Greenwood Leadership Academy (GLA ), a Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) partnership school serving TPS students, and the Met Cares Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to building exceptional schools, strong economic development and robust community engagement in North Tulsa, held their first GLA 5K and Fun Run on the morning of Saturday, November 2, 2019, that took walkers and runners through the beautiful, rolling hills in the Gilcrease neighborhood.
Families who are new to the district or have moved over the summer should complete their child’s enrollment before the school year begins on Wednesday, Aug. 21. Students who will be four years old on or before Sept. 1 are eligible to enroll in pre-kindergarten, and the district still has seats available at 30 schools.
My purpose in life is to serve communities where everyone can grow to their highest potential. My work as founding principal at GLA has been in service to that purpose, and I wholeheartedly believe in the mission of GLA to enable our community to continue to manifest its limitless potential. I am yielding to the guidance of a higher power to step aside, not yet fully understanding why, but certain that it is the right thing for me to do at this time, and that hindsight will once again provide validation.
Without partnership schools like Greenwood Leadership Academy, some African American students could end up back in low performing schools that surround Greenwood Leadership Academy. These students, especially African American students, have a higher probability of landing on the infamous school-to-prison pipeline at a lower performing school. Oklahoma currently ranks at the top in the nation for incarceration.
In American schools, black children are less likely to see teachers who look like them, so Kandice’s role is essential for self-esteem building and cultural empowerment for her students of color.
The Black Wall St Times asked T’erra Estes, founder and director of the nonprofit Teach Not Punish. The organization provides a support system that empowers families and professionals by offering educational opportunities that inspire positive behavioral change in homes and the workplace.
When you talk about transforming a narrative and changing a narrative, that is not something that you get to say and then just watch happen. It is a day by day, decisions by decision battle that you have to have internally with yourself, you have to have with the students in your classroom, and you have to have with the families that are bringing these students into our building every day.
