Some New Roads to Take

Paul Cummins

Mirror Contributing Writer

   Sometimes, when you set out to do one thing, the opposite results. Often enough, this is a good thing. Often, this is how we learn. Five years ago, a group of us created a new foundation -- the New Visions Foundation. 
   Our initial mission was, and still is, to create excellent new schools -- private schools that are diverse, fully integrated, academically superb, and available to a high percentage of students who normally couldn’t afford private education. 
   In 1995, we launched our first campus, New Roads School (grades 6,7 and 8) at the Santa Monica Boys/Girls Club, with the enthusiastic support of its talented director, Allen Young. From the get-go, we have 50% students “of color” and 50% students receiving financial aid. As the 8th became the 9th and then 10th, we created a high school campus and, this fall, our high school will encompass grades 9-12. 
   So then we said, let’s start a middle school in a predominantly African American neighborhood. Usually, when African-American families want to go to a private (non-parochial) school, they have to travel across town into the suburbs or into predominantly white neighborhoods where they children are often “the only” black child in this or that classroom, and where racial and cultural isolation may inhibit the full development of self-esteem as well as performance. 
   Let’s see, we said, if we can bring a first rate private school into a black neighborhood where the quality of the school will attract blacks, whites, Asians and Latinos from nearby areas.
   We selected a Baldwin Hills site (La Cienega and Rodeo Road) and opened our doors in September of 1997. Surely, I believed, given the reputation of Crossroads School and New Roads relationship to Crossroads (and, I secretly hoped, given my own reputation as an educator), we will attract a diverse student population from south Beverly Hills, Culver City, Westchester, Inglewood, etc. 
   It didn’t happen. 
   Our first year in Baldwin Hills the campus was largely black, although we achieved our diversity mission at our other campuses. Our second year in Baldwin Hills, we had two whites and four Latinos (of 38 students) and this year we will have about 8 of 50 students who are not African-American. 
   I was surprised by this and expressed concern about it at a parent Town Hall meeting. “What’s the problem,” one Baldwin Hills parent asked. “You white folks have had predominantly white private schools in your neighborhoods for over 200 years; what’s wrong with us having good private schools in our neighborhoods? His question caught me up short. We just hadn’t planned to create a non-integrated school. 
   In July, Madison Shockley (a former pastor and finalist in the recent City Council elections) joined the New Visions Foundation/New Roads administration as Director of Project Development. He carefully assessed our Baldwin Hills campus and told me, “I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The bad news is you’ve created a black campus; the good news is that you’ve created a black campus.”
   A black campus in the best traditions of historically black colleges have come to offer on a college level, we can offer at this middle school. 
Shockley went on to point out that with the failure of busing and the growth -- since 1954 -- of segregated neighborhoods and schools, we are, ironically, moving back to an increasingly “separate but (in(equal” scenario. Shockley also cited research which shows that African-Americans who attend historically black colleges to do better in graduate schools than blacks who attend the Harvards, Princetons and Stanfords. Why? In the culturally supportive atmosphere of colleges such as Morehouse, Howard, Spellman, etc., the students don’t suffer the limiting effects of racial isolation and of having “to prove oneself” every step of the way. 
   Consequently, we believe that New Roads La Cienega may be a blessing in surprise. While we think we can gradually achieve a more diverse student population -- with a 60%-40% target -- it will still, at 60%, be culturally a “black campus -- as private schools on the westside with a 60% white student body are culturally white campuses. 
   Nevertheless, with the help of visionaries like our Board President Nat Trives, our Head of School, David Bryan, our La Cienega Campus Director, Charletta Johnson, and our new team member, Madison Shockley, I am coming to see that our New Roads La Cienega campus is providing a rare option and opportunity for whites and blacks alike. For whites and others, it is a chance to go to a school in a diverse, safe, college-preparatory environment with unique cultural and intellectual challenges; for blacks it is a chance during the crucial three years of middle school to experience a sense of cultural pride and security. For the students and parents -- and for our faculty and administration -- it is a rare gift to learn from each other what we need in order to build a truly cross-cultural community. 
   We set out to create a diverse school. I think ultimately (and soon)
it will be more diverse. However, it is going to take us longer than we first envisioned. Yet, in the meantime, New Roads La Cienega is offering a new set of opportunities for our community’s children. Further, it’s evolution is providing rich learning experiences if we keep our hearts and minds open to new ideas. 
   In a sense, the New Roads journey is just beginning; our experienced can, if we let them, trailblaze needed educational paths for Los Angeles and other urban centers. It is an exciting time.