Charter, YMCA build 'robust' partnership in Atlanta, fuel plans for Cape Girardeau aquatic center project

A successful charter school and YMCA partnership in Atlanta sparked plans to construct an indoor aquatic center on the Jefferson Elementary School campus in Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau public schools superintendent Neil Glass described the charter school and YMCA as "a community center." Glass said, "It got me thinking, 'Hey, this is what we need.'"

Those operating the Charles R. Drew Charter School and the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta East Lake Family Branch describe it as a unique partnership that has benefited both students and the community.

Don Doran, who heads up the charter school, said, "It is a huge win when you have a Y and a school that work closely together."

Parrish Underwood, executive director of the East Lake YMCA, described the partnership as "really robust."

The partnership, which grew out of the Purpose Built Communities redevelopment model, has helped transform a once poverty-stricken and crime-ridden Atlanta neighborhood into a thriving community.

Local city, school and community leaders said Cape Girardeau's struggling south-side neighbhorhood would benefit from a Purpose Built Communities model focusing on education, mixed-income housing and community wellness.

City and community leaders have traveled to Atlanta twice since 2016 to view the progress in the East Lake neighborhood.

In August 2017, city manager Scott Meyer and top officials with the Cape Girardeau School District, including Glass, visited the East Lake neighborhood and came away impressed with the redevelopment success and how schools can contribute to the progress.

A seamless connection

In Atlanta's East Lake neighborhood, the YMCA and the elementary school were constructed at the same time about 20 years ago but by different contractors, according to Doran.

While separate structures, they are physically connected.

The buildings have a matching exterior and similar interior design, Doran said. "Architecturally, it is a match," he said.

The facilities are connected, but have separate heating and cooling systems.

Underwood said, "There is an entryway. Students walk through a door and they are in the Y." They don't have to walk outside to travel to and from the school and YMCA.

"We have a whole generation of kids that are running around our community that don't know the difference between the Y and the school," he said.

Physical education classes for Drew School students, kindergarten through fifth grade, are held in the YMCA.

The YMCA also provides swim classes for Drew School students in second to fifth grades. Swim classes are considered electives for the charter school students, Underwood said.

Instructors for the classes are provided by the YMCA. "We treat it as if they are part of the school faculty," he said.

Underwood said the YMCA provides five physical education classes and two learn-to-swim classes daily.

Drew School pays the YMCA $125,000 annually for providing the classes, including the cost of instructors. The school's faculty and staff receive discounted memberships to the YMCA.

Doran views it as a good deal financially for the school.

"We don't run a swimming pool," he said, pointing out the high expense associated with pool operations.

The YMCA benefits too. The classes allow for use of YMCA facilities during the day when there is limited usage by YMCA members, Doran said.

The school shares its soccer/football field for YMCA activities when needed. Both entities share parking and buses.

Mutual support

"We support one another in a lot of different ways," said Doran, who is a member of the YMCA.

East Lake YMCA operates an early learning center serving children through age 3.

Drew School operates a prekindergarten center for 4-year-olds. Underwood said the YMCA developed the prekindergarten program and then turned it over to Drew School.

The arrangement provides an easy transition for children from one program to the other. Children who attend the YMCA's early learning center have "almost automatic access" when it comes to enrolling in Drew School, he said.

The YMCA's 60,000-quare-foot facility includes not only a gymnasium, swimming pool and early learning center, but also a wellness center housing fitness classes for its members.

Underwood described the swimming pool as a 25-meter, "family pool" with four lap lanes, a shallow area and a zero-depth entry area.

Drew School does not have a swim team. Doran said that is primarily because "I can't figure out a time to get enough lanes to put a swim team in."

But Underwood said the YMCA started its own swim team this year with Drew School students comprising most of the team. "We are able to use the pool with starter blocks," he said.

The pool has no diving boards.

Underwood said the YMCA has about 4,100 memberships, serving about 16,000 people.

Drew Charter School, whose students wear uniforms, has grown from being an elementary school to a campus that includes a separate building for middle school and high school students. Only the elementary school is connected to the YMCA.

Doran said the school's enrollment now totals more than 1,800 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade. "We are in our sixth year of high school," he added.

The school receives tax dollars from the state. It is authorized by the Atlanta public schools but has its own governing board and operates independently of the district.

Economic diversity

The school now serves not only neighborhood children, but children from other areas of the city as well. But Doran said the school still has more than 800 students of "hard-core poverty."

He said, "We have tremendous economic diversity here, but that has come over time."

People initially were reluctant to send their children to the charter school because the previous elementary school there had "such a terrible reputation."

But that changed. Wealthier black families in other parts of Atlanta began enrolling their children in the charter school, Doran said. Soon other parents were pushing to enroll their children in Drew School, which has been recognized for academic achievement.

Drew School has a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) curriculum.

"You don't have economic diversity until you have academic achievement," Doran said.

For parents with financial means, "this is not a mission field for their kids. They will not gamble on their kids' education," he said.

In Cape Girardeau, plans for a $15 million aquatic center depend in part upon Cape Girardeau School District voters approving a bond issue next Tuesday.

Glass, the Cape Girardeau schools superintendent, said he believes a new aquatic center attached to Jefferson Elementary School through a partnership with the city, private investors and possibly a YMCA could revitalize Cape Girardeau's south-side neighborhood in the same way that the Drew School/YMCA partnership transformed the East Lake community.

While the aquatic center would serve the Cape Girardeau Central High School swim team, Glass said that "competitive swimming" is not his first concern.

"We are not just building it for our swim team. We are building it for the community," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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