Another day, another story about me being a loser.

30Aug09

John Brummett has a very nice column today about state Sen. Steve Bryles and his well-deserved win of a new KIPP public school for Blytheville.

The Commercial also has some nice words of consolation for the loser:

“LESSON LEARNED OVER KIPP SCHOOL” — Pine Bluff Commercial editorial board, 8/30/09

KIPP Delta Schools selected Blytheville over Pine Bluff and West Memphis as the first site for a KIPP school outside of Helena in the Arkansas Delta. No one likes coming in second or third when your choice is, well, being first.

Congratulations to Blytheville, a city that also wanted the school for all the right reasons. We may never know all of the reasons Blytheville was picked, but our colleague John Brummett offers a well-reasoned explanation on how Blytheville was chosen in his column elsewhere on this page. The application process considered a number of factors, including local support, parental demand, and availability of facilities and funding.

We’ll be watching closely to see if the success experienced in Helena can be duplicated in Blytheville. We’re betting that it will be.

The winning application included more than 60 personal letters of support from parents, community leaders, and business partners, along with $50,000 in start-up funding for 2010. Blytheville’s community coalition also committed to raising at least $50,000 each successive year.

More than 60 individuals attended a meeting at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center earlier. A number made personal appeals for KIPP to choose Pine Bluff, including Trudy Redus, wife of Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr., who stated supporters will do “whatever it takes.”

Dr. Virginia Hudson “Ginny” Blankenship, a Pine Bluff native, research and fiscal policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock and the leader of the local coalition which totaled some 150, gave a passionate endorsement for Pine Bluff.

KIPP plans on operating 12 schools in three Delta towns within a decade, including the three in Helena-West Helena and the one it will open in Blytheville. If you are interested in dollars and cents, drive down Cherry Street in downtown Helena and the only new buildings carry the KIPP logo.

Blytheville went out of its way to demonstrate repeatedly to KIPP’s board that the once divided and decaying Northeast Arkansas city has learned a valuable lesson in blacks and whites working together for the benefit of the whole community.

Mississippi County Economic Development and the Great River Economic Development Foundation sold an economic development sales tax that helped generate thousands of new jobs.

Arkansas Senate Education Committee Vice Chairman Steve Bryles has been a vocal supporter. More than once he has pointed to local public schools with falling enrollment, noting 94 percent of KIPP Delta College Prep’s seventh-graders scored proficient or advanced on the Arkansas Benchmark Exam in math, compared to 52 percent of Blytheville’s public school students and a 70 percent statewide average.

Since KIPP wants to open two more schools in 2011, Pine Bluff will have another opportunity to attract a charter school where more than 90 percent of the typical students are minorities, and more than 80 percent are growing up in poverty.The free-enrollment schools have been cited for narrowing the achievement gap in public education, with 85 percent of KIPP alumni having gone on to college.

“Our coalition still intends to do whatever it takes to make Pine Bluff KIPP’s next expansion site in 2011, and that work begins today,” Blankenship wrote Wednesday on her blog. “Pine Bluff’s students have already waited long enough.”

The whole city should be grateful to Blankenship, Redus and everyone else who worked hard to bring the school to Pine Bluff. Their commitment will be critical to making it happen in 2011.

. . .

Here’s what it feels like to win:

Would your kids say this about their own schools?

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Tags: Arkansas, education, KIPP, media