Mom answers call to rally parents at ailing Portsmouth school

PORTSMOUTH

Sonya Branch beamed when a dozen or so parents showed up for community outreach night at Cradock Middle School.

Branch said she hoped to build an official Parent Teacher Association, the first at Cradock in years.

Parents who took the time to attend an event drawing community leaders, school staff and students, all focused on improving the school, could be more inclined to commit to the organization, Branch thought.

About 30 parents had already signed on as PTA members, she said, but none was participating in a significant way. Desperate to establish an executive board that night, she pleaded with parents. They could hold any office they wanted.

"What do you want to be?" she asked. "Give me titles."

Branch got aggressive. She named one parent vice president, another the secretary.

Establishing a PTA could help increase parental involvement and, by extension, improve student behavior and academic performance at Cradock. That, in turn, might help the school earn full state accreditation. For four years straight, Cradock had failed to meet state goals on the Standards of Learning exams, and administrators hoped there wouldn't be a fifth. Norfolk's Lake Taylor Middle is the only other school in South Hampton Roads that has not met the standard four years in a row.

Numerous studies show that parental involvement boosts student achievement. If more Cradock parents helped students with homework, attended parent-teacher conferences and worked to improve the school, test scores, in turn, could rise.

Branch says she was asked by Cradock Assistant Principal William Taylor III to lead the PTA. Branch's ideas impressed him.

"She was somebody who, to me, had children in her best interest," Taylor said.

Branch, a single parent, didn't want to lead the group, b ut she had been involved in the PTA at every school her children had attended and witnessed how the organization could improve a school. She brought that optimism to her first meeting with four members of her newly established board and a parent volunteer.

She wanted to talk about recruiting more PTA members and raising money for Honor Roll bumper stickers and school T-shirts, which she thought would help boost school spirit. But the meeting digressed into a complaint-fest about the school. Several hours later, all the board members had resolved was when they would next meet.

Cradock Middle School draws about 20 percent of its 600 students from Cradock, a neighborhood that has struggled with crime, drugs and blight. The school also receives many students from other neighborhoods in the city's southeast section, some with problems similar to Cradock's.

About 70 percent of Cradock's students qualify for free lunches and, school staff say, many of the students hail from single-parent homes. Cradock teachers and administrators say tough work schedules and a lack of transportation make it difficult for some parents to participate. Parent Mary Lee said she did not attend a February PTA function because she was exhausted after many hours cooking and work ing the cash register at Burger King.

"I was just plain tired," she said.

Getting information about school events into parents' hands can be difficult, Branch said. PTA notices are sent home with students who don't always deliver them, she said.

This school year, Cradock officials say, they have increased phone calls, e-mails and mailings to parents. A disconnected phone line will prompt staff to try emergency numbers, cell phones and even certified mail.

Teachers have even come to school on their days off to make calls, said Cradock Principal Rosalynn Sanderlin.

In the wake of these efforts, administrators were excited to see more than 100 students attend each of four Standards of Learning camps held on Saturdays in April. They also say they have seen attendance increase at parent-teacher conferences. A February Honor Roll assembly honoring more than 100 students drew about 40 parents and guardians, and Sanderlin reported that 55 parents and guests attended a June National Junior Honor Society induction of about 30 students.

Branch says she pitches in regularly to help her 12-year-old son, Micah, with his homework. Micah said his mother drills him on his lessons. "She makes sure that I do my projects," he said.

He said he got high scores on pre-Standards of Learning exams.

Branch finds the time between juggling jobs as a debt collector, hair stylist and support staff member to raise Micah and his older brother. She receives no child support.

Usually, the 38-year-old is smiling and her soprano voice is upbeat. Her determination comes from a strong upbringing. "My parents were accountable to me," she said, referring to her mother, a bank manager, and an extended family that raised her and her brother in Portsmouth. "They made me do homework before anything else."

Branch said she graduated with B's and C's from Cradock High School and aspired to be a lawyer.

That dream exploded during her sophomore year at Norfolk State University, where she was studying pre-law and political science. That year, she learned she was pregnant with her oldest son, Ben.

After having Ben in 1989, she dropped out of school during her junior year, moved into public housing in Portsmouth and went on welfare. "I was determined that that was not something I was going to stay on," she said.

Branch worked on a cosmetology degree, and at night, began styling hair at a salon in a J.C. Penney. She watched Ben during the day, and her mother took care of him at night.

In 1995, she had Micah. She pushed Micah in his stroller while she walked Ben to his school, Douglass Park Elementary. There, she spent the first hours of the day volunteering in the office.

Branch was at the school so often, she said, that she was hired as a teacher's aide. In March 2002, Branch, Ben and Micah were living with Branch's 56-year-old mother, who suffered a massive heart attack that month and died.

Branch said her sons became depressed. Additionally, she said, Ben was getting beat up at Hunt-Mapp Middle School.

Branch decided to seek a fresh start and what she believed would be a better education for her sons in Chesapeake.

The three of them stayed in a hotel for a few months, and Branch used a relative's Chesapeake address so her children could enroll. By the fall, she got a job as a debt collector and began renting an apartment.

She said her sons were getting the attention they needed and began performing well in school. But several years later, in 2005, she said, she had to move the family back to Portsmouth for job and financial reasons.

Micah struggled at Douglass Park Elementary, Branch said. She blamed a lower-caliber of special education services compared with what she said he experienced in Chesapeake.

Branch said she complained several times that the school was not meeting Micah's needs before the situation was improved. By the end of last school year, he was making A's and B's, she said.

"One of my fights is that I want the kids in Portsmouth to have the same advantages that children in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach have," Branch said. "We are a poor area, but that's never been an excuse to me."

As PTA leader, Branch hopes a series of modest victories will eventually yield more impressive results. Several members had raised $200 at a PTA-benefit yard sale in April, helped teachers during Standards of Learning testing weeks and at Saturday Standards of Learning camps, and served a teacher appreciation breakfast.

Cradock Principal Sanderlin recently was named Principal of the Year for secondary schools by the Portsmouth Council of PTAs.

On Memorial Day weekend, Branch and PTA member Vikki Ridley manned tables just blocks from the school and a couple of friends rented tables.

Tenna Miller and her husband were driving through the neighborhood when they spotted the sale signs.

It was the phrase "PTA," not "Yard Sale," that lured the couple to the piles of old clothes and trinkets. They bought about $30 worth of goods. That was more than one-fourth of the money - $110 all told - Branch and Ridley raised that day.

The Millers, former residents of Cradock, had moved from there many years ago after several guys jumped their son near their home.

The PTA's efforts warmed Tenna Miller.

"If more parents in the community got involved," she said, "Portsmouth could be a lot better."

Cheryl Ross, (757) 446-2443, cheryl.ross@pilotonline.com