The promotion ceremony for 205 eighth graders at Normandy Middle School featured the usual words of encouragement and advice, plus memories of the past three years and more than a few hoots and hollers from family supporters.
But first, they got an apology.
Mike Jones, vice president of the Missouri State Board of Education, told the students that he realized the efforts by education officials in Jefferson City to help Normandy haven’t always succeeded. The district remains unaccredited and is finishing up its first year being run by a state-appointed board.
Before he began his official remarks, Jones told the students and their parents that the state board and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education owe them “a collective apology for failing to provide you with the education experience you should have.”
“It didn’t go like any of us wanted it to go,” Jones told St. Louis Public Radio. “We had good intentions, but good intentions didn’t get it done.”
Specifically, Jones said, when the Normandy School District was dissolved June 30 and replaced with the Normandy Schools Collaborative, letting all employee contracts lapse probably wasn’t the best idea.
“The turnover in the staff didn’t create the upside that we would hope for,” Jones said. “It created a greater disruption.”
Jones’ term as vice president of the board ends at the end of this month. Last month, he said he didn’t want to move up to board president because he wanted to be able to speak more freely on behalf of “those children in places like Normandy that never have anybody in positions of authority and influence make their fate the single most important priority.”
When it was those children’s turn to speak, they represented their classmates in ways that brought laughter and shouts of encouragement from the audience in Viking Hall on the campus of Normandy High School.
Jewell Hall, who welcomed the crowd, spoke of stressful times at the middle school, where Superintendent Charles Pearson has acknowledged academic and other difficulties. But, Hall said, “we did not give up,” and teachers helped them succeed.
The top eighth-grade scholar, Mohammed Ahmad-Gol, reeled off the names of a number of those teachers, thanking them all for their dedication.
Destiny Watson said that she and her family had to decide whether Normandy was the best place for her to continue her education, and her decision to stay “turned out to be better than I imagined.”
Her teachers pushed her and her classmates to their limits, she said, adding: “Not a day goes by that they don’t try to help us and guide us into mature adults.”
Jerrell McKinney, charged with talking about the memories that the eighth graders are taking with them, said, “Tonight, I look into this crowd, and I see some of the smartest kids in the world.”
In his speech, Jones told the eighth graders that they were going through a significant rite of passage.
“You’re not grown yet,” he said, “but you’re no longer a child. You’re making the transition to being an adult.”
He said they should view the life ahead of them as a book with blank pages, where nothing is ever deleted or erased. “The world is going to judge and measure you by what’s on that page,” he said. “Whatever is there, you put there.”
Principal GeNita Williams, who will not be returning to the middle school for the coming school year, had the final words of the evening.
“I’ve seen you guys grow in such momentous ways, outrageous ways,” she said, “and it’s truly touched my heart. I hope that you guys take away the spirit that was generated at the middle school. Always do your best, each and every single day. It is important for you to look good on paper. Please remember that. I love each and every one of you.”
Edited for length and reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.
Follow Dale Singer on Twitter for education news: @Dalesinger.