think what I'm gonna do next year is started charter

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Speaker 2: school in South Oklahoma City. And she kind of cocked

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Speaker 2: her head and looked at me and said, well, what

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Speaker 2: do you think about it?

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Speaker 3: A couple weeks and come back and tell me.

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Speaker 2: And I went home and I said, well, this is

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Speaker 2: getting really real right now, because this is our professional career.

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Speaker 2: Christy was stay at home mom raising our two littles.

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Speaker 2: We were living on an educator income. There's not much

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Speaker 2: margin there at all. And we thought about this, and

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Speaker 2: I honestly thought Christy would say, no, this is really

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Speaker 2: not the right timing, and she's basically she says, you've

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Speaker 2: been running your mouth about this for years, like basically

380
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Speaker 2: if put up for shop is exactly what it was.

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Speaker 2: And so we we did pray about we thought about it,

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Speaker 2: but again mostly mostly ignorance and hubris and trying to think, yeah,

383
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Speaker 2: we can do this thing.

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Speaker 3: No all started by business.

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Speaker 1: Squear to you, it was ignorance and hubris and a

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Speaker 1: little bit of faith.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and the willingness to.

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Speaker 2: Work, yeah yeah, work was Yeah. I worked hard before,

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Speaker 2: but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

390
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Speaker 2: So so we decided to start a charter school.

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Speaker 3: Didn't know what we were doing.

392
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Speaker 2: We wrote a charter that was a few pages in

393
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Speaker 2: linked It was kind of the wild West and charter

394
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Speaker 2: schools in Oklahoma. Like, sure, you can start a school,

395
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Speaker 2: and you can start a school, and you can start

396
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Speaker 2: a school. And I went back to doctor twid Well

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Speaker 2: two weeks later and said, I think I'm supposed to

398
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Speaker 2: start this school and she goes, well, let me get

399
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Speaker 2: this straight. From what you've told me, you want to

400
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:08,560
Speaker 2: start a school doesn't exist with students. You haven't enrolled

401
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Speaker 2: in teachers, you haven't hired.

402
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Speaker 3: In a building that you don't know where it is.

403
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Speaker 2: We didn't have a building, we didn't have curriculum, we

404
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:16,800
Speaker 2: didn't have furniture to anything. So when you put it

405
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:18,720
Speaker 2: that way, it doesn't sound like a great business plan.

406
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,239
Speaker 2: But yes, ma'am, I think that's what we're going to do.

407
00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:24,320
Speaker 2: And it was that. I think it's one of those

408
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Speaker 2: weird moments where you just you don't have a choice.

409
00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:28,760
Speaker 2: You just you're in it now, so you got to

410
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Speaker 2: go do the You got to go do the work.

411
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Speaker 2: Starting business is very very similar. You want to eat,

412
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Speaker 2: You're going to go to work and so we started

413
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,240
Speaker 2: this crazy idea to start a charter school, and it

414
00:20:40,359 --> 00:20:44,639
Speaker 2: was wild really honestly, no reason it should have succeeded

415
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Speaker 2: in opening, much less succeeded in opening.

416
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Speaker 3: Now twenty five years later, it's it's okay.

417
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Speaker 1: School now before we go forward is a good time

418
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Speaker 1: to help people. I think people by now and this

419
00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:01,240
Speaker 1: year have heard the world charter school. Yeah right. I

420
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,480
Speaker 1: don't think most people understand how charter schools are funded,

421
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:11,199
Speaker 1: because our view is still in district public schools. If

422
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Speaker 1: you live in an area, you go to the school,

423
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Speaker 1: and you can have busing, and you can have food

424
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Speaker 1: if you're fall below privaty level, and how kind of

425
00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:21,640
Speaker 1: in general, how the public system is supposed to work.

426
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Speaker 1: And then you've got parochial and private schools which you

427
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:30,600
Speaker 1: pay your tuitions and are largely affelent and everything else.

428
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:33,800
Speaker 1: But then there's this thing called a charter school, and

429
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:38,520
Speaker 1: I don't think people really understand financially, how they exist,

430
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:43,080
Speaker 1: where the kids come from, how they get in. Could

431
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:48,800
Speaker 1: you explain just not specifically yours, but the overall view

432
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Speaker 1: of what a charter school is, whether it's in Oklahoma, Memphis,

433
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:53,480
Speaker 1: or LA.

434
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Speaker 2: So somewhere around nineteen ninety one, a group of teachers

435
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:01,720
Speaker 2: I think in Minneapolis actually said something like, all right,

436
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 2: district folk, if you just gave us the money you're

437
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 2: spending on a school, we could design a better school.

438
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:09,400
Speaker 2: Here's our charter, here's our contract for how we'd run

439
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,880
Speaker 2: a school. And there were some folks who were crazy

440
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 2: enough to say, all right, you educators, think you know

441
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:17,080
Speaker 2: what you're talking about, go run your school. And it

442
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 2: was this idea that if there's a need and a

443
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,560
Speaker 2: group of people that can respond to that need to

444
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:26,119
Speaker 2: fill a void in a community with public dollars to

445
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:30,119
Speaker 2: be used for public school students and open enrollment, that

446
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,240
Speaker 2: maybe there's some opportunity there. And from that sort of

447
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,800
Speaker 2: genesis we now have I think forty seven states with

448
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,439
Speaker 2: some type of charter school law on the book.

449
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:43,400
Speaker 4: So I think in the state of Tennessee. And this

450
00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:44,400
Speaker 4: may be dated.

451
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:48,159
Speaker 1: Alex may can figure it out, but I'm going to

452
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,639
Speaker 1: pick a number that's close. I think we spend about

453
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand dollars per kid in Shelby County schools. I'm

454
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:59,399
Speaker 1: pretty sure of it. Pretty close, Okay, So if I

455
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 1: can get a charter an agreement started charter school are

456
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,479
Speaker 1: you saying that for each kid that comes into my school,

457
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,719
Speaker 1: the state will give me fourteen thousand dollars, because that's

458
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,360
Speaker 1: what the average called. You see, I'm trying to understand

459
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: the financial.

460
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,560
Speaker 2: Okay, So the financial side of it basically is that,

461
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 2: I mean, you set up a nonprofit that will charter

462
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,560
Speaker 2: with a state authorized authorizer who say, here are your

463
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 2: state rules for running this public school.

464
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to meet the standard. There's a state qualification.

465
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:32,200
Speaker 3: My standard for it's non sectarian.

466
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 2: You've got to have a curriculum, you've got to be insured,

467
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 2: you've got to have strong financials, special ed a compliance

468
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 2: with all ada and all of the every rule. The

469
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 2: basic way to understand charter school is every rule that

470
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:47,159
Speaker 2: applies to children in a public school and a traditional

471
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:48,680
Speaker 2: public school applies to children in.

472
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 3: A charter school.

473
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 2: Every rule see time and Carnegie units and graduation.

474
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:54,160
Speaker 4: It's not a nonprofit.

475
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,600
Speaker 2: But the nonprofit then can turn and say, but the

476
00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 2: rules that apply to the adults. We've got some latitude there.

477
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 2: So there's no tenure. There's no union agreement in our school.

478
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:06,680
Speaker 2: I can pay teachers more or less. I can use

479
00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 2: non certified but highly qualified staff for example, a chemist

480
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 2: could come and work to teach chemistry for.

481
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 4: Me, even if he doesn't have his teacher certificate.

482
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 3: That's cruse.

483
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 1: You would have to have it a public school, that's correct,

484
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: which is a little crazy.

485
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:21,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a little crazy.

486
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 4: I'm looking in other conversation.

487
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 2: Highly qualified people who actually produce results.

488
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 1: God forbid, don't let me teaching economics one of one class.

489
00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,239
Speaker 4: As a guy who's been thirty three years in international.

490
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 3: Business, you might know a little bit about it.

491
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,119
Speaker 1: Let's have a twenty two year old who just graduated

492
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: from the University of Memphis to it instead because they

493
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:42,920
Speaker 1: have a certificate exactly. It's so charters could take advantage

494
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,880
Speaker 1: of that the money. How does does the state then

495
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 1: give a certain amount of money per student based on

496
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:50,719
Speaker 1: that ratio?

497
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 2: So most of the money that if the charter school

498
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,159
Speaker 2: were a public school, the same amount of money that

499
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,520
Speaker 2: would flow from local and federal sources will flow through

500
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 2: the entity into that school. Okay, but then that school,

501
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 2: their board will decide how it's how it's spent the

502
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,680
Speaker 2: charter school, the charter will so you'll decide with your your.

503
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:12,920
Speaker 4: So each charter school has its own board.

504
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,680
Speaker 1: That's correct, and so it's not a private school, no,

505
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: but it's removed from the district board and district superintendent

506
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,359
Speaker 1: because it has its own board and its own management.

507
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 4: Because it's a five to zho one C three.

508
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,199
Speaker 1: But the state makes a contract that says, but for

509
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: the kids that you take, we will fund money to

510
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:37,640
Speaker 1: you based on the same ratio that we fund money

511
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: to get some public schools.

512
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 2: That's right, So October one is my child count. I'll

513
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:43,720
Speaker 2: turn a number of students who are enrolled at Santa

514
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:46,800
Speaker 2: fe Soil schools to the state. We are funded on

515
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 2: that amount of school and the type amount of students

516
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,680
Speaker 2: and the type of students. So there's a waiting formula

517
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:56,240
Speaker 2: in every state that says, imparver's kids get this factor

518
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 2: times of state aid, A bilingual kid would have, this,

519
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 2: special ed kid would have this. So they calculate all

520
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:04,879
Speaker 2: this in each state and say this is the money

521
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:08,360
Speaker 2: that the public is spending to educate this child. Your

522
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 2: public charter school will now use that money to educate

523
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:12,280
Speaker 2: these children.

524
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: But because it's a five oh one C three, you

525
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 1: can then also take outside donation actly to build the school.

526
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 1: It almost is replacing the old school PTA and Boosterqlal.

527
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:27,159
Speaker 2: It's much, but it's actually more challenging because some of

528
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:29,760
Speaker 2: local sources you don't have an advantage of the number

529
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:31,600
Speaker 2: one thing we don't have. Now, there's two things that

530
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 2: charter schools are underfunded in. One is there's often an

531
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 2: administration's fee charged by the authorizer. In some states, that

532
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 2: might mean you only get eighty five percent of every dollar.

533
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 3: Well, that's interesting. It's retained by this group.

534
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:47,400
Speaker 2: So sometimes it's five percent, one percent, but sometimes it's

535
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:51,640
Speaker 2: a much less amount than that fourteen thousand you you quoted.

536
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 2: The other pieces that local funds which build.

537
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 4: A build with the caveat that, I don't know what

538
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:57,400
Speaker 4: I'm talking.

539
00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 5: About, but I think that's probably full of the number

540
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:04,359
Speaker 5: of bill it's ten nine. We could pontificate about education forever,

541
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:06,680
Speaker 5: but money is rarely the issue.

542
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 3: That's correct.

543
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 5: So the state of Utah is the best education state

544
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 5: in the country, and they theirs is less than Memphis.

545
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 5: Your money is not the problem. It is the fifth

546
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 5: in the public sphere of.

547
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,399
Speaker 1: I just want people to understand kind of how a

548
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 1: charter school is funded and operate.

549
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 3: So that's it.

550
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 2: So the big issue that we face is facilities and infrastructure.

551
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 2: So most districts will pass a bond and then levy

552
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 2: a local tax to repay the bond. So if you

553
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,359
Speaker 2: want to build a fine arts stadium, a new school,

554
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,439
Speaker 2: a football stadium, these are all paid for through a

555
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,439
Speaker 2: local bond initiative. Charter schools don't have any of that.

556
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 2: So facilities are very expensive. As you're aware to build

557
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 2: in your industry, you know how prices are going up.

558
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 2: If I need to open a classroom for a classroom

559
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 2: full of kids and it cost me three hundred bucks

560
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,120
Speaker 2: a square foot to build, I don't have any money.

561
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 3: To build those state backing going to stand backing.

562
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 2: So I have to be very creative and very lean

563
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 2: in my budgeting because all of my facilities costs come

564
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 2: out of my per pupil amount.

565
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:10,679
Speaker 1: Okay, well, so based on that, starting this charter school

566
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:11,880
Speaker 1: was absolutely ludicrous.

567
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:16,159
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, in fact nothing from my perspective, now, I

568
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:18,440
Speaker 2: would not have approved me. No way, did I have

569
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 2: any business And there's no way I would highly recommend

570
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:23,720
Speaker 2: I not be allowed to start a charter school for

571
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:26,199
Speaker 2: all those reasons. But you did, Yeah, we did. We

572
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 2: started with one hundred and twenty kids.

573
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 3: Where'd you get them?

574
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:33,360
Speaker 2: Well, here's what we saw, so I hired these teachers,

575
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:35,239
Speaker 2: sat them around at a table like this. We had

576
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 2: two cell phones and an office phone and a matrix

577
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 2: printer print out of names and phone numbers.

578
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:42,479
Speaker 3: And they said, what's this?

579
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 2: I said, well, these are all the incoming freshmen in

580
00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City public schools. So where did you get these numbers?

581
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 2: I said, that's not important.

582
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 3: We may have stolen.

583
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 2: We have friends in low places. They said, well, what

584
00:28:57,840 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 2: are we supposed to do with these? I said, well,

585
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 2: you call the numbers and you tell them about our school.

586
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 2: What do we tell them? I said, you tell them

587
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 2: anything you need to tell them, because if you don't

588
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 2: have students, you don't have a job.

589
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 3: And they're like, oh, okay, your teachers became recruiters. So

590
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,840
Speaker 3: we're on the phone like yeah we o. But no,

591
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 3: this was gonna be a great school, like we're gonna

592
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 3: have football. Yes, we're gonna have football, Yes at all

593
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 3: we're gonna.

594
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 2: I mean, we literally, coach, we did not know what

595
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 2: we were doing, Like, we did not know we're doing,

596
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,720
Speaker 2: but we cast this vision for a school that were

597
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 2: sort of forming in real time. Because we believed in kids,

598
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 2: we believed in opportunity. We believed in in our ability

599
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 2: that this was probably unfounded, but we believed in our

600
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,719
Speaker 2: ability to do better than than the local system despite

601
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 2: all of these things that we hadn't taken care of,

602
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 2: like fire coat issues in the building and ceiling tiles

603
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 2: and actual chairs and those types of things. So we're

604
00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 2: calling these parents and they begin to as symbol and enroll,

605
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 2: and we thought, well, look, they are such right parents.

606
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 3: They know exactly how good the school's going to be.

607
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 2: Well, I very quickly realized that that wasn't the equation

608
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 2: at all. That what they were doing is in their

609
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 2: minds saying, maybe this wet behind the ears, white kid

610
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 2: in a church basement with no experience, no equipment, no computers,

611
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 2: no textbooks, is a better option than the local high school.

612
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 3: Now can you imagine being.

613
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: That that would be a value judgment in and of

614
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:31,959
Speaker 1: itself is so incriminating on the local hospital.

615
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 2: It was horrifying to me that we were the best option.

616
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:39,920
Speaker 2: There's no way we could be the best. Looking back

617
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 2: on it, now, why would any parents say, my most

618
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 2: precious asset, my child is better served with this guy.

619
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 1: Because although it wasn't on the news, word gets around

620
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. When a kid's laying convulsing in the street

621
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 1: with blood coming down, they know what's going on.

622
00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 2: Everything about those institutions was bad for their children, everything

623
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:03,040
Speaker 2: about it. From the moment they walked in the door,

624
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 2: they knew they were in a bad place for all

625
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 2: of the reasons, physically, emotionally, mentally. They just were not stay.

626
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 2: But parents didn't have You know, we have choices, right

627
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,960
Speaker 2: if we can move to a district that we choose,

628
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 2: if we can private school, if we can homeschool, we

629
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 2: have choice. So affluent, mostly white people have choice. Impoverish

630
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 2: communities have no choice. So charter schools are about choice,

631
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 2: giving the power of the public institution back to the

632
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 2: public and from the institution. So right now in these

633
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:39,640
Speaker 2: inner cities, the institution maintains all the power. There's no

634
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 2: reason to improve because you don't have to. You open

635
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,240
Speaker 2: the doors and your zip code has assigned the students

636
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 2: who will come in the door.

637
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 1: And there's very little accountability to the actual education.

638
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 2: Could you run a business if there was no competition

639
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 2: and you could set your own prices, and.

640
00:31:57,080 --> 00:32:00,920
Speaker 1: Yes, but could I run my business with that accountability?

641
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 3: I mean no, Look, people hear me.

642
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: Okay, I have coached kids that got advanced from one

643
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 1: grade to another because they had good attendance.

644
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:13,959
Speaker 3: That's not uncommon, it's very common.

645
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 1: That is sick. We'll be right back. So anyway, we

646
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: got to get to it. You start this school that's

647
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: shouldn't even be a school with a bunch of people

648
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 1: that are passionate, but honestly theophytes as it pertains to

649
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 1: running a school and.

650
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 4: In a church basement, and.

651
00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 3: Kids showed up.

652
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 2: We had a waiting list the first class, and I

653
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 2: I mean for the first twenty two years, we never

654
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,120
Speaker 2: even recruited a kid.

655
00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 3: It was a word, never did it.

656
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:07,920
Speaker 2: We grew every year from that first class of one

657
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty kids, seven teachers, to now we serve

658
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 2: five thousand kids, six hundred and fifty employees, a budget

659
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:17,280
Speaker 2: of about half a million the first year to fifty

660
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 2: two million this year just.

661
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,040
Speaker 4: For a second in one facility.

662
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 3: No, it's all over the place. We have schools in.

663
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 2: Former grocery stores, former malls, former armory, former private school

664
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 2: that didn't want to be in the South Side anymore.

665
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 2: We'll put a school in just about any facility I

666
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 2: can bring up to.

667
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 4: What ages are we talking?

668
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 3: So now we serve pre K through twelfth grade.

669
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, we did everything so my daddy would

670
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 2: say bass ackwards, trying to get it sorted out. When

671
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 2: kids came in the door as ninth graders, I quickly

672
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 2: realized they're five years behind.

673
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 1: They remember the third grade reading proficiency thing. You're catching

674
00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: them all right.

675
00:33:57,920 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 2: And now we have this thing called end of instruction

676
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 2: that we're starting to come in some good accountability. But

677
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 2: I realized I have four years to make nine years

678
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,719
Speaker 2: growth with kids who are already their trajectories downward academically,

679
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:10,320
Speaker 2: not upward.

680
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 3: I can't do this. There's no there's no We're good,

681
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 3: but we ain't that good.

682
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 1: You can pull them out of the river, but eventually

683
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: you got to go up river and find out why

684
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 1: they're getting in the river.

685
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 2: And I got to start in middle school, right, we

686
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 2: got to get up river. So we open a middle school.

687
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:29,440
Speaker 2: There're three years behind the I'm a little slow here,

688
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,399
Speaker 2: so if we get them out of the delivery room

689
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,719
Speaker 2: into the classroom before they go back. But even I mean,

690
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 2: you know as well as I do. In under resource communities,

691
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:41,359
Speaker 2: children aren't school ready. Even in pre K.

692
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 3: They walk in.

693
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:47,879
Speaker 1: Before they start beddimb stories are sung lullabas and they

694
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 1: just haven't.

695
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 3: Developed because mom is working three jobs.

696
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 4: I'm not, I'm not, I mean abody fact, it's the fact.

697
00:34:56,280 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 2: And so we built it backwards until we're finding we're

698
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,800
Speaker 2: finally very good at what we do because we've learned

699
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 2: over the years, and now we start school's early childhood

700
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:08,879
Speaker 2: pre KK in one and then build them at grade

701
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 2: level at a time. We're building feeder patterns now into

702
00:35:12,239 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 2: our was one charter school and now we're a charter

703
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 2: school district. We're a pretty sizable district.

704
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:20,800
Speaker 4: You're serving five thousand kids.

705
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, this year.

706
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 4: Do you still have a waiting list in various grades?

707
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:28,200
Speaker 2: We do so, like a pre K sixth grade, ninth

708
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:30,879
Speaker 2: grade where they're sort of moving into another school grade

709
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:31,799
Speaker 2: level configuration.

710
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:32,960
Speaker 3: We have waiting lists.

711
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:35,359
Speaker 1: When you catch them in sixth grade. In ninth grade,

712
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: are you still catching kids that are way behind again? So,

713
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:42,200
Speaker 1: do you have transitional programs to get kids caught up?

714
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 2: It's extremely hard work to catch kids up who haven't

715
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,000
Speaker 2: been in our system already. But we do a lot

716
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 2: of direct instruction, a lot of tutoring programs, a lot

717
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 2: of associated assistance for kids to catch back up, and

718
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 2: still sometimes we don't make it.

719
00:35:55,920 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 1: And everybody needs to remember this is a choice these

720
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: kids and families are making to come to.

721
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 3: These charter schools.

722
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:10,720
Speaker 1: This is a choice they're making to try to get

723
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:15,319
Speaker 1: a better opportunity for themselves and their children. This is, again,

724
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say the word again, a choice, a cognitive choice.

725
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 1: So when you look at these impoverished areas and you

726
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 1: shake your head, they're like, do they not even care?

727
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:27,960
Speaker 3: Hell?

728
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 4: Yeah, they care.

729
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 1: They love their kids just like everybody else loves their kids.

730
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 1: But absent choice, what can they do? Stuck in a system.

731
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 1: And what your place is given is a choice, a determination,

732
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: and opportunity. And in twenty years you've gone from one

733
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:52,200
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty to five thousand. Now it's time for

734
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:57,840
Speaker 1: the data points give us a comparative analysis on what

735
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 1: your schools have been able to do for its students

736
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 1: first their peers in the public schools.

737
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:10,240
Speaker 2: So the early sort of indications of success were graduation rates, attendance.

738
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:11,920
Speaker 4: Rates, early like first five six years.

739
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, just kids who stayed in school, right, ironically, as

740
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 2: we kept kids in school who were less likely to

741
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 2: stay in school, your ACT scores don't go up initially

742
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 2: because those are the kids that would bring down your

743
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 2: ACT scores. So graduation rates going up. Being able to

744
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:29,759
Speaker 2: get kids into community college, into career certifications, into the

745
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 2: military increased significantly, but we were still and still are

746
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 2: not cracking. In one of our high schools that overall

747
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 2: sort of college admission north star of a twenty five

748
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:40,520
Speaker 2: one and act that.

749
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:42,959
Speaker 4: We want, you want to average twenty five.

750
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 2: We want to get to twenty five for our kids

751
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 2: when they get out. Twenty two would be admission to

752
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 2: most schools. Twenty five would be our highest goal for

753
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,320
Speaker 2: our kids in our schools. One of our high schools,

754
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:57,480
Speaker 2: the Pathway's middle college model, is really an interesting model again,

755
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 2: open enrollment embedded in a local community college schl the

756
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:07,360
Speaker 2: Okohoma City Community College, and kids there begin their college

757
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,680
Speaker 2: coursework the second semester of their sophomore year in high school.

758
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 2: There's about four hundred and fifty kids in that nine

759
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:17,880
Speaker 2: through twelfth grade school. Now, last year, my senior class

760
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,840
Speaker 2: from that high school, eighty six percent of the kids

761
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,160
Speaker 2: got their first college degree two weeks before they got

762
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 2: their high school diploma.

763
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 3: Are you hearing all those Bill remind you of something

764
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 3: that is It's one of.

765
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:32,680
Speaker 1: The most is the name of the school I coached

766
00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:33,879
Speaker 1: high school football.

767
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 3: Middle college, college.

768
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:37,560
Speaker 4: There you go, that's the name of the school.

769
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 3: So you know this work right.

770
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 2: If you give kids opportunity and supports, it's remarkable what

771
00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:44,239
Speaker 2: they can do.

772
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:46,280
Speaker 4: It's freaking phenomenal.

773
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 2: These are normal kids. We have no admission test. Now

774
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:52,640
Speaker 2: they know what they're getting into, and they when they

775
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 2: go to this high school, they're on a college campus.

776
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 2: These fifteen year old will be going downstairs to the

777
00:38:58,080 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 2: college classes.

778
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 3: They'll get college supports. They also get us right in

779
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:03,520
Speaker 3: the middle of their work because they're not eighteen yet.

780
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:04,400
Speaker 3: There's nothing private.

781
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 2: We know if you go to class or if you

782
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 2: do your homework, and we're paying for all tuition, fees

783
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 2: and books. There's no cost, there's no debt associated with that.

784
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:15,040
Speaker 2: Those parents have figured out this is the heck of

785
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:15,440
Speaker 2: a deal.

786
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:17,800
Speaker 4: That's biggest bargain in the United States.

787
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:22,000
Speaker 2: I mean, it's forty K worth of college education scholarship

788
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 2: handed to you. Was your first college diploma. I mean,

789
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,400
Speaker 2: you've got this in the bag. So that's really working

790
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:30,839
Speaker 2: well for a big chunk of our kids, our comprehensive

791
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:34,239
Speaker 2: high school has not quite reached those, but our elementary

792
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,640
Speaker 2: and middle schools are really starting to see the academic

793
00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:42,240
Speaker 2: results that we expect. So our three established elementary schools

794
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 2: and our two early childhood schools are performing in the

795
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,760
Speaker 2: top five to ten percent of the entire state now

796
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 2: with an inner city population that's normally in the bottom

797
00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:52,040
Speaker 2: five to ten percent.

798
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,080
Speaker 3: So it's completely switched to.

799
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 4: What's the demographics of your schools.

800
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,720
Speaker 2: So we're ninety seven percent free and reduced lunch poverty

801
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 2: level or below, ninety six percent Hispanic, fifty five percent

802
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 2: our English language learners, so first and second generation migrant population,

803
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 2: blue collar, just working class, but least likely to succeed

804
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 2: academically in the in the research. But we're seeing that

805
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,320
Speaker 2: flipped on its head in the work that our teachers

806
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:23,719
Speaker 2: are doing.

807
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to listen to a twelve hour podcast, I could.

808
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:33,880
Speaker 1: I have literally a thousand more questions that we're not

809
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 1: going to get to. When you watch this year's graduating

810
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:49,839
Speaker 1: class walk across that stage and you know that your

811
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 1: kids are going to have a shot, and you juxtaposed

812
00:40:55,040 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 1: that with the graduating ceremonies, you must have tended at

813
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: the Capitol was a Capitol.

814
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 3: Hill Capitol Hill High School. Yeah, how do you balance

815
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,439
Speaker 3: those too? That's interesting. I don't.

816
00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:12,960
Speaker 2: I don't look back a lot. I feel too much

817
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:16,439
Speaker 2: of a sense of urgency forward. I get that there's

818
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:18,120
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm always trying to think.

819
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 4: How do you allow yourself?

820
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:21,319
Speaker 3: I think what I do now, and I see our

821
00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:22,120
Speaker 3: graduating class.

822
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,400
Speaker 2: I'm an employer, going those are kids I want to

823
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:29,239
Speaker 2: hire into my organization. These are exceptional young people that

824
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 2: I want to work at Santa Fe South. So I'm

825
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 2: I'm now in that employer's position, trying to contend for

826
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:36,879
Speaker 2: these kids, and I don't think I would have.

827
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:38,800
Speaker 3: Been in that role.

828
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:43,600
Speaker 2: I was more grieving at the early graduations, like now,

829
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:44,760
Speaker 2: who's going to take care.

830
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 3: Of these killings? Right?

831
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 4: That's actually what I'm getting at.

832
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,920
Speaker 1: It really almost feels like you've gone from grief to celebration.

833
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:55,439
Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely like uncertainty about what's going to happen next.

834
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 2: For many of these kids too, I hope we can

835
00:41:58,000 --> 00:41:59,520
Speaker 2: get them back in the community because they're.

836
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:00,640
Speaker 3: Going off like rockets now.

837
00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:03,120
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we wanted to stay here, to work here,

838
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:05,279
Speaker 2: to build their businesses, here, to work for us here

839
00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:06,600
Speaker 2: and grower.

840
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:08,960
Speaker 4: Tax base, tax base economy.

841
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 3: And I want their kids in school.

842
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 2: A whole bunch of our kids now I'm probably a

843
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:17,839
Speaker 2: third of our student population our second gym.

844
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:20,320
Speaker 3: Now they're the kids of our graduates.

845
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 4: Awesome. Do you know that that the weirdest the world wild.

846
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:26,759
Speaker 1: I have three freshmen on the team that our coach

847
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:28,240
Speaker 1: today whose fathers I coached.

848
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:31,319
Speaker 3: You know, one of the things that you know we're

849
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 3: getting old.

850
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,360
Speaker 4: Now just means you and are old, old man.

851
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,759
Speaker 2: We're born in what sixty nine? Coach, So here's what

852
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,720
Speaker 2: I've seen. Now, I'll have this this uh, this parent

853
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 2: come in and say, coach, h this is this is

854
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:49,720
Speaker 2: my daughter and and she is so smart. She can

855
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:52,880
Speaker 2: count in Spanish and English. You know those are days and

856
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 2: weeks and months and Spanish and English and and she's

857
00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 2: going to do so I'm like, well, you didn't know

858
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:00,840
Speaker 2: that in high school, so you were already head of

859
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 2: the game. Brother, You were kind of dumb as dirt

860
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,560
Speaker 2: in high school. And the I tease them, but they

861
00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 2: are so much better parents now than their parents were

862
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,799
Speaker 2: about supporting the academic process. So their children are going

863
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 2: much further than we ever anticipated. I didn't think the

864
00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:22,640
Speaker 2: long term reform was really in the second generation of

865
00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 2: kids that come through.

866
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,200
Speaker 3: But it absolutely is wild. It's so encouraging.

867
00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:30,160
Speaker 1: Nelson Mandela said, there can be no keener revelation of

868
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:34,360
Speaker 1: the society's soul and the manner in which it treats

869
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:43,240
Speaker 1: its children. I have I've repeated that quote many times

870
00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:46,040
Speaker 1: in an Alexis prop. I know that's something that you've

871
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:46,839
Speaker 1: thought about a lot.

872
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:47,359
Speaker 3: Yep.

873
00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 1: Now, as a pastor, as a man of faith and

874
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:58,480
Speaker 1: the superintendent of the school, I have used the words

875
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: that are society is sinful and the way we continue

876
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:09,800
Speaker 1: to let kids from the wrong zip codes languish. Yep

877
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:14,800
Speaker 1: and Neessa Mandela challenged us to think about the keener

878
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:19,520
Speaker 1: revelation of the society soul in the manner of which

879
00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 1: it treats its children.

880
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 3: You won't speak to that.

881
00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:24,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what you're hinting at is what I

882
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 2: feel most profoundly is the keener revelation of the church's

883
00:44:30,239 --> 00:44:35,040
Speaker 2: health and soul right is profoundly found in how it

884
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:38,839
Speaker 2: treats the children in its society. I think, I mean,

885
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 2: we hold politicians accountable and business is accountable, but there's

886
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:44,839
Speaker 2: no one that should be held more accountable than those

887
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:50,320
Speaker 2: who say they follow a God who said, inasmuch as

888
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 2: you have done it unto the least of these, you've

889
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:59,239
Speaker 2: done it under me. So I used to say I

890
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 2: like kids more than adults, But I really do like

891
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:05,920
Speaker 2: kids more than adults. I mean, and now I really

892
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 2: really do because I think adults are sort of I mean,

893
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:11,399
Speaker 2: we're not only stuck in our way, but we've sort

894
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 2: of made our pathways. And I really do think that

895
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:18,480
Speaker 2: there are people who focused their life of service and

896
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:20,600
Speaker 2: recognition to what God has done for them.

897
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:22,920
Speaker 3: On helping others.

898
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 2: And I don't think there's a better place to focus

899
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 2: than that than on children. So I think we can

900
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:32,640
Speaker 2: look at this personally and collectively and say we're we're

901
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:34,919
Speaker 2: doing a good job. And here's one of the ways

902
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:36,680
Speaker 2: we can tell the children of the Canary and the

903
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:40,920
Speaker 2: coal mine. In our society, they're the most vulnerable, so

904
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:42,680
Speaker 2: the first ones to be hurt and to show us

905
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:45,319
Speaker 2: where the pain points are in our society, and they're

906
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:48,520
Speaker 2: the fastest to thrive. We can literally turn society around

907
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:52,800
Speaker 2: in a generation. That's the hopefulness of this. We can educate,

908
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:55,000
Speaker 2: we can change our entire city.

909
00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:56,680
Speaker 3: We can change our.

910
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: Right, if we would recognize the third grade literacy thing,

911
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:10,480
Speaker 1: recognize the sin of the soul of our culture, and

912
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:15,000
Speaker 1: look ourselves in the mirror and say we've got this wrong.

913
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:19,439
Speaker 3: Here's our moonshot, right, remember the moonshot? Oh yeah, yeah,

914
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 3: here's our moonshot literacy. Right. It's not sexy. What does

915
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:27,879
Speaker 3: it say that that's a moonshot? I know that should

916
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 3: be a baseline. We shouldn't even thinking about this.

917
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:35,520
Speaker 4: We shouldn't, but we are, and we talk about the gangs.

918
00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:38,759
Speaker 1: And the cessacialism on social media and the news and

919
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: all the things, and oh what's wrong with us?

920
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:43,640
Speaker 4: And holy crap, each our kids to read.

921
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:46,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.

922
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,520
Speaker 4: And you, my friend, are doing it well.

923
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:51,239
Speaker 3: My teachers are, and my leaders are.

924
00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 1: I appreciate the humility, But you were the idiot that

925
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:57,160
Speaker 1: got on the phone with the stolen school list and

926
00:46:57,239 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 1: started telling people you're going to have a football team

927
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 1: when you were in a baby.

928
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:03,480
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and our football team went very good. But

929
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 2: our football team soccer team is five times.

930
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:35,520
Speaker 3: Pretty pretty salty. We'll be right back. So it's pretty fit. Dude.

931
00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 3: You look good.

932
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:39,480
Speaker 1: You look like you're carrying these fifty six years pretty well.

933
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:42,160
Speaker 1: Despite all the stress and everything else, so I guess

934
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:43,479
Speaker 1: there's more.

935
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:47,040
Speaker 2: I coached for thirty two years, like you, I've coached

936
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:49,200
Speaker 2: at the high school varsity level. This is my first

937
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 2: year to hang it up, so I sort of sort

938
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:52,920
Speaker 2: of stayed in shape by working out with kids all

939
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:56,239
Speaker 2: these years. But I work out because it's cheaper than therapy.

940
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:59,280
Speaker 3: And I need I need. I need a lot of work, and.

941
00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:01,880
Speaker 2: So I've a group pastors and graduates and kids that

942
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 2: I work out with in the morning because I do

943
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,319
Speaker 2: think there's a lot to go. I've got work to do,

944
00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:08,399
Speaker 2: you know, I want to do as long as I can.

945
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 2: I also have a three year old and a six

946
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 2: year old in the house, and as my wife pointed out,

947
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:15,480
Speaker 2: we're going to be celebrating our fiftieth anniversary when my

948
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 2: youngest graduates from high school. So we've got we've got

949
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:19,000
Speaker 2: to stay moving.

950
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:24,200
Speaker 1: So tell us about how this is now morphed into.

951
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:26,800
Speaker 4: Some other stuff.

952
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 2: So this is the most exciting thing in the future

953
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:30,839
Speaker 2: right now, And I know, I know we're running out

954
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:31,600
Speaker 2: of time, but I want to.

955
00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 3: I really want to get.

956
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:36,400
Speaker 1: To this and as if all of it is enough,

957
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,319
Speaker 1: and I think the blessings of continuing to work and

958
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:44,440
Speaker 1: do things right as God continues to reveal opportunities to us.

959
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:47,280
Speaker 3: Here we are you speaking to this directly?

960
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 2: That long obedience in the same direction, right, He didn't glamorous,

961
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:53,439
Speaker 2: and it's kind of ugly.

962
00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm never completely easy. And it was a heck

963
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 1: of a lot of work. I know, I don't even

964
00:48:57,719 --> 00:49:00,200
Speaker 1: know you're I've never met you before today, but I

965
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:00,960
Speaker 1: know that.

966
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:04,640
Speaker 2: Just grind right, grind, I mean, that's the wrestler mentality.

967
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:07,880
Speaker 3: Was wrestler in high school? Baby?

968
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:10,240
Speaker 4: I voked it for you.

969
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:12,239
Speaker 3: You got it? He just grind. That's all you do.

970
00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:14,200
Speaker 2: So you get up and you keep moving. And does

971
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:16,280
Speaker 2: God does that? He's he works.

972
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:20,640
Speaker 3: He forwards obedience to multiply things you have no business

973
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 3: being in the middle of, to amplify way beyond what

974
00:49:24,239 --> 00:49:25,320
Speaker 3: you have a business anyway.

975
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:29,320
Speaker 2: So five years ago, I'm looking at durable school reforms,

976
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:33,280
Speaker 2: realizing someday I want to die, not any day sooner.

977
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,280
Speaker 2: We want things that endure for the community, way beyond

978
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:39,640
Speaker 2: a leader or a curriculum or a technology or some

979
00:49:39,719 --> 00:49:42,799
Speaker 2: flash in the pan reform ajure, whatever it is people

980
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:47,400
Speaker 2: are doing. What are the durable reforms that maintain efficacy

981
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:51,759
Speaker 2: generation after generation. There's not many, but there's one sort

982
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:56,520
Speaker 2: of emerging, and it's called the community schools model. And

983
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:59,520
Speaker 2: again it's it's not very sexy, but basically it said,

984
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,640
Speaker 2: what what if teachers could just teach and kids could

985
00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:05,880
Speaker 2: just learn, if there weren't all of these things between

986
00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:09,760
Speaker 2: the two that inhibited that transfer of knowledge.

987
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:10,600
Speaker 3: It's so critical.

988
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:13,360
Speaker 2: So I show up to learn how to read in

989
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:16,480
Speaker 2: my first grade classroom, and you really are prepared and

990
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:18,480
Speaker 2: ready to teach Coade, You are ready to teach me.

991
00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:21,479
Speaker 2: I need to learn, but I can't really see so well.

992
00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:23,799
Speaker 2: And you figured this out, So you stop your day

993
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:26,400
Speaker 2: to make sure I get my vision screening cared for.

994
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:29,120
Speaker 2: All Right, we'll get your glasses. I'm hungry the next week.

995
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 1: By the way, everybody, that happens all the time. Kids

996
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 1: get all the way through to a place, and nobody

997
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:39,280
Speaker 1: noticed that maybe one of the reasons they're not reading

998
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:40,160
Speaker 1: well or adding well is.

999
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,799
Speaker 4: Because they can't see. It's a simple, right, but it

1000
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:43,840
Speaker 4: literally happens.

1001
00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:46,720
Speaker 1: I mean, honest to goodness, I had a left tackle

1002
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 1: that kept blocking the wrong guy.

1003
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:50,280
Speaker 3: This isn't high school.

1004
00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:52,920
Speaker 1: He couldn't see the hand signals from the sideline, and

1005
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 1: as sixteen year old, I said, we're getting your eyes checked.

1006
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:59,000
Speaker 1: And then he became a college tackle because now he

1007
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:02,960
Speaker 1: could see it seems so ridiculous, but I'm telling you,

1008
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 1: in these worlds, this happens all the time.

1009
00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:11,319
Speaker 2: And that profound inhibitor is amplified across everything, all these

1010
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:17,040
Speaker 2: systems of poverty. And so, for example, underresourced kids will

1011
00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:19,799
Speaker 2: often miss up to two weeks of instruction per year

1012
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:24,239
Speaker 2: for dental health. Like, what if my kid needs to

1013
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 2: go to the dentist, that's second hour. They're back in

1014
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:30,239
Speaker 2: school by third hour. We're not missing instruction, but you

1015
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:34,120
Speaker 2: don't go to that initial check up. You get the tooth,

1016
00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 2: the KA, you get the ABSSS. Then you're out for

1017
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:39,279
Speaker 2: weeks because mom can't figure out who's going to get

1018
00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 2: you to a dentist that pay for this, And all

1019
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:43,040
Speaker 2: of a sudden you're way behind your peers and you

1020
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:46,359
Speaker 2: don't catch up. And this compound's year in and year out.

1021
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:49,000
Speaker 2: So community schools have said, well, we can solve for that.

1022
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:53,160
Speaker 2: You decrease the distance from the problem to the solution

1023
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:56,720
Speaker 2: for the kids. You put a dentist in the school. Okay,

1024
00:51:57,600 --> 00:51:59,360
Speaker 2: then you put a healthcare worker in the school. You

1025
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:03,160
Speaker 2: put a doctor in the school. You wrap the solutions

1026
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:05,880
Speaker 2: inside of the school so the kids have access, and

1027
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:06,920
Speaker 2: the families.

1028
00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:11,920
Speaker 1: A nutritionist, a nutrition so you're not drinking drinking kool aid,

1029
00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:13,960
Speaker 1: eating hot fries for dinner.

1030
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:16,000
Speaker 3: Every day, and all of these and then all the.

1031
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:21,200
Speaker 1: Health improves, and mental acuity improves and rest improves, so

1032
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:25,920
Speaker 1: you're a better student. People do not have the first

1033
00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:27,440
Speaker 1: clue what these kids are up against.

1034
00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:30,239
Speaker 2: So this is simple, right, It is simple, and as

1035
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:33,799
Speaker 2: it turns out, is relatively easy when you begin to

1036
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:36,600
Speaker 2: bring people into the game that are able to run

1037
00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 2: in their lane. So, as an educator, if I have

1038
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:43,240
Speaker 2: to be a full service social institution, I really can't

1039
00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:45,000
Speaker 2: do my main job you're paying me to do. It's

1040
00:52:45,040 --> 00:52:47,800
Speaker 2: just to educate, because I get all of the counseling

1041
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:51,680
Speaker 2: and nutrition and here envision screening all of this family

1042
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:55,080
Speaker 2: economics issue. I can't even get to algebra one. You

1043
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:57,640
Speaker 2: got me dealing with all this. What if I could

1044
00:52:57,680 --> 00:53:01,520
Speaker 2: just teach? Well, As it turns out, teachers are pretty

1045
00:53:01,520 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 2: good at teaching a bit, and kids are designed to learn, right,

1046
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:08,520
Speaker 2: They're actually designed to acquire knowledge. And when you can

1047
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:12,000
Speaker 2: just let people do that. So community schools in small

1048
00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:14,200
Speaker 2: scale have been doing this now for a while. They're

1049
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:17,640
Speaker 2: embedding the solutions to the sort of present problems and

1050
00:53:17,640 --> 00:53:19,040
Speaker 2: getting higher academic outcomes.

1051
00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:20,359
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, if a.

1052
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:22,840
Speaker 2: Little bit is good, then a lot of this is

1053
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:25,120
Speaker 2: a lot of something is better. My wife says, I

1054
00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 2: have a problem with that. So sometimes just as moderation

1055
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 2: is better, I know a lot of something is better.

1056
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:29,799
Speaker 3: If it's good.

1057
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:32,920
Speaker 2: So I thought, what if you took instead of three

1058
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:35,600
Speaker 2: hundred kids and you serve them, what if you took

1059
00:53:36,280 --> 00:53:39,240
Speaker 2: eight thousand kids and put them in a high quality

1060
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:43,399
Speaker 2: school in proximity to high quality services, everything that they

1061
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:46,400
Speaker 2: or their family would need, and you concentrated that and

1062
00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:49,400
Speaker 2: multiplied that effect. What could it do to an entire

1063
00:53:49,640 --> 00:53:52,400
Speaker 2: portion of the city, Not just the school, not an

1064
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:53,080
Speaker 2: elementary school.

1065
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:54,680
Speaker 3: I think it changed an entire setting.

1066
00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 2: The theory that we're working with now, the theory of changes,

1067
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:01,720
Speaker 2: we think we can change all of South Oklahoma City.

1068
00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:05,200
Speaker 2: This area that's called the police called the block. We

1069
00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:07,160
Speaker 2: call it the Square because it sounds nicer, But it's

1070
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,560
Speaker 2: this area bounded by interstates, you know, as we do

1071
00:54:10,600 --> 00:54:13,160
Speaker 2: in our inter city, where most of the violent crime,

1072
00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:17,040
Speaker 2: and poverty and low academic outcomes are concentrated. So every city,

1073
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:21,680
Speaker 2: Memphis has sections same thing. What if we were to

1074
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:25,000
Speaker 2: change the plot the plight of that group of kids,

1075
00:54:25,680 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 2: it will change the city from the inside out, bottom up,

1076
00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:31,160
Speaker 2: bottom up. And what if we did this not from

1077
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:34,560
Speaker 2: hoping the government's going to show up and solve this problem, right,

1078
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:36,920
Speaker 2: but what if we did this and said, look, all right,

1079
00:54:36,960 --> 00:54:40,120
Speaker 2: all of you people of faith, I mean, what if

1080
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:43,680
Speaker 2: you really did do the things that you say you're

1081
00:54:43,719 --> 00:54:47,560
Speaker 2: supposed to be doing. And it's a personal indictment of

1082
00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:50,600
Speaker 2: the church and those leading churches to get outside of

1083
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:54,240
Speaker 2: our climate control padded pew environments and do the work

1084
00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:59,520
Speaker 2: that you're supposed to be doing. It sounds good in theory,

1085
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:03,279
Speaker 2: but what it's amounted to is again sort of like

1086
00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:05,319
Speaker 2: starting a school. You run your mouth about it enough,

1087
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:08,120
Speaker 2: people say all right, well put up or shutup. We've

1088
00:55:08,200 --> 00:55:12,000
Speaker 2: formed a nonprofit that was able to purchase a mall

1089
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,200
Speaker 2: that got shut down. The Crossroads Mall was at one

1090
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:17,360
Speaker 2: point the sixth largest mall in the country, one point

1091
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:21,400
Speaker 2: two million square feet underrun one roof. We already have

1092
00:55:21,520 --> 00:55:25,000
Speaker 2: two functioning charter schools in the space serving about twenty

1093
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:27,719
Speaker 2: six hundred kids, and two of the anchor stores a

1094
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:31,000
Speaker 2: sister charter network that's the highest performing charter school right

1095
00:55:31,040 --> 00:55:34,480
Speaker 2: across the Ring Road on the same property, Dove Science Academy,

1096
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:37,440
Speaker 2: we'll have sixteen hundred kids on their campus. So we

1097
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:41,719
Speaker 2: already have four thousand kids being served right there. And

1098
00:55:42,280 --> 00:55:44,640
Speaker 2: a faith based nonprofit was stood up in the last

1099
00:55:44,719 --> 00:55:46,960
Speaker 2: year and a half to acquire the balance of the

1100
00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:50,400
Speaker 2: mall not already owned by Santa Fe Sause Schools, with

1101
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 2: the purpose of turning the interior concourse into this full

1102
00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:56,880
Speaker 2: service community schools model that we talked.

1103
00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:59,000
Speaker 3: About Denis Office, doctors.

1104
00:55:58,920 --> 00:56:01,480
Speaker 2: Everything you can imagine, and like we basically send a

1105
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:02,120
Speaker 2: survey out in state.

1106
00:56:02,320 --> 00:56:04,960
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, forget inner city charter school.

1107
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: That sounds like a cool place to go to school.

1108
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:09,400
Speaker 2: And this is the We want everybody in this in

1109
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:11,399
Speaker 2: the city and the state to say, I would want

1110
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:13,319
Speaker 2: my child to be there. So building it not from

1111
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:16,879
Speaker 2: a deficit model, but from an excellence model, the very

1112
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:22,240
Speaker 2: best full service healthcare institution, not a storefront, throw crumbs

1113
00:56:22,239 --> 00:56:24,919
Speaker 2: to the poor kids kind of model, but the very best.

1114
00:56:24,960 --> 00:56:27,239
Speaker 2: The fact, that's why we're here in Memphis looking at

1115
00:56:27,239 --> 00:56:29,719
Speaker 2: some of the models that you guys have already implemented

1116
00:56:29,719 --> 00:56:33,040
Speaker 2: with the concourse, cross down concourse, taking an old school

1117
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:35,719
Speaker 2: making it incredible, right looking.

1118
00:56:36,800 --> 00:56:38,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, I visited it for yea.

1119
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:40,879
Speaker 2: Been there, and I've looked at Valor, and we've looked

1120
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 2: at other places that are just doing exceptional work in

1121
00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:46,640
Speaker 2: this area. So we know the academic piece like I

1122
00:56:46,680 --> 00:56:49,480
Speaker 2: know this piece, but now we're now working with local

1123
00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:54,200
Speaker 2: banking institutions and the YMCA and high quality childcare, local

1124
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:57,399
Speaker 2: businesses like we have a coffee shop called Not Your

1125
00:56:57,400 --> 00:57:01,640
Speaker 2: Average Joe whose vision and mission their world class product

1126
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:05,640
Speaker 2: and world class vision combined. So they exist to serve

1127
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:10,360
Speaker 2: to employ special needs adults, but they also have some

1128
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:13,479
Speaker 2: of the best coffee anywhere in the country. So their

1129
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:16,560
Speaker 2: business model they've now exploded to I think eleven or

1130
00:57:16,600 --> 00:57:21,280
Speaker 2: twelve shops and a bakery. Their business model is exploding.

1131
00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:23,880
Speaker 2: We want them in our space because they're exactly the

1132
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:26,360
Speaker 2: kind of partner that we want to have in that space,

1133
00:57:27,040 --> 00:57:30,560
Speaker 2: not Starbucks, but not your Average show, local restaurants that

1134
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:34,240
Speaker 2: already employ local community members, or local businesses that are thriving.

1135
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:37,280
Speaker 2: And so now we're in the process we've raised eleven

1136
00:57:37,320 --> 00:57:38,280
Speaker 2: and a half million dollars.

1137
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:38,920
Speaker 4: That's my question.

1138
00:57:39,680 --> 00:57:43,280
Speaker 1: This is a got to be a capital intensive deal.

1139
00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:46,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's massive. It's way beyond anything I can imagine. So,

1140
00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:49,480
Speaker 3: I mean, you've raised eleven eleven and a half. We

1141
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:50,040
Speaker 3: bought them all.

1142
00:57:50,160 --> 00:57:53,560
Speaker 2: Ninety two acres were there.

1143
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:57,640
Speaker 4: You know, it's eleven How much do you need?

1144
00:57:58,520 --> 00:58:00,880
Speaker 3: We need about forty four and a half million. And

1145
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 3: so the first you.

1146
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:04,440
Speaker 4: Have some oil people in Oklahoma that stroke that checked out.

1147
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:07,680
Speaker 2: There's there's you know, we were talking about this earlier with Alexis.

1148
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:12,600
Speaker 2: There's there's national money and maybe even international money. I'm

1149
00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:16,000
Speaker 2: convinced that local communities have all the resources they need

1150
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:19,200
Speaker 2: to solve their own problems, not to wait for outsiders

1151
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:22,800
Speaker 2: to come in. So now I'll spend Walton money, I'll

1152
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:25,320
Speaker 2: spend read Hastings money, I'll spend who wants to give

1153
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:28,920
Speaker 2: us money. We're grateful to receive it, but I believe

1154
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:31,680
Speaker 2: that the money is local. And we've had local philanthropists

1155
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:37,640
Speaker 2: like the Green family of the Mardels. They've been tremendously

1156
00:58:37,680 --> 00:58:41,120
Speaker 2: instrumental in helping us to acquire this. We've got the

1157
00:58:41,160 --> 00:58:45,040
Speaker 2: inas Much Foundation, which is local. Some local families giving

1158
00:58:45,120 --> 00:58:48,560
Speaker 2: money and now the biggest issue now for me, I

1159
00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:51,920
Speaker 2: think we can come up with the funding, but the

1160
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:56,920
Speaker 2: long term sustainability is eighty percent occupancy of people paying

1161
00:58:57,360 --> 00:59:01,280
Speaker 2: just below market rent to keep their product in the community.

1162
00:59:01,360 --> 00:59:03,320
Speaker 2: This is to be a gift back to our city.

1163
00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:07,520
Speaker 2: And so we need banks, and we need dentist office,

1164
00:59:07,680 --> 00:59:11,560
Speaker 2: and we need grocery stores, and we need childcare to

1165
00:59:11,680 --> 00:59:14,520
Speaker 2: be in the space, and we need them to be successful.

1166
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:17,480
Speaker 2: Everybody there has to be successful or it doesn't work.

1167
00:59:18,080 --> 00:59:19,840
Speaker 2: But we're excited about that and we're just going to

1168
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:21,960
Speaker 2: see because now it's not up to us anymore. It's

1169
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:25,840
Speaker 2: up to the city's collaboration in this to see if

1170
00:59:25,840 --> 00:59:27,920
Speaker 2: this is something they want. So we'll know here in

1171
00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:30,040
Speaker 2: about eight to ten months if we're going to be

1172
00:59:30,040 --> 00:59:30,280
Speaker 2: able to.

1173
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:34,880
Speaker 3: Pull this thing off. My goodness, brother, I have no

1174
00:59:34,920 --> 00:59:36,160
Speaker 3: idea if it's going to work. I want to be

1175
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:37,440
Speaker 3: honest with you, terrified.

1176
00:59:37,280 --> 00:59:39,880
Speaker 1: You had no idea if the charter school is going

1177
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:42,160
Speaker 1: to work. When you quit your job at the Great School,

1178
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:44,320
Speaker 1: the fed steaks to the coaches.

1179
00:59:44,040 --> 00:59:45,840
Speaker 3: Yeah they were good stakes.

1180
00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:50,760
Speaker 2: But I get street tacos now and homemade tomales, so

1181
00:59:50,800 --> 00:59:52,160
Speaker 2: it's much better.

1182
00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:55,160
Speaker 3: Actually, so are you nervous?

1183
00:59:55,400 --> 00:59:59,600
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I stay in the state of like I

1184
00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:01,120
Speaker 2: just don't want to get out over my skis. I

1185
01:00:01,120 --> 01:00:05,360
Speaker 2: don't want to like anticipate what I think does o bro.

1186
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:07,560
Speaker 2: But there's something about when you're fifty six, you don't

1187
01:00:07,560 --> 01:00:09,400
Speaker 2: want to leave a mess behind you. You want to

1188
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:13,000
Speaker 2: leave things well established, like you want to leave things

1189
01:00:13,160 --> 01:00:15,240
Speaker 2: like in good position to move forwards.

1190
01:00:15,240 --> 01:00:15,960
Speaker 3: So I get it.

1191
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:19,280
Speaker 1: We do start changing the way we perceive stuff as

1192
01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:24,120
Speaker 1: we age, and I get it, But holy smokes, I don't.

1193
01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:24,800
Speaker 3: Want to be reckless.

1194
01:00:24,840 --> 01:00:29,640
Speaker 2: I want to be ambitious and aggressive because I'm led

1195
01:00:29,680 --> 01:00:31,560
Speaker 2: that way, but not because I'm just blind.

1196
01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:35,000
Speaker 3: I'm trying to be much more. It's Christine, right, yeah, Christy,

1197
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 3: what is she just saying? Put up Buttercup?

1198
01:00:37,280 --> 01:00:41,400
Speaker 2: You know she's like, dude, this is she's just so stable, right,

1199
01:00:41,520 --> 01:00:47,040
Speaker 2: just so solid. She's her great great grandparents were Dutch immigrants,

1200
01:00:47,080 --> 01:00:50,160
Speaker 2: they I mean, or she comes from this line of.

1201
01:00:50,080 --> 01:00:53,320
Speaker 3: Hardworking people that says, this is what we're supposed to

1202
01:00:53,360 --> 01:00:53,560
Speaker 3: be doing.

1203
01:00:53,640 --> 01:00:53,720
Speaker 1: Right.

1204
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, then go do the thing right, get out

1205
01:00:56,360 --> 01:00:56,680
Speaker 3: of bed.

1206
01:00:56,840 --> 01:00:58,360
Speaker 4: And in the middle of all this, she passed her

1207
01:00:58,360 --> 01:00:58,760
Speaker 4: a church.

1208
01:00:59,160 --> 01:01:01,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, rivileged to be a part of a small congregation

1209
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 2: South Okay. See beautiful little group of very very eclectic group.

1210
01:01:05,880 --> 01:01:07,520
Speaker 2: If you walked in, you would go, this is very

1211
01:01:07,560 --> 01:01:08,240
Speaker 2: interesting group.

1212
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:09,280
Speaker 3: In your spare time.

1213
01:01:09,560 --> 01:01:13,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I've got lots of lay people that support

1214
01:01:13,560 --> 01:01:13,960
Speaker 2: that work.

1215
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:15,240
Speaker 3: We share a lot of the load.

1216
01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:21,400
Speaker 1: Have you allowed yourself to just rock back on your

1217
01:01:21,440 --> 01:01:25,040
Speaker 1: heels at home and some quiet time with maybe just

1218
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:29,560
Speaker 1: you and Christine and taking stock of what this crazy

1219
01:01:30,200 --> 01:01:32,680
Speaker 1: thirty year old idea was on this charter school and

1220
01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:33,479
Speaker 1: where you are now.

1221
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:36,960
Speaker 2: So once in a while, as you mentioned, graduation, so

1222
01:01:37,760 --> 01:01:40,480
Speaker 2: this past spring is I get the vantage point of

1223
01:01:40,520 --> 01:01:43,240
Speaker 2: being on the stage looking at the community that's gathered.

1224
01:01:44,040 --> 01:01:47,160
Speaker 2: And we always rent venues that are massive because we

1225
01:01:47,160 --> 01:01:49,320
Speaker 2: don't limit the number of people that our kids can

1226
01:01:49,360 --> 01:01:53,919
Speaker 2: invite to graduation. And the Hispanic community they roll deep, right,

1227
01:01:54,600 --> 01:01:56,800
Speaker 2: they roll deep. So one kid may graduate, but there's

1228
01:01:56,840 --> 01:02:00,600
Speaker 2: thirty three people there or forty people there. So we

1229
01:02:00,640 --> 01:02:03,720
Speaker 2: have this huge crowd. And I looked at it and went,

1230
01:02:03,840 --> 01:02:06,320
Speaker 2: I just had that moment like holy cow. You know,

1231
01:02:08,520 --> 01:02:14,560
Speaker 2: it's remarkable that when you give and underresourced community opportunities

1232
01:02:14,800 --> 01:02:18,160
Speaker 2: they step through those doors. They do immeasurably more than

1233
01:02:18,720 --> 01:02:22,320
Speaker 2: people would think they would. So it's a huge blessing,

1234
01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:27,160
Speaker 2: incredibly like crushingly humbling to be around the team that

1235
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:30,400
Speaker 2: I have now is so wildly competent at their work.

1236
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:32,800
Speaker 2: I just try to stay out of my people's way

1237
01:02:32,840 --> 01:02:35,840
Speaker 2: because they're so good with the finances and the curriculum,

1238
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:39,800
Speaker 2: the leadership, And I'm like, I do I have one

1239
01:02:40,960 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 2: one superpower. I can hire really really talented people and

1240
01:02:46,240 --> 01:02:47,760
Speaker 2: try to stay out of their way. But they're hard

1241
01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:49,840
Speaker 2: to manage, right, I mean, you get really good people

1242
01:02:49,880 --> 01:02:53,280
Speaker 2: there trying to keep them fed and water to something

1243
01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:55,280
Speaker 2: that's challenging everybody.

1244
01:02:55,880 --> 01:03:01,480
Speaker 1: Chris Brewster, the founder and superintendent of Santa Fe South Schools.

1245
01:03:02,000 --> 01:03:05,000
Speaker 1: I gotta believe if someone heard this and was sitting

1246
01:03:05,040 --> 01:03:08,320
Speaker 1: out somewhere and just wanted a little bit of advice

1247
01:03:08,480 --> 01:03:11,200
Speaker 1: or idea about how they make it do something like

1248
01:03:11,320 --> 01:03:15,720
Speaker 1: this in their community, you'd be willing to share thoughts

1249
01:03:15,720 --> 01:03:21,320
Speaker 1: and ideas. And if you're in that area, pretty cool

1250
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:23,439
Speaker 1: place to go to school is the old retired mall

1251
01:03:24,280 --> 01:03:27,760
Speaker 1: it is? Is there a website about you and this?

1252
01:03:28,160 --> 01:03:32,120
Speaker 2: And yeah, absolutely so. Santa Fe South Schools has a

1253
01:03:32,120 --> 01:03:34,640
Speaker 2: website and all kinds of information there and enrollment and

1254
01:03:34,720 --> 01:03:37,800
Speaker 2: jobs and all that kind of stuff. My email is C.

1255
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:40,480
Speaker 2: Brewster at Santa Fe south dot org.

1256
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:40,880
Speaker 3: That's C.

1257
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:44,440
Speaker 2: B R E W s T e R at Santa

1258
01:03:44,440 --> 01:03:47,640
Speaker 2: Fe South dot org. Again, Santa Fe sounds like New Mexico,

1259
01:03:47,720 --> 01:03:51,000
Speaker 2: but it's Oklahoma City. That's another long story about how

1260
01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:52,960
Speaker 2: we named a school after a street. I mean it was,

1261
01:03:53,080 --> 01:03:57,040
Speaker 2: it was crazy, but it stuck. And then the Crossroads

1262
01:03:57,080 --> 01:04:00,880
Speaker 2: Renewal project. We would love to find if there are

1263
01:04:00,920 --> 01:04:05,440
Speaker 2: people being stirred to do like significant legacy work in communities,

1264
01:04:06,520 --> 01:04:09,000
Speaker 2: we would love to have you talk to us about

1265
01:04:09,000 --> 01:04:10,560
Speaker 2: what we're thinking in our community, if you want to

1266
01:04:10,600 --> 01:04:13,640
Speaker 2: partner with us, or maybe some ideas we have about

1267
01:04:14,080 --> 01:04:16,760
Speaker 2: what you could do in your community. But even more importantly,

1268
01:04:16,760 --> 01:04:19,400
Speaker 2: if you're already doing this well in your place, we'd

1269
01:04:19,440 --> 01:04:21,160
Speaker 2: love to hear from you so you can guide us

1270
01:04:21,160 --> 01:04:23,360
Speaker 2: and direct us and what we're doing. But I mean,

1271
01:04:24,200 --> 01:04:26,280
Speaker 2: more and more, like even this conversation, I'm just so

1272
01:04:26,360 --> 01:04:30,240
Speaker 2: encouraged that there are people in every single community doing

1273
01:04:30,320 --> 01:04:37,640
Speaker 2: exceptional things. I think you sort of labor sometimes you're lonely,

1274
01:04:37,840 --> 01:04:41,200
Speaker 2: you think there's nothing else going on. But the more

1275
01:04:41,160 --> 01:04:43,040
Speaker 2: of these kind of conversations that I have, the more

1276
01:04:43,320 --> 01:04:45,800
Speaker 2: I'm aware that God's working through people all over the country,

1277
01:04:46,120 --> 01:04:48,400
Speaker 2: all kinds of places, all kinds of ways, and it's.

1278
01:04:48,200 --> 01:04:52,160
Speaker 1: What we're trying to connect in an army of normal pork.

1279
01:04:52,360 --> 01:04:55,760
Speaker 2: Such a cool podcast and the concept is remarkable.

1280
01:04:55,760 --> 01:04:57,360
Speaker 3: So I appreciate the work you guys are doing.

1281
01:04:57,480 --> 01:05:00,880
Speaker 1: Thanks for taking time to get away from school enjoy

1282
01:05:00,920 --> 01:05:02,880
Speaker 1: the rest of the day in Memphis. Chris, I really

1283
01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:06,160
Speaker 1: really appreciate you join us. I appreciate your story. More importantly,

1284
01:05:06,880 --> 01:05:10,800
Speaker 1: I appreciate you serving thousands and thousands of your community,

1285
01:05:10,880 --> 01:05:14,760
Speaker 1: and I gotta believe that's it's changing the outlook for

1286
01:05:14,800 --> 01:05:15,479
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City.

1287
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:18,000
Speaker 2: And good luck in the season, coach. I'm jealous you

1288
01:05:18,040 --> 01:05:20,040
Speaker 2: get to coach. This is my first year not to coach,

1289
01:05:20,120 --> 01:05:21,840
Speaker 2: and I can feel it right now.

1290
01:05:21,880 --> 01:05:22,960
Speaker 3: I know it's.

1291
01:05:24,320 --> 01:05:26,640
Speaker 4: Keep up with the middle college Bulldogs. See how we're doing.

1292
01:05:26,680 --> 01:05:30,040
Speaker 3: We'll do, We'll do. Thank you, buddy, Thanks for being here, pleasure.

1293
01:05:31,680 --> 01:05:35,280
Speaker 1: And thank you for joining us this week. If Chris

1294
01:05:35,360 --> 01:05:38,880
Speaker 1: Brewster has inspired you in general or better, you have

1295
01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:42,280
Speaker 1: to take action by caring about the education of all

1296
01:05:42,400 --> 01:05:46,600
Speaker 1: kids in your community, doing something about it. Adopting a

1297
01:05:46,720 --> 01:05:51,480
Speaker 1: child or something else entirely. Please let me know. I'd

1298
01:05:51,560 --> 01:05:54,680
Speaker 1: love to hear about it. You can write me anytime

1299
01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:59,000
Speaker 1: at Bill at normal folks dot us. If you enjoyed

1300
01:05:59,080 --> 01:06:04,320
Speaker 1: this episode, share friends and on social subscribe to the podcast,

1301
01:06:04,560 --> 01:06:08,080
Speaker 1: rate it, review it, join us, join the army at

1302
01:06:08,120 --> 01:06:11,320
Speaker 1: normal folks dot us, any and all of these things

1303
01:06:11,320 --> 01:06:14,720
Speaker 1: that will help us grow an army of normal folks.

1304
01:06:15,160 --> 01:06:18,840
Speaker 3: I'm Bill Cordiney. Until next time, do what you can