The Catherine Ferguson Academy was one of a long list of schools set to be closed at the end of this school year, in order to shrink a budget deficit of around 300-million dollars. Its planned closure made national headlines and sparked protests here in Detroit. CFA is the only school in the city that caters specifically to young mothers and pregnant teens. At the last minute, DPS officials found a charter operator to take over the program. At the announcement, Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts emphasized that the district is in crisis and that the agreement is a win-win.
“We continue with this school who most of us say have done a great job with a great principal. We continue that program. We achieve our goal. We take in one dollar, we’re gonna spend one dollar. That doesn't go away. That’s gonna be a fact of life with us going forward.”
CFA Principal Asenath Andrews spoke after Roberts. She celebrated the announcement.
“I’m overcome with relief that I don’t have to start all over. I don’t know that I had another start all over in me. So this is good news for all those young women who have left us and to those young women who will come to us in the future.”
Not long after she found out about the district’s decision, Andrews addressed her staff at the school.
After the meeting, Andrews and local activists addressed a crowd of around 200 people. They had originally gathered at the school to protest its closure. Dalana Gray graduated from CFA this year. She says she’s happy to hear that her class won’t be the last to graduate from the school.
“It makes me feel so much better that someone else will have the chance I had. I’m just speechless and jittery at the same time.”
Gray says CFA is truly unique.
“Us as moms have to get up in the morning, bath our kids, get their bags together, get our stuff together. We get a car seat or stroller on the bus from the eastside, westside, wherever. Some of us don’t even live in Detroit. We come to this school to get our education here along with our kids. We can’t get that anywhere else.”
Gray points to the school’s well known agriculture program as an example.
“My daughter is four years old and she knows about a garden. She has her own garden in the back of this school. There aren’t a lot of four years old's who can say that.”
Gray says she plans to go to Macomb Community College then to Wayne State University. She says she wants to study business and eventually start her own group home for teen moms. CFA math teacher Tanisha Clay-Oloyede says she too, is happy the school will remain open. She says there was a lot of uncertainty in recent days.
“A lot of the girls were concerned about child care and the safety of their children and things of that nature. They knew here that they had a safe haven, that their children would be provided for and they could provide an education in the process.”
For the activists who fought to keep the school open, the news is bittersweet. They’re happy the doors will remain open but many are angry that DPS is handing it over to a charter operator. Elena Herrada represents Southwest Detroit on the school board and is a longtime community activist. She says the Catherine Ferguson Academy should have never been left with such limited options.
“You either get sold off or you close. I don’t appreciate that those are the two options and I don’t believe it. The option should be to keep the schools open and stop wasting money on consultants, stop wasting money on all the media and everything else. This money could be spent on classrooms and on teachers.”
Actor Danny Glover also attended the rally. As a supporter of traditional public schools, Glover says he had hoped DPS would have kept CFA. He says charter operators redirect much needed money away from districts like DPS. Glover also noted that the CFA announcement was only a minor victory, adding that there is a lot more work to be done.
“I want the crowd to walk away saying I’m gonna reinvest even more energy in this institution to make sure that it is replicated, duplicated in other places in this city. Let this stand as a beacon, not just a singular hope, but a beacon for the whole idea of what education can be.”
Although the Catherine Ferguson Academy received most of the attention, district officials also announced that two other schools, Barsamian and Hancock, will be taken over by the same charter operator. Those programs will move to buildings already used by the charter school. I’m Noah Ovshinsky, WDET News.
