By Megan Seckman
When I toured West End School, located at 36th too Virginia Avenue, it had been Debbie Blair’s 3rd tour that day. Despite the typical end-of-the-school-year-chaos — boxes of binders create for storage, loads of laundry needing a wash, too hundreds of partial pigment cans poised inwards military machine precise formations waiting to survive purged — too fifty-fifty despite her retirement beingness solely 6 weeks away, Debbie’s enthusiasm did non wane. This space, a gift from the community, has been a labor of love, too her literal home, since 2005 when her hubby Robert Blair, the erstwhile headmaster of Kentucky Country Day, made his big sentiment for a costless boarding schoolhouse for at-risk middle schoolhouse boys come upwardly to fruition.
Spanning 4.5 acres of Louisville’s Chickasaw neighborhood, Debbie too Robert took the historical site of the Virginia Avenue Colored School, built inwards 1923 during segregation, too made a modest miracle. The site (which most late housed JCPS’s Carter Elementary) is at in ane lawsuit dwelling family to a projected 100 elementary-aged boys inwards the lower school, 25 boarding middle schoolhouse boys, a state-of-the-art athletic middle donated past times Louisville’s ain [former professional person basketball game player] Darrell Griffith, too a maker’s infinite consummate alongside 3-D printers, tabular array saws, too function tables, donated through the UofL Speed School.
“This schoolhouse has been blessed,” Debbie says inwards the foyer, propped upwardly against a grand piano, relishing inwards the generosity that made their humble beginnings a success. “It is too then exciting to encounter people come upwardly too give. The identify runs on volunteers. Thousands of volunteers give hours, teachers remain for years without pay, too the library was made through donations too volunteers who create shelves. [The Louisville Orchestra Music Director] Teddy Abrams came to play for a one-half an hr when this pianoforte was donated to us from the Scottish Light Orchestra.”
They began alongside 3 students too ane teacher, housed inwards a edifice on 17th too Chestnut streets. “We took all comers, whoever showed upwardly at first. We had no idea…” Debbie laughs. Shortly afterwards the school’s inception, the foundation on the boarding family collapsed. Debbie too Robert moved the students to their dwelling family inwards the East End too shuttled them dorsum too forth to schoolhouse each day. These humble beginnings are at in ane lawsuit solely a memory.
The Blairs conduct keep since sold their East End dwelling family too alive at the schoolhouse amid their students, v teachers, too a live-in counselor. The boarding school, consummate alongside beautiful double-paned windows, oriental rugs inwards each room, too the Blair’s dog, is a whole 10-second walk to the classrooms. “No ane has an excuse for beingness late!” Debbie says.
At West End School, boys are expected to alive past times the motto, coined past times French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “To survive a homo is to survive responsible.” This philosophy manifests itself inwards a highly-structured twenty-four hours focused merely about academics, athletics, too character-building. Students are expected to abide by authority, perform at or inwards a higher identify degree level, accept pith academic classes equally good equally unusual language, go too report inwards the summer, too participate inwards all 3 sports teams: track, soccer, too basketball. Middle schoolhouse boys board Sunday-Thursday too follow the schedule below:
7:15 Rise, brand beds, tidy room, room inspections
7:30 Open gym or report hall (for those alongside D’s too F’s)
7:55 Breakfast
8:30-4:30 Classes (including fine art therapy too unusual language) alongside one-hour luncheon break
4:30 Mandatory family cleaning (toilets, urinals, floors, trash, vacuum, dust)
5:00 Athletics practice
7:00 Dinner, 20 infinitesimal showers
9:30 Bed fourth dimension
On Fridays, students go out the schoolhouse to go dwelling family too supply on Lord's Day black for 3 hours of report hall inwards social club to laid upwardly for the adjacent schoolhouse day. “We instruct kids that every activeness has a consequence, positive or negative. We give extra dessert for rewards too go along a tape of when boys go inwards a higher identify too beyond on our responsibleness bulletin board. These boys too their families surrender a lot to survive here.
There is no TV (except for the Super Bowl too NCAA entitle game), no video games or jail cellphone phones; they conduct keep to surrender their friends too typical middle schoolhouse stuff. They conduct keep to cutting their hair. The mothers are heroes to arrive at their sons too trust us each week. She trusts us to ameliorate him, to accept tending of him, to help give him a future. But our boys learn total scholarships to KCD, to Collegiate, to all the overstep schools.”
Although Robert — who Debbie says is the brains behind the outfit too who painstakingly worked to create his vision — is retiring this summer, at that spot are nevertheless several projects inwards the works. The erstwhile “gym” that had no working low-cal too a leaking roof volition at in ane lawsuit learn an auditorium. The erstwhile basketball game court, the solely ane inwards the urban center that had to survive shoveled afterwards a snow, is at in ane lawsuit becoming a courtyard alongside an ampitheater. There are plans for an outdoor scientific discipline classroom, infinite for al fresco dining, too an auditorium lobby consummate alongside ane women’s restroom.
Who tin flaming attend?
Boys must come upwardly from at-risk environments: homelessness, incarcerated parents, poverty, too single-parent homes, for example.
The Blairs believe that raise buy-in is integral inwards the student’s success. Each twenty-four hours parents must go inwards the edifice to drib off or alternative upwardly the kids from lower school. At this time, parents telephone commutation luncheon boxes too touching base of operations nearly anything that mightiness survive affecting the tyke from the black before. This constant communication is a required chemical ingredient of admission.
Each summer, middle schoolhouse candidates must attend summertime schoolhouse to justice whether or non they are a expert stand upwardly for for the boarding school. “We are to a greater extent than interested inwards their graphic symbol than their grades. We conduct keep rules — living together requires rules — too nosotros are looking for boys who tin flaming abide by authorization too own a wishing to ameliorate themselves,” Debbie says. “These immature men are getting a $60,000 scholarship, too then they demand to survive a expert fit.” Sumber http://www.todayswomannow.com/
When I toured West End School, located at 36th too Virginia Avenue, it had been Debbie Blair’s 3rd tour that day. Despite the typical end-of-the-school-year-chaos — boxes of binders create for storage, loads of laundry needing a wash, too hundreds of partial pigment cans poised inwards military machine precise formations waiting to survive purged — too fifty-fifty despite her retirement beingness solely 6 weeks away, Debbie’s enthusiasm did non wane. This space, a gift from the community, has been a labor of love, too her literal home, since 2005 when her hubby Robert Blair, the erstwhile headmaster of Kentucky Country Day, made his big sentiment for a costless boarding schoolhouse for at-risk middle schoolhouse boys come upwardly to fruition.
Spanning 4.5 acres of Louisville’s Chickasaw neighborhood, Debbie too Robert took the historical site of the Virginia Avenue Colored School, built inwards 1923 during segregation, too made a modest miracle. The site (which most late housed JCPS’s Carter Elementary) is at in ane lawsuit dwelling family to a projected 100 elementary-aged boys inwards the lower school, 25 boarding middle schoolhouse boys, a state-of-the-art athletic middle donated past times Louisville’s ain [former professional person basketball game player] Darrell Griffith, too a maker’s infinite consummate alongside 3-D printers, tabular array saws, too function tables, donated through the UofL Speed School.
“This schoolhouse has been blessed,” Debbie says inwards the foyer, propped upwardly against a grand piano, relishing inwards the generosity that made their humble beginnings a success. “It is too then exciting to encounter people come upwardly too give. The identify runs on volunteers. Thousands of volunteers give hours, teachers remain for years without pay, too the library was made through donations too volunteers who create shelves. [The Louisville Orchestra Music Director] Teddy Abrams came to play for a one-half an hr when this pianoforte was donated to us from the Scottish Light Orchestra.”
They began alongside 3 students too ane teacher, housed inwards a edifice on 17th too Chestnut streets. “We took all comers, whoever showed upwardly at first. We had no idea…” Debbie laughs. Shortly afterwards the school’s inception, the foundation on the boarding family collapsed. Debbie too Robert moved the students to their dwelling family inwards the East End too shuttled them dorsum too forth to schoolhouse each day. These humble beginnings are at in ane lawsuit solely a memory.
The Blairs conduct keep since sold their East End dwelling family too alive at the schoolhouse amid their students, v teachers, too a live-in counselor. The boarding school, consummate alongside beautiful double-paned windows, oriental rugs inwards each room, too the Blair’s dog, is a whole 10-second walk to the classrooms. “No ane has an excuse for beingness late!” Debbie says.
At West End School, boys are expected to alive past times the motto, coined past times French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “To survive a homo is to survive responsible.” This philosophy manifests itself inwards a highly-structured twenty-four hours focused merely about academics, athletics, too character-building. Students are expected to abide by authority, perform at or inwards a higher identify degree level, accept pith academic classes equally good equally unusual language, go too report inwards the summer, too participate inwards all 3 sports teams: track, soccer, too basketball. Middle schoolhouse boys board Sunday-Thursday too follow the schedule below:
7:15 Rise, brand beds, tidy room, room inspections
7:30 Open gym or report hall (for those alongside D’s too F’s)
7:55 Breakfast
8:30-4:30 Classes (including fine art therapy too unusual language) alongside one-hour luncheon break
4:30 Mandatory family cleaning (toilets, urinals, floors, trash, vacuum, dust)
5:00 Athletics practice
7:00 Dinner, 20 infinitesimal showers
9:30 Bed fourth dimension
On Fridays, students go out the schoolhouse to go dwelling family too supply on Lord's Day black for 3 hours of report hall inwards social club to laid upwardly for the adjacent schoolhouse day. “We instruct kids that every activeness has a consequence, positive or negative. We give extra dessert for rewards too go along a tape of when boys go inwards a higher identify too beyond on our responsibleness bulletin board. These boys too their families surrender a lot to survive here.
There is no TV (except for the Super Bowl too NCAA entitle game), no video games or jail cellphone phones; they conduct keep to surrender their friends too typical middle schoolhouse stuff. They conduct keep to cutting their hair. The mothers are heroes to arrive at their sons too trust us each week. She trusts us to ameliorate him, to accept tending of him, to help give him a future. But our boys learn total scholarships to KCD, to Collegiate, to all the overstep schools.”
Although Robert — who Debbie says is the brains behind the outfit too who painstakingly worked to create his vision — is retiring this summer, at that spot are nevertheless several projects inwards the works. The erstwhile “gym” that had no working low-cal too a leaking roof volition at in ane lawsuit learn an auditorium. The erstwhile basketball game court, the solely ane inwards the urban center that had to survive shoveled afterwards a snow, is at in ane lawsuit becoming a courtyard alongside an ampitheater. There are plans for an outdoor scientific discipline classroom, infinite for al fresco dining, too an auditorium lobby consummate alongside ane women’s restroom.
Who tin flaming attend?
Boys must come upwardly from at-risk environments: homelessness, incarcerated parents, poverty, too single-parent homes, for example.
The Blairs believe that raise buy-in is integral inwards the student’s success. Each twenty-four hours parents must go inwards the edifice to drib off or alternative upwardly the kids from lower school. At this time, parents telephone commutation luncheon boxes too touching base of operations nearly anything that mightiness survive affecting the tyke from the black before. This constant communication is a required chemical ingredient of admission.
Each summer, middle schoolhouse candidates must attend summertime schoolhouse to justice whether or non they are a expert stand upwardly for for the boarding school. “We are to a greater extent than interested inwards their graphic symbol than their grades. We conduct keep rules — living together requires rules — too nosotros are looking for boys who tin flaming abide by authorization too own a wishing to ameliorate themselves,” Debbie says. “These immature men are getting a $60,000 scholarship, too then they demand to survive a expert fit.” Sumber http://www.todayswomannow.com/