Black Jet Theory – Volume 2020-12 – Education – Where are the Reformers?
July 17, 2020 by Marshall Snipes
In 1998, the Western Village Elementary School in Oklahoma City was on the verge of closing. Its School Report Card rating was D- and conduct referrals were 37%. Western Village is located in a poor neighborhood in Oklahoma City and its students had little chance to succeed. It was the epitome of an at-risk school with little or no hope for its students. One afternoon in 1998 Stanley Hupfeld, the Chief Executive Officer at Integris Health the state’s largest healthcare system, received a phone call from the state’s juvenile justice office inquiring whether Integris would be interested in handling an afterschool program at Western Village. Integris took the challenge and under the leadership of Lyn Hester, an Integris employee, began the process to ultimately make Western Village successful. Lynn and her team went door-to-door in the neighborhood to determine what the neighborhood needed and wanted. The results were overwhelmingly weighted towards healthcare.
Integris’ mission was to improve the health of the communities it served. Hupfeld’s vision of the mission was broader than just providing health care to the sick and injured. If Integris was going to live up to that mission it had to do more in the community. Among other projects Integris started under Hupfeld’s leadership, Western Village became a priority. Integris started with a free clinic not only to the students and their families but to others in the neighborhood. Hupfeld wanted the school to be the center of the community, a source of pride and a place where hope was real. This big view of Integris’ role in the community led first to the arts then to academics. From providing some volunteer time and money in an after-school program, the school became an enterprise school and later a charter school. This evolution allowed the process to walk before it ran and resulted in the success story it became.
From that first encounter, Hupfeld developed and executed a vision for the school resulting in remarkable success. The Black Jet Theory[i] would conclude the success story should be a role model for public education in America, especially in poor neighborhoods. Western Village, upon Hupfeld’s retirement from Integris, was renamed the Stanley F. Hupfeld Academy at Western Village. Hupfeld Academy is a public neighborhood charter school with a School Report Card B rating. It has achieved success both culturally and academically, has doubled its enrollment with a waiting list, increased its involvement in sports from 23% to 76% and decreased its conduct referrals from 37% to 11%. The schools in surrounding areas, with one exception, are all performing at the D and F levels. The neighborhood has stabilized. Parental involvement in school activities has significantly increased. Hope has been restored not only for the children and parents but for the community as well.
Hupfeld Academy has been completely renovated with state of the art library/media and technology centers, a walking track, and a master staff of teachers on board. Hupfeld features an arts-integrated curriculum with full time specialists in visual art, music, dance/PE, technology and the Schwartz Performing Arts Center has been built. A full-time nurse practitioner and counselor are on staff to serve students’ and their families’ needs and 90% of the students have a mentor.
The uniqueness and the success of Hupfeld Academy was made possible by the involvement of Integris. Hupfeld Academy is a non-profit organization and is part of the overall governance structure of Integris. According to Hupfeld, the success of Hupfeld Academy can be summarized as follows. One: Hupfeld Academy was organized to be governed by a Board of Directors who set policy, determine curriculum, maintain discipline and supervise management of the school. Two:additional funding, beyond the inadequate state contribution, was committed to by Integris, a $250,000 annual amount.
Three: Hupfeld has a principal and an administrator – one focused on curriculum and teachers, and one focused on administration. All employees at Hupfeld Academy including teachers are hired by the principal and administrator and are employees of Western Village, Inc. a subsidiary of Integris Health, except for the administrator and the nurse practitioner who are employees of Integris Health. All employees are paid at the same pay scale and benefit structure as the Oklahoma City School District employed teachers and administrators. Further, in the 20 years of its existence, Hupfeld has had two principals who have provided stability and allowed the neighborhood to build confidence in the school. The turnover among teachers is very low and discipline is a focal point of the school day. Hupfeld Academy has a dress code and pride has been restored.
Four: many of the employees at Integris Health, along with other community participants, volunteer to participate in the mentoring program on a weekly basis. The mentoring program is unique in its organization and is highly structured for maximum benefit to both the mentor and the mentee. Mentees are trained to maximize the time they spend with the students. 90% of the students have mentors, some of whom are members of senior management of Integris Health.
Five: Integris provided, initially, a full-time registered nurse and currently, a full-time nurse practitioner. Not only is the nurse practitioner serving the students but also their parents and other members of the community. The school has experienced little to no vandalism. The school has truly become the cultural center of the community.
There are many other charitable organizations in Oklahoma City who perform valuable services and have no doubt had an impact on some of our students. Some of these include the Whiz Kids mentoring programs, the various athletic programs like Fields and Futures Foundation, and the El Sistema music program sponsored by St. Luke’s Methodist Church and Oklahoma City University. There are dozens of others. All of those organizations are dealing with the results of the problems, chipping away around the edges. They all do great work and provide needed services. But none of those programs are providing a holistic approach to education to get at the root of the problem.
The Black Jet Theory would ask the question – why has Hupfeld Academy not been replicated in a school district that to this day still has F rated elementary schools? The answer falls into two categories, political and financial. The education establishment in Oklahoma City does not like charter schools. Most of that pushback comes from the viewpoint that a typical charter school picks its students not based on geography but based on a selective application process. And, that’s a valid argument. Hupfeld eliminates that argument by being geographically based. Others in the education establishment view charter schools as competition that the public schools cannot compete against. Thus, jealousy sets in.
The second part of the answer is embedded in the fact that organizations who are large enough to make the financial and time commitments have other priorities and have not caught the Hupfeld vision and are hesitant to take on the roadblocks to success. It’s not easy work. The Black Jet Theory would suggest that the business community has not stepped up for whatever reason.
If you believe our Oklahoma City public schools are failing, if you believe that government run schools have not provided the answers, if you believe trying something new that has a proven track record makes sense, then why would you not try to replicate Hupfeld Academy at least one school and one business partner at a time? The private sector has to take the challenge, provide the funds and leadership, and truly believe in reinvigorating our schools and our children with hope. While Hupfeld Academy may not be perfect or even better than other schools, the model makes perfect sense to me.
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[i] The Black Jet Theory is “the notion that most of what currently happens, when viewed through the filter of common sense and critical thinking, leads to a different conclusion, than the widespread view of current thinking by those who control the dissemination and content of information (academia, the media, politicians and other “experts”)”. “Black Jet – Volume 2020-1, May 1, 2020” by Marshall Snipes.
Endnotes: all information above came from either the website of Hupfeld Academy, a visit to the school or several interviews with Stanley F. Hupfeld, the founder of Hupfeld Academy. http://www.wvacademy.com/, https://integrisfoundation.publishpath.com/stanley-hupfeld-academy