In Brief: Jury convicts Memphis man in 16-year-old's murder From The Commercial Appeal, June 21, 2008    A jury on Friday convicted a Memphis man of felony murder and robbery involving the 2004 shooting death of a high school student whose burning body was found near a bike path near McLean and Chelsea in North Memphis.    Gerraldo White, 19, will be automatically sentenced to life in prison by Criminal Court Judge John Colton Jr.    State prosecutor Glen Baity said White and two other men abducted DeAngelo Shaw on the night of May 26, 2008, and took him to the bike path, where he was robbed of drugs and money and then shot.    They carried him to a grassy area nearby, shot him again and then doused him with gasoline and set him on fire.    Police said Shaw, a 16-year-old student at East High School, had run away from home five days earlier and had been reported missing.    Joshua Taylor, 19, also was charged in the murder. His case is pending.    -- Lawrence Buser Don't call Margaret Taylor retired From "The Columns: Alumni Reviews," The University of Memphis Magazine, Spring, 2008 by Gabrielle Maxey    Margaret Taylor [Faculty 1955-69] ended her 41-year career as a teacher and principal in the Memphis City Schools in 1995, but she's hardly retired. At age 90, she works full time for a mentoring program at East High School designed to generate excitement for learning and give students the necessary tools to graduate and pursue meaningful careers.    Taylor (BS ’63, MA ’66) retired from Grahamwood Elementary School 12 years ago after serving as principal from 1972-96. She quickly returned to school, serving as substitute principal for six years and supervisor of student teachers at the University of Memphis for four years.    Under her direction, Grahamwood was designated a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School of Excellence and was named one of the 10 best schools in the state. Grahamwood was so popular during that time that parents would camp out overnight at the Board of Education just to get to their children spots at the school.    Taylor prefers to share the accolades she earned as an educator. “We had the best faculty, good kids, good, supportive parents, and the Board of Education supported us,” says the lively nonagenarian who wears her hair in a sensible gray bun. Taylor has won a string of personal honors as well. She was named Educator of the Year by the University of Memphis Society and Memphis' Outstanding Senior Citizen by the Downtown Kiwanis Club.    Taylor was tapped for the Peer Power program by businessman and benefactor Charles McVean ['61], who established the Greater East Foundation in 2004. McVean, a 1961 East High graduate and former student of Taylor's, donated $1 million to the school to pay for extra support teachers, building improvements and payments to students who make good grades and who tutor other students. Under the pay-for-performance plan, students make $10 an hour for tutoring math, English and science. The students who attend tutoring sessions, called “scholars,” can earn incentives for good grades.    Tutoring is done for an hour after school Monday through Thursday and three hours on Saturday. East added an eighth period at the end of the day, with only tutoring allowed during that time. Athletics, cheerleading, choir and other activities must wait until after tutoring.    There are 35 to 40 tutors at East, upperclassmen recruited from the ranks of honor students. They tutor about 100 scholars. Tutors train three days a week for around an hour and a half and teach six to eight hours a week. Tutors are paid for the time they train as well as their teaching. “The tutors benefit by the additional training in communication, academic skills and leadership,” says foundation director Bill Sehnert. “They work nine to 12 hours a week, so they don't need to get a job outside of school.”    Scholars and tutors also have a chance to win cash and other prizes in weekly and six-week grading period team competitions. Teams earn points based on quizzes, tests, attendance, and class and conduct grades.    Many students in Memphis City Schools are classified as economically disadvantaged, says Sehnert. A large number come from single-parent homes, which generally have lower incomes than two-parent families. The way to break the cycle of poverty, says Sehnert, is education. “We want the students to see the connection between hard work, good grades and rewards for performance,” he says. “We take kids and advance them a little every day. We make incremental advances. We try to improve not only their grades, but their conduct.”    The results have been impressive since the program was launched three years ago. Of students who attended tutoring last year, 100 percent passed their algebra Gateway exam, compared to 72 percent schoolwide. Of seventh and eighth-graders who were tutored, 100 percent passed the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test last year, with 51 percent scoring advanced in math. In addition, all of the tutors went on to attend four-year colleges.    The Peer Power model was created so that other schools can adopt it. The program already is in place at Whitehaven High School. “Margaret Taylor is blessed and also a blessing by being productive in a vital field into her 90s,” says Anne Freeman, who established the program at Whitehaven with her husband, Dr. Jerre Freeman. “She has a ready and contagious laugh, a face full of life and a quick wit. I've seen her laughing at a joke while some friends decades younger are still scratching their heads.”    McVean has similar praise. “ ‘Lady Margaret’ taught me eighth-grade math at East High School in 1956 through '57,” he says. "She is every bit as sharp now as she was more than 50 years ago. Margaret makes a huge contribution to our program at East and is an inspiration to me each and every day. She is a wonderful living example of what the Greatest Generation was all about.”    Taylor is usually at East by 8 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays. “Sometimes I stay until 4:30, 5, sometimes 7,” she says. Taylor takes Fridays off since there is tutoring on Saturdays. She reserves some Fridays for trips to casinos in Tunica. (“I take $50 with me. When I spend what I took, I’m done,” she explains.) Taylor also has been active in Leadership Memphis, the Kiwanis Club, the Germantown Education Commission, the Memphis Symphony League and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.    How does she manage when many others her age have retired? “I keep on keeping on,” says Taylor. “It keeps me involved. It's a challenge. I like to see kids learning.”    Tutors and scholars at East begin each learning session by saying a creed which begins “I want to be somebody some day.” Most would agree that Margaret Taylor is someone indeed. Alumni reaching back to help students at former school Assisting with tutoring, mentoring, keeping history alive From The Commercial Appeal, March 19, 2008 Alumni reaching back to help students at former school Assisting with tutoring, mentoring, keeping history alive By Lindsay Moore Monday, May 19, 2008    Mattie Brown Guy never attended the new, modern Manassas High School.    But she walks the halls as if it were her own.    Students in the cafeteria shout greetings and make room for her at a table.    Guy, class of '54, is a fixture among the alumni who are at Manassas every Tuesday. She never misses a program or sporting event, and students say she doesn't sugarcoat the truth.    High school administrators say they need more like her.    With schools feeling pressured from the outside and the inside, alumni can be a valuable resource, administrators say, providing financial assistance, tutoring and mentoring, while also helping to instill a sense of history, school spirit and pride in today's students.    "If we don't help them, who will help them?" asks Guy, surrounded in the Alumni Room at Manassas by decades-old memorabilia.    It was the alumni who bolstered the students after a shooting there last October.    "They let it be known it was an accident and our school is not bad," said DeMarcus Douglas, 17, who graduated on Saturday. "They stood behind us."    East High model    Many see the Greater East High Foundation as a model of how alumni can help.    The foundation, which has received national recognition, was created by Charles McVean, class of '61. Among it's many functions, the foundation pays students to tutor others after school.    "We have identified the most underutilized resource in our city today, the top performing students at these inner city high schools," said McVean, chairman and CEO of McVean Trading and Investments.    Known at East as "Charlie Mustang," a nod to the school's mascot, McVean has funded lunch for 200 during parents' meetings and routinely supplies outside speakers to inspire the students. Recently, visitors from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange exposed students to a new world of possibilities.    East principal Fred Curry is the first to credit McVean's involvement at East for bolstering test scores and school pride.    "He has the right idea in terms of trying to get pride back in school and in terms of getting alumni back in these schools and to assist schools," Curry said.    McVean's idea is also being used at Whitehaven High School, where Dr. Jerre Freeman sponsors the Greater Whitehaven High Foundation.    Dr. Vincent Hunter, principal and member of the class of '82, has proof the program works.    "Our scores went from 68 percent to 85 percent proficiency in one year."    Some hard to reach    As accepting as some students are of the alumni, in many schools there is a large part of the student body -- teens dealing with bad grades, crime-ridden neighborhoods, uninvolved parents or gang recruitment -- who past graduates don't reach.    "What we have to do is figure out a way to turn these kinds around who are headed in the wrong direction," says McVean.    He's planning a tutoring program for the students who are not college-bound.    The Greater East foundation plans to train 50 tutors at the University of Memphis this summer. If Memphis City Schools gives its approval, the foundation will pay them to work with students.    While intervention might work, others say programs need to bring in some younger alumni to make an impact on students who are harder to reach.    At Manassas, most active former students graduated in the '40s, '50s and early '60s, said Nadie Kinnard, president of the Manassas Alumni Association.    She said the students "think we think everything they do is wrong," said Kinnard, class of '65. "They need somebody that understands their language, why they do what they do."    Manassas alumni have raised money and maintained a college scholarship program but have been unable to establish a formalized mentor program, Kinnard said. Money always helps, but it's not the only answer.    "You've got to have some people power," Kinnard said. "Younger people can relate to these students better than I can."    -- Linda A. Moore: 529-2702    School Volunteers    Adult volunteers at Memphis City Schools must submit to a background check and meet other criteria.    To learn more, call 416-7600 or go online to mcsk12.net and click on Volunteer Services at the bottom of the site index list to the right of the page.    [A photo which accompanied this story is not included here.] East High Foundation Gains Admin Friend ANDY MEEK | The Daily News Monday, April 21, 2008    President George W. Bush did not forget about his impromptu encounter late last year with a Memphis businessman and a University of Memphis student.    The two Memphians had crossed paths with the president in December at a political fundraiser in Omaha, Neb. Local commodities trader Charles McVean ['61] and U of M student Cortney Richardson flew to the event and approached Bush with the goal of selling him on the strengths of an emerging academic foundation at East High School.    McVean, an East alum, started the foundation in 2004 with the basic idea that upperclassmen at the school would be paid $10 an hour to tutor their fellow students. Richardson is involved with the program as a tutor.    During their encounter with Bush in Omaha, where the president had traveled to support the U.S. Senate candidacy of former Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, the president told his personal assistant to give the pair from Memphis a business card. A packet of material describing the East High program was then forwarded to the White House.    Bush eventually asked John Bailey, a domestic counsel affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education, to get back in touch with the backers of the local program known as the Greater East High Foundation. That's what led to a 45-minute conference call last week involving McVean, foundation director Bill Sehnert and Bailey as the representative of the education department.    Taking the next step    Bailey, impressed with the pitch he was given, at one point asked the East High officials, "What can we do to help?"    "Charlie said, 'Well, what you can do to help is we believe that a proliferation of these types of private foundations that are privately funded around the country could receive grants from the government or from other private foundations that would pay for performance,'" Sehnert recalled. "And (Bailey) thought that was a good idea.    "They liked the idea of each foundation basically working with one or two schools, because that way the money goes more to the tutors and to the students in incentives rather than to a large organization."    Bailey already had read up on the program before last week's phone call. But he also requested more written information on things such as the program's intent to hire additional tutors and the impact of those additions.    That supportive nod from the nation's capital, meanwhile, joins encouragement from the public and private sectors around the country for the local academic program. After a recent visit to Bolivar County, Miss., for example, one of McVean's friends in the area decided to help launch a version of the academic tutoring program there.    At the program's three-year anniversary celebration last year, a panoply of notable guest speakers was brought in to praise the effort. Among those people was Clear Channel Communications co-founder and Texas billionaire Red McCombs.    Creating masters    And the East High program, which started out as a way McVean figured he could give back to his alma mater and have his money put to productive use, is growing. New college-age tutors will be added to the program's lineup for the next school year.    "We're going to hire 25 college tutors for next year," Sehnert said. "And we're going to try to use those tutors during the day. They will be math, science and engineering students, so they will have the subject content knowledge.    "One of the problems in our schools is that we give kids many, many different choices, so they become masters of nothing. And then when they graduate, if they do graduate from high school, they're not really very well-versed in math or very well-versed in science or very well-versed in English."    Interest in the program is blossoming in other corners. Backers of the foundation have met with officials at Douglass High School in Memphis with the hope of starting a version of the program there. At the moment, East High foundation supporters closer to home are especially eager to bolster the program's lineup of tutors.    "That," Sehnert said, "will be a walking demonstration to kids that they can succeed." How we met: Couple 'In the Right Time' for love Professionals find vision and fulfill their destinies By Anita Houk Special to The Commercial Appeal Sunday, April 6, 2008    "Ricky's vision," his bride, Gwendolyn, explains, "is to help people be their very best, and that's right in line with my vision as well: helping people understand how to get to the next level toward their purpose, their destiny."    Who knew, they marvel, that when she attended and he emceed a 2006 Habitat for Humanity Women Build fund-raiser that they were fulfilling their destinies to build their lives together?    "The theme of our wedding," Ricky L. Tucker ['75] inserts, "was 'In the Right Time.'"    And so it was that in the right time a mutual friend introduced them.    "I was the manager of diversity and inclusion at International Paper," says Gwen J. Nicholson Tucker. "He told me about being an executive coach, and I thought, wow, this might be an opportunity to understand better what he does in terms of coaching, about young professionals moving up in the organization, and specifically African-American males and what skills and tools they need to move up in corporate America.    "That was Sept. 7, 2006, we met. We exchanged business cards."    A few contacts later, Gwen invited Ricky, who owns Rix International, to her office to discuss his proposal to work with IP employees. At that first meeting, he had made an impression.    "Ricky said that as he was building the executive coaching business, that it was developing his character. I don't hear many people talk about developing their character. People talk about what they do, but not about evolving in their character. So that was something that really stood out to me."    They talked business -- "I felt that I was getting grilled!" he admits -- and at some point he volunteered his professional package for auction at her church fund-raiser. And then ....    "I went to this one appointment so that I could secure the business (with IP)," Ricky says, "but between the time I went there and the time I left, it was decided."    "...We couldn't pursue the business part of the equation," says Gwen.    They were discussing assessment tools and personality profiles. He knew his. He asked about hers. At first she recoiled, but then took the risk. "I'd never shared anything of that magnitude," she admits.    He realized the import. "I definitely don't mix business with pleasure," Ricky says, "and I don't take advantage of people. I think I said something to her like, 'I don't have mine but my kimono is open, so if there's anything you want to ask me, you can.' "    "As I think about it," Gwen continues, "there were certain gates of trust that had to be passed through, and that was me taking a risk to trust him. It was a risk that I took. I found out it was (trust) well-placed. I think this must have been the second or third time that we had met."    They had learned about each other quickly. He's from Memphis, graduated from East High, University of Tennessee-Knoxville and has worked toward a master's degree. He's 51, divorced, has lived in Indiana and visited South Africa.    "My prayer was to grow to an international business" and return to South Africa and do good, he says. But then: "When there were straight-line winds in Memphis, my cousin was in an accident and in a coma; he passed away. He had two children. Now, when my mom passed away, his mom had stood in the gap, she was there for me; so I said, I have to come here for him."    That was 2002, two years after Gwen had moved from her home state of Florida to Memphis for her job at International Paper. While she wasn't looking for a husband, "I'd really been praying for a long time to be married to the right man, the husband that God had prepared for me," says Gwen, 48. "One of the things I've longed for is for the man I'm to marry to ask for my hand in marriage, regardless of how old I am. And he did that."    They met in September; he proposed in November. He met her family and friends and passed all their tests. She was delighted: "I didn't wait this long to get married to get it wrong!"    They married April 28, 2007, at The Life Church of Memphis. She has joined Ricky at Rix International, and they do business as a team.    "I had this vision in my mind that I would probably die alone and lonely," Ricky says. But instead, he found "my soulmate."    "He calls me My Joy," says Gwen, beaming. "My middle name is Joy, but he says My Joy." Alumnus featured in column: "80 percent of poor Americans work" The road from government aid to self-sufficiency often not a smooth one By Wendi C. Thomas The Commercial Appeal Sunday, March 30, 2008    Poverty in Memphis looks a lot like Taurus Green.    In fact, 80 percent of the poor people here are single moms and their children.    Green, 30, is raising her three daughters in a drafty duplex in Parkway Village.    She dropped out of South Side High School in the 12th grade, but earned a GED from a program she later found out wasn't certified. She can't afford a car, so her world is limited to where she can get rides or where the bus goes.    Best-case scenario: She earns $800 a month cleaning houses. That's $9,600 a year, which puts her at less than half of the federal poverty level for a family of four -- $21,200.    But you can't raise a family on $800 a month, so Green receives government assistance. There's about $400 a month in food stamps for her girls, 22-month-old Makayla, 7-year-old Jada and 13-year-old Candace. Section 8 pays for her apartment and part of her staggering utility bill.    Overweight, Green vows that this month is the month her diet and exercise program will begin in earnest. She takes a handful of pills daily for high blood pressure and diabetes.    And for many people, including most who have never been poor, that's all they need to know about Green and her family.    The thinking goes like this: Green made poor choices and now, she's paying for them. No, correction, taxpayers are paying for Green's poor choices.    For those whose safety nets have safety nets, it can be difficult to muster any compassion for Green.    After all, no one made her get pregnant. No one made her drop out of high school. No one made her have three children, all by different fathers, only one of whom is involved in his daughter's life.    But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were he alive today, might see Green's fate a bit differently. He would have less judgment for how Green got where she is. He would want to know how America planned to help Green and the other 35 million Americans who live in poverty.    When King was assassinated, he was in the midst of planning a Poor People's Campaign, an effort that was unpopular even among his civil-rights compatriots. The campaign, which culminated posthumously with a monthlong settlement camp of poor Americans on the National Mall in Washington, demanded that the government provide more jobs with a decent wage, better unemployment insurance and higher-quality public education to prepare children for the workforce.    "Instead of spending $35 billion every year to fight an unjust, ill-considered war in Vietnam and $20billion to put a man on the moon, we need to put God's children on their own two feet," King said on March 18, 1968, in speech to striking Memphis sanitation workers.    But to be fair, poverty 40 years ago didn't look like poverty today. Then, poverty was starvation, homes with rodent and insect infestation but no heating or indoor plumbing.    And that's not to say that there aren't poor people in America living in such situations. But Green and her family do have food, shelter and clothing. There is just little room in her budget for extras and certainly no money for emergencies.    Even the $6 it cost for her daughter Jada's field trip to Pink Palace is a strain.    A former resident of the Dixie Homes housing project, she moved into her duplex in July and has received job training through Memphis Hope. For her perfect attendance and stellar performance in a job-training class, she got a computer, which she used to make fliers for the residential-cleaning business she hopes to start.    The computer is now unusable, felled by a virus and Green isn't sure how to fix it.    Besides, a computer isn't a necessity. What she needed more than a computer was new shoes. Hers had holes in them, and she suspects walking to and from the bus stop with wet feet is probably what made her sick with the flu.    So when she got her tax refund, it was quickly spent -- on shoes for her and clothes and shoes for her children. On buying the dryer she'd been renting. On a working TV. Life insurance policies for her children. Stocking up on canned goods. And paying all her bills, including an overdue $500 utility bill, through April.    Like 80 percent of poor Americans, Green works. She has a few regular clients, but if they go on vacation or just don't need her that week, she doesn't get paid.    In late March, she had $2.41 in her checking account and $14 in her savings account.    She used to get $142 each month in cash assistance, but last month, she turned that down. The check came with strings -- including a requirement to spend 30 hours each week either at work, school or in volunteer service, but volunteering just a few blocks away at her daughter's school didn't count.    Green knows her time on welfare is running out. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act limits benefits to 60 months over a lifetime, with some exceptions for aid to children.    Green estimates she may have two years of that five years left.    "That's one of the reasons I gave the check up. ... I wanted to see if I could do it myself."    * * *    That's a myth about the poor -- that they don't want better for themselves. That they don't want to work, that they're lazy.    "Sure, that group is there," says Doug Imig, professor at the University of Memphis and fellow at the Urban Child Institute. But that group gets magnified well beyond its size, and examples of fraud are held up as the norm rather than the exception.    More importantly, says Imig, "We need to pause and realize we hold completely contradictory attitudes" about poor people.    On one hand, Imig says, we believe poor people are a crafty bunch, adept at scamming the system so they can collect a check. But at the same time, we believe that they must be dumb, because otherwise, they'd figure out a way to escape poverty.    But moving from poverty to self-sufficiency is rarely a smooth transition free from setbacks.    Imig has his urban-policy students meet in the Walgreen's lot at Poplar and Cleveland.    The students are to pretend as if they have a baby in arms and just 20 minutes to find dinner before catching the next bus home.    Will they try to cross Poplar to go to Kroger -- and if so, will they spend part of that 20 minutes sorting through the produce for the most healthful food available? Or will they pick up a quart of milk at Walgreen's? Or will they stay on the same side of the street and grab some fast food from McDonald's?    "It's hard to be poor and this is a city that's hard to be poor in," unlike other cities that have efficient mass transportation, Imig says.    Many Americans earning a middle-class income are still just a paycheck or two away from poverty, and but for the safety nets they have -- families with financial resources, property that can be pawned, even the smallest of nest eggs -- they, too, might find themselves in need of welfare.    Welfare, Imig says, can be likened to a hospital room with two beds.    "In one bed, there's someone who stays for just six months. And the other bed, a new patient comes every day," says Imig, who has a "Poverty Sucks" sticker on his office printer.    "Yes, both beds are occupied all the time, but 98 percent of the use is short-term."    The new patient would be Lashadran Nelson [class year undetermined], who is well on her way to moving off government assistance.    Nelson, 21, had graduated from East High by the time she had Aniyah, who turned 2 in January. Aniyah's father, his family and Nelson's mother and grandmother were there with cameras when Aniyah, dressed like a little angel, won a fashion show at her Binghamton day care center.    Welfare reform forced Nelson, and thousands of other Memphis mothers who receive government assistance, into a workforce-readiness program at BRIDGES.    Nelson came to the Downtown center last July with a bad attitude, a pierced eyebrow and yellow hair she later dyed hot red. Her clothes were better suited for a night club than an office.    But that was before she was taught what it'd take to succeed in a professional environment, lessons her mother, who is an IT coordinator for BRIDGES' workforce-development arm, had tried to teach her but Nelson wouldn't listen.    "My attitude has really improved," says a poised Nelson over dinner, her brown hair braided neatly.    But, Nelson admits, "It took someone else to tell me."    That someone else was Pam McCoy. Dr. McCoy, director of supportive services for BRIDGES' Work Bridge program, who is proud to tell you she went from a GED to a Ph.D.    McCoy, 51, dropped out of high school and had her first child at 15. She married her daughter's father, but was separated just a few years later and divorced in eight years.    Unmarried, she relied on the government for help, following in the single-motherhood path traveled by her mother and her grandmother.    But then she got a break, a break that makes the difference between failure and success: Patient teachers and a devoted financial-aid counselor at what was then Shelby State Community College.    Her first day at junior college in 1977, she showed up wearing a halter top and too-tight jeans, sporting red hair and a gold tooth right in front.    "With the attitude I had, the first week, I ended up cussing out the dean of students," probably over her financial aid, she assumes.    "My mindset was, 'You owe me something.'"    The kindness of her teachers softened her spirit. After she got her degree in counseling at Shelby State, she was hired as an academic adviser. And she had her gold tooth replaced with a natural-colored one.    In 1991, she got her bachelor's degree in human relations from Western Illinois. She moved to Tulsa, Okla., and earned her master's degree in counseling from Oral Roberts University in 1996. Her Ph.D. came from Jacksonville Theological Seminary in 2003.    When McCoy -- affectionately called "Madear" by younger BRIDGES clients and staffers -- talks to recalcitrant mothers uninterested in the training program, she does so with the special insight of having been where they are now.    "You're setting yourself up for defeat," she tells them, when they come in with pierced lips and unusual hair colors. Society will judge them on their appearances -- that's reality, so deal with it.    Yes, it's hard to be a single mother navigating an often-unfriendly system, when you're so easily knocked off course by a sick child or a late bus.    "Sometimes we beat ourselves down and we refuse to come up and come out of that," McCoy says.    But, McCoy says, "Once we change our thinking, we can change our life."    For Nelson, her thinking changed when Aniyah was born. "When you have a child, it's not about you no more."    After her classes at BRIDGES were over, she was hired there part-time, and in that job, she and another BRIDGES graduate transformed the transportation-payment system from a daily time-sucker to an orderly process that happens just once a week. Her initiative -- seeing and solving a problem -- impressed McCoy and others. And last month, BRIDGES hired Nelson full-time.    When the new BRIDGES workforce classes begin on Mondays, it's Nelson who gives a pep talk to the women, most of whom are as reluctant to be there as she was.    "You can't look and them and say, 'They're not going to do anything' because I had that same expression on my face."    Still, the transition hasn't been easy. In her first few weeks as a full-time employee, in her first professional job, she sneaked into a bathroom stall to cry.    Nelson was overwhelmed by all the work, she explained when her mom saw her tear-stained face.    But she was also crying for joy.    "I am so proud of myself." Back in the saddle Stable operators treat horses like athletes From The Commercial Appeal, March 13, 2008 Back in the saddle Stable operators treat horses like athletes By Chris Van Tuyl Thursday, March 13, 2008    Trey Lawson has an accounting degree from Ole Miss, but the 26-year-old's office setting isn't typical. On any given day, he can stomp around 65 acres.    Lawson has returned home to Olive Branch to work with his parents, Wes [Lawson ('68)] and Rose Marie [Manning ('73)] Lawson, at Oak View Stables, an equestrian training center that has been operating in the Mid-South since Oct. 1, 1977.    "Ole Miss treated me well, but I was ready to come back to work and play with the horses a little bit," Trey said.    "It's an addiction in the blood. When you grow up with it, it's hard to move away from it. You're stuck with it one way or another."    For Trey, it's a good kind of "stuck." He's surrounded by beginner, intermediate and advanced riders every week.    "We take them as early as about 5 or 6 and work 'em on up as far as they want to go," he said. "We've got people that are happy to sit there and walk around in circles, and we've got people who are ready to gallop at the next big jump in front of them."    Oak View opened its doors in Germantown but moved to 13600 Looney Road in Olive Branch a little over a decade later.    "It's been a beautiful life in DeSoto County," Rose Marie said. "I love it."    The horses certainly aren't complaining.    "Everybody is checked on everyday," said Trey, "most of the time more than once. They have blankets that come on and off with the weather. They have their own medications, their own speciality diets, their own particular brand of hay -- it just depends.    "They're professional athletes and we treat them as such. A lot of times, as a professional, we all wish we could be as well-treated as our horses."    In the next couple of months, it will be prime time for shows and summer camps at Oak View. The next Hunter/Jumper Show is scheduled for May 31, while four sessions of camps begin June2. That means plenty of excitement -- even for Wes.    "I rode horses as a kid," he said, "but I think my wife married me because I knew how to operate a shovel."    On a serious note, Wes is the chief groundskeeper, yet his feet aren't always on the ground.    "He very much appreciates any hauling jobs he can get," Trey said. "He'd take horses all the way to Canada and back if need be."    For more information on Oak View Stables, visit the Web site oakviewstables.net or call (662) 895-4544. Don't judge East by actions of a few From Letters to the editor, The Commercial Appeal, March 3, 2008 Don't judge East by actions of a few    It is quite unfair to categorize the East High student body as uncivilized because of the actions of a few students, as the writer of a Feb. 28 letter to the editor did [see below]. He is obviously basing his opinion on mere observations and not facts. I'm sure if he truly paid attention, he would see that it is the same students who cut across his yard each day, not the entire student body.    I am a proud 2003 graduate of East High, and I recently received a B.S. degree from Middle Tennessee State University. I also have classmates who have gone on to graduate from institutions such as Morehouse University, Clark-Atlanta University, Dartmouth University and MIT, just to name a few. Several people who are employed in the medical field in Memphis are products of East's optional Health Sciences program and the Health Occupations Students of America program the school provides. I believe we are very productive, civilized citizens of Memphis.    Although I do believe that some people need to better their parenting skills, you can't expect the school to pick up where parents leave off. That's what a community is for, or at least that was the original idea. If the writer is so concerned about the behavior of these students, who apparently reside in his community, maybe he should mentor them instead of criticizing them.    Kearea Ellis    Memphis East students are uncivilized From Letters to the editor, The Commercial Appeal, February 28, 2008 East students are uncivilized Thursday, February 28, 2008    The author of your Feb. 21 letter "High expectations are the answer," [see letter below] East High School principal Frederick W. Curry, would do well to observe the behavior of some of the East pupils when they leave school at the end of the day.    If indeed he thinks these pupils conduct themselves as members of a civilized community, he is sadly mistaken. I live in close proximity to East, and I see and hear the way those so-called students behave.     Fist fights, yelling obscenities at each other, walking across people's yards -- these are the order of the day. Shirts are hanging out of trousers, which are worn to the point of hardly covering body parts that civilized society expects to be covered.    These students Curry seems to be proud of have picked flowers from my garden and thrown stones at my dog. The blame for this behavior obviously falls on the parent/parents. Since they have failed, we hope the school will pick up where society has not.    The letter also stated that each East staff member is asked to mentor one student. Unless the ratio of staff to student is one for one, then I believe the majority of these students do not experience this encouragement.    The community judges East by the observed behavior of its students. While success may be observed inside East, it certainly is not displayed in the neighborhood in which these students live.    Finally, I would like to share this thought: "Self praise is no recommendation."    John Nicholas    Memphis High expectations are the answer From Letters to the editor, The Commercial Appeal, February 21, 2008 High expectations are the answer Thursday, February 21, 2008    I applaud Mayor Willie Herenton for his leadership and concern for our plight as educators (Feb. 14 article, "Beefing up school safety"). Metal detectors and more police reinforcement seem to be the way of large urban school districts. These strategies will definitely quell the violence. But is this what we really need in our schools?    It has been my experience, as a principal, assistant principal, teacher and football coach, that high expectations and character education for all students make schools safe. Students rise or fall to expectations set for them.    We do not have a Memphis Police Department officer assigned to our school. Instead, my staff members are asked to mentor one student. We believe high expectations are taught through good teacher-student relationships. At East High School, we expect our students to conduct themselves as members of a civilized community.    When I arrived at East there was much chaos with an officer assigned to our school. Some students who have succumbed to a lifestyle of gang violence may see it as a "badge of honor" to be arrested or to challenge police authority. It has continued to be my observation that corporal punishment and a stronger Memphis police presence in the school lower expectation. This is evidenced at East High School, as we have experienced decreased numbers of Memphis police calls and discipline referrals over a three-year period with no police presence and no corporal punishment.    We have maintained high expectations for our entire student body, and they do a great job of governing themselves accordingly.    I also believe children must be taught how to behave. We have found that teaching them to "use your inside voice, tuck in your shirt, and walk to the right of the hall," are important elements of behavior for children.    Methods we use to teach good character and behavior include requiring our students to learn the school creed and school poem, "Invictus." We also enlighten our students school-wide through announcing daily character words, having character assemblies, and showing great movies like "Akeelah and the Bee."    Older students at East mentor and tutor younger students after school through our "Peer Power" program. We use "Trust Pays" as a tool for students to take ownership of their school. They are rewarded when they report instances of crime and graffiti to trusted adults.    I am convinced that high expectation and good character translate into a safe environment. I am proud to report that these things work for us at East High School, and can work at all high schools.    Frederick W. Curry    Principal, East High School    Memphis Alumnus opens new store From The Commercial Appeal, February 2, 2008 Vineyard vines spreads to Memphis Clothing fashion shop opens at Regalia site By David Flaum Saturday, February 2, 2008    Almost as quietly as vines grow, vineyard vines, the retailer of bright-colored, preppy fashion, opened its first Memphis store Friday.    The joint venture with Oak Hall, which has sold vineyard vines goods for several years, is next to the Oak Hall store in Regalia Center.    "We've been working on this for three months and it all came together this week," said Bill Levy, co-owner of Oak Hall...    The Oak Hall and vineyard vines folks hope to use the grand opening event to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a charity Oak Hall has long supported, Levy said. Pediatric oncology is also an interest of the vineyard vines leaders, he said.    The store may set aside a percentage of sales revenue for grand-opening week for St. Jude and try to give St. Jude patients gifts -- hats or shirts -- from the store, he said.    In addition, the owners will look into creating a vineyard vines product line from which profits would go to St. Jude, Levy said. Peer Power program at East High appeals to entrepreneurial spirit of student tutors From The Memphis Business Journal, January 18, 2008, posted January 31, 2008 Memphis Business Journal - by Karen Ott Mayer Friday, January 18, 2008    Peer Power represents the best marriage of business and education.    When local businessman and founder of the Greater East High Foundation, Charles McVean ['61], formed the foundation for the express purpose of funneling private funds into a single public school, he stepped into uncharted territory.    What he believed, however, was that by tying simple business principles to an incentive-based tutoring program, educational performance just might improve.    "We are students of global economics," says McVean, who has personally invested $2 million in foundation programs over the past three years. "Unless we can impact the next generation of kids, America doesn't have a chance to continue being a world leader."    More importantly, Peer Power recognizes an untapped resource within East High School: "The most underutilized resource is the top-end kids in inner city schools," he says.    Peer Power treats top-notch students as employees, effectively making their tutoring role also their first job where they are paid at least $10/hour to tutor.    This past year, the program's third year, 250 students participated. Tutoring happens four days during the week and for at least three hours on Saturday.    Besides collapsing the teacher ratio from 25:1 to 2:1, Peer Power seeks to change culture.    "We recognize that the strongest influence on a 7th grade child is a high school student," McVean says. "They look up to them for good or bad. By making this program the desired, elite activity, we can do things like replace gang activity with a competitive team identity. And as business people, we know people respond to monetary incentives."    And it's working.    In 2006, 97% of those tutored (called scholars) passed the Tennessee standardized Algebra I Gateway exam, compared to only 52% of the untutored. In 2007, that number jumped again, with 100% of scholars passing the exam.    Alyssa Carter, now a sophomore at the University of Memphis, became a Peer Power tutor in 2005, helping tutor football scholars in math.    "I think the most surprising thing I've seen is how motivated kids are," Carter says. "They can relate to someone their own age."    Students like Carter submit to a formal hiring process.    "Tutors participate in 80 to 100 hours of paid training during the summer," says William Sehnert, foundation director. "Before that, we ask for a faculty recommendation and students must display honor conduct and be involved in the school as a whole."    Another important feature of Peer Power is the team approach. Scholars are broken into teams and compete through quizzes, attendance and conduct.    "Every six weeks, teams are eligible for monetary incentives of $75 and $100," Sehnert says.    Perhaps the most exciting part of Peer Power for McVean and his team is that the program can be easily duplicated, and his primary objective is to see it replicated nationwide. In the past year, it has been replicated with success at Whitehaven High School where the program is funded by Jerre Freeman.    "It is management intensive and takes qualified, motivated people to support it, but with the support of the school administrations and strong discipline, anyone can have results comparable to our success," McVean says.    An early challenge McVean encountered at East High was the lack of discipline: "When we went into the school three years ago, it was bad. You couldn't hear over the noise in the halls."    McVean says that the support of East High principal Fred Curry and the administration has been essential.    "Teachers in public schools often get too much blame for education problems," he says. "They signed up to teach, not raise kids. What we've got is a broader societal problem stemming from the failure of the traditional family unit."    In this light, McVean explains that tutors accept an even greater role.    "Tutors are qualified to help in the teaching of intangibles, acting almost like surrogate parents to the younger kids," he says.    Greater East High Foundation    Chairman: Charles D. McVean    Address: 850 Ridge Lake Blvd., Suite 1    Phone: (901) 761-8400    Web site: www.easthighfoundation.org Memphian set for Tennis Hall induction From The Commercial Appeal, January 15, 2008, posted January 16, 2008 By Phil Stukenborg Tuesday, January 15, 2008    She had been invited by friends last summer to The Racquet Club to play tennis, the sport that has been her calling card and companion for more than 55 years, when Bonnie Dondeville Farley was hit, not with an errant forehand, but unexpected news. Bonnie Dondeville Farley, well known for her competitive play, has earned her spot in the USTA Southern Section Tennessee Tennis Association Hall of Fame.    The invitation to play tennis was a ruse. A party celebrating her entry into the USTA Southern Section Tennessee Tennis Association Hall of Fame was not.    A lifelong Memphian known by the local tennis community for her fierce competitive nature, her blistering forehands -- righthanded and lefthanded -- and her deep love of the game, Farley, 63, will be inducted into the hall during ceremonies held Jan. 26 in Cool Springs, Tenn., a Nashville suburb.    Also inducted will be Knoxville native Ben Testerman, a former Top 20 player in the world and a one-time Australian Open quarterfinalist, and Chattanooga's Sue Bartlett, a former All-American at UT-Chattanooga and a longtime high school coach.    "I'm so proud, it's really neat, it's really cool," Farley said. "I'm probably going to be boo-hooing because my mom and dad won't be there to see me inducted, and they sacrificed so much for me to play tennis."    Farley said her tennis-playing parents, Clem and Jean, introduced her to the game when she was 5, taking her with them when they'd play matches at old Beauregard Tennis Center. Using a cut-down racquet, she'd hit balls off the backboard on Court No. 18.    "I'd hit against the wall with one hand, change hands, and hit with the other hand," she said.    The practice developed two strong forehands, allowing her to avoid using a backhand stroke. By the time she was 12, Farley was playing -- and winning -- local tournaments for 15-year-olds and competing deep into the draw in older age brackets.    "That whole first summer I competed, I didn't know how to keep score," she said. "All I could do was run over to the ball and dink it back."    She quickly progressed, learning more about the game than keeping the score. By 1959, when she was 14, Farley competed in national tournaments in Philadelphia and Chicago and earned a No. 1 ranking in the South in the 15-and-under division. In 1960, she was ranked 15th in the nation in the 15s.    As an amateur, she dominated the women's open division in Tennessee. From 1962, when she graduated from East High, through 1974, she was ranked No. 1 in the division on six occasions.    While her success as a junior generated headlines, Farley garnered extensive publicity in the early 1960s when, as a student at then-Memphis State University, she tried out for, and made, the men's tennis team. Few college athletics programs offered women's tennis, so Farley played her way onto the Tiger team at the No. 5 singles position. In 1963, she won the singles title at her position while competing in the Tennessee Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships at Sewanee.    An excellent doubles player, she and Ken Lewis formed the No. 1 doubles team at Memphis for two years and went undefeated.    Despite the attention her college career brought, Farley admits she wasn't trying to be a pioneer or make a statement for the women's game.    "There's no doubt in my mind the best women aren't going to come close to competing against the men," she said. "But that was a two-year fun thing. Then I had to get serious about getting my degree."    Farley taught children with special needs in the Memphis City Schools system for 42 years, retiring last May after spending the last 26 of those years at Egypt Elementary. She played tennis competitively and taught the sport until 1983 when her son, John, was born.    It was during those local events that her legend as an intense competitor grew. Former Tiger men's player Phil Chamberlain, a member of Memphis' team in the mid-1970s, often drew Farley and her partner in local mixed doubles events. He called her "intimidating."    "If she had a good partner, she'd win with whoever she was playing with," Chamberlain said. "She was a dominating player and a great competitor. And her ground game was awesome."    Chamberlain said Farley's unique two-forehand ground game made it difficult to choose how to serve to her.    "I remember thinking, 'Where do I serve it? Out wide or to her body?"' said Chamberlain, who is tournament director of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and Cellular South Cup, the annual pro tennis stop at The Racquet Club. "I've never seen someone who had two forehands before or since Bonnie."    During her dominating run in the women's Open division in the state from 1962-74, Farley was ranked No. 1 in doubles three times and No. 2 twice, including once with her mother, Jean.    "She was dynamic," said Charlotte Peterson, who played and coached women's tennis at Memphis. "And those were heavy, devastating forehands she hit. If you tried to make her decide which forehand to hit by hitting it down the middle, it didn't matter. The ball she hit was so 'heavy,' it was like hitting a rock."    Peterson also played in tournaments where her doubles team often drew Farley's.    "Her first shot was always at the net person, especially in mixed doubles," Peterson said. "She was so competitive. And she didn't like to lose. She was fun to play against, but she was scary to play against, too."    As intense and competitive as she was, she also showed a compassionate side on the courts. Although she taught lessons at several country clubs and tennis centers through the years, she often gave lessons for free on the Memphis Park Commission's public courts. Her skill level allowed her to be placed in exhibition matches against some of the sport's legendary players, including Pancho Segura and Tony Trabert.    Tommy Buford, a longtime tennis teacher in the Memphis area and a former director of the pro tournament at The Racquet Club, said, like several others who saw Farley play as a junior, that she could have competed at a higher level. Farley said, "a lot of things held me back, one was a lack of funds; I couldn't even afford a tennis lesson."    She said she doesn't regret what some regard as a missed opportunity.    "It's a shame she didn't have a chance to expand her skills outside of the Mid-South area," said Buford, who lives outside of Boise, Idaho.    Farley will add the Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame honor to several others she has received, including an induction into the University of Memphis' M Club Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Memphis Amateur Hall of Fame in 1982.    "Had she been in the right place, she could have played on the pro circuit," Peterson said. "My hat's off to her for getting in the Hall of Fame." The Value of Good Grades Schools offer Happy Meals and cash to improve scores The following excerpt is from U.S. News & World Report, January 3, 2008. By Eddy Ramírez    Facing mounting pressure to raise students' scores on standardized tests, schools are prodding kids to work harder by offering them clear-cut incentives. Happy Meals are at the low end of the scale. With the help of businesses, schools are also giving away cars, iPods, coveted seats to basketball games, and—in a growing number of cases—cold, hard cash. The appeal of such programs is obvious, but the consequences of tying grades to goods are still uncertain.    ...    Even if rewards don't lead to individual achievement on a test, they could have a meaningful effect in the school. Rather than give money to his college alma mater, Charles McVean ['61], a businessman and philanthropist, started a peer tutoring program at East High School in Memphis, where he was once a student. The program pays higher-achieving students $10 an hour to tutor struggling classmates and divides them into teams. During the course of the year, students bond and compete. The team that posts the highest math scores wins the top cash prize of $100. McVean calls the combination of peer tutoring, competition, and cash incentives a recipe for "nothing less than magic." See the full article at U.S. News & World Report. Presidential Approval East High tutoring program receives supportive nod from Bush From The Daily News, December 11, 2007 ANDY MEEK | The Daily News    President George W. Bush flew to Nebraska last week to attend a political fundraiser. University of Memphis student Cortney Richardson ['07] flew to the same event, albeit for a different reason.    Richardson, accompanied by wealthy Memphis commodities trader Charles McVean ['61], hoped to score some face time with the president and bend his ear about an emerging academic foundation at East High School. The U of M freshman got his wish, and then some.    Bush was in Omaha to support the U.S. Senate candidacy of former Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns. Richardson and McVean showed up on behalf of the Greater East High Foundation, a peer-tutoring program launched with funding by McVean, a 1961 East High graduate.    A few weeks before the Nebraska event, the East High program celebrated its third birthday with an event at the school that included a panoply of notable guest speakers. Among those brought in to extol the program's virtues was Clear Channel Communications co-founder and Texas billionaire Red McCombs. Johanns was there, too.    The month before that saw Lamar Alexander, a former U.S. Secretary of Education and one of Tennessee's current Republican U.S. senators, show up to applaud the work at East, which uses academically strong students to tutor their struggling peers.    Hopes for the road    Fresh off all that attention for the fledgling program, McVean and his protégé took their effort on the road.    "Actually, we were in line to take a picture (at the fundraiser), and we had some documents about the program we wanted the president to see and take with him so that he could read on the plane back home," Richardson said.    They were told they wouldn't be able to give anything to the president, however, so McVean and Richardson quickly improvised. McVean let the young East High alumnus make the pitch himself.    "I just went up and told him, 'I'm Cortney Richardson from the Greater East High Foundation of Memphis, Tenn.,' and 'This is an exceptional program,'" said Richardson, recalling his pitch to Bush. "And I told him, 'Sen. Lamar Alexander and Red McCombs from San Antonio think so, too.'    "Then he interjected, 'You mean Big Red McCombs from San Antonio, Texas?' And we said, 'Yes, sir.' And we told him Red McCombs said this tutoring program concept is the most significant advancement in education in the last 100 years. (Bush) said right then and there, 'It's a deal.' And he told his personal assistant to give us a business card."    Proof is in the results    McVean founded the program in 2004. The basic idea is that East High upperclassmen are paid $10 an hour to tutor their fellow students.    As a measure of the program's success, in the last school year 100 percent of the seventh- and eighth-grade students who receive the tutoring at East passed the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests.    Bush promised he would read everything that Richardson and McVean forward to Jared Weinstein, the president's personal assistant. The president also gave Richardson a pointer about his salesmanship.    After Richardson made his initial pitch, Bush gave him Weinstein's card, then said: "C'mon, let's take this picture."    Richardson tried to get in another plug for the program at East and share a few statistics related to it.    "But he stopped me and said, 'There's one thing you need to know as a salesman. Once the deal is closed, stop selling,'" Richardson recalled.    Following that brief encounter, McVean held court last week in the school library at East. Voice booming, arms outstretched, he predicted to a small group of teachers and participants in the foundation that Bush ultimately would pay a visit to the school.    Then the transformative program would be on everybody's map, impossible to ignore.    "We've spent a couple of years trying to create a model that could be replicated elsewhere," said Bill Sehnert, the foundation's director. "Cortney's an example of that model. And if we can create a couple hundred Cortneys and get other schools to create a couple hundred Cortneys, then the future for Memphis gets a lot brighter." Farmer's Market open house draws crafters, sellers for last hurrah From The Commercial AppealDecember 2, 2007, posted December 20, 2007 By Pamela Perkins Sunday, December 2, 2007 [Editor's note: this story has edited to condense it from the original]        ... other customers got to come back to the Farmer's Market one last time this year for its open house Saturday...    "This is kind of our last hurrah before the Christmas shopping season is over," said Farmer's Market manager Mark Hoggard.    Usually open only May through October, nearly 30 vendors of arts and crafts, jewelry, woodwork, Christmas decor, pies and pastries and other delicacies and knickknacks came back for the open house. Hoggard hopes to make it a major annual event.    "We had a small one last year, but it wasn't quite this magnitude," he said.    He said it was designed to showcase vendors who don't just sell the traditional farmer's market produce.    "Through the course of the summer you had people coming in that are buying fruits and vegetables and flowers that are available that time of year. Crafts vendors sometimes don't get the full impact of it. Their season is more or less when people are buying gifts during the holidays," Hoggard said.    The open house also probably helps the business stand out among the growing number of farmer's markets in the Mid-South...    Locally, Arlington started one this year and the Memphis Farmer's Market downtown opened last year. Organizers of both markets have said they wanted to bring their communities together while giving them an economic boost.    "A lot of little communities have it ... for little, small farmers, which is great. Somebody has a backyard garden and has a few tomatoes, a few extra heads of lettuce or cabbage and wants a place to market them," Hoggard said.    "Everybody thinks it's just the way to go. It's great for a community."    Hoggard also said if the newer farmer's markets have hurt his business, he hasn't noticed.    Neither has Eric Matheson ['58] of Germantown, who sells Jerry's Deep Fried Peanuts just about every day during Farmer's Market season.    "There's so much customer loyalty. ... It's unreal," Matheson said. "I get almost 30 to 40 percent in repeat business. And I've made a lot of friends." November, 2007 - Chas McVean ('61) and Courtney Richardson ('07) were interviewed on WREG-TV (Memphis) morning program November 21, 2007, discussing The Greater East High Foundation's peer tutoring program. The video can be seen on youtube.com Pep Rally for Alumnus McVean and Peer Tutoring Program The East High Alumni Page, November 28, 2007    The Greater East High Foundation held what amounted to a pep rally for hundreds of spectators the evening of November 20, 2007, in the auditorium of East High School.    The program was billed in various ways, depending on the source of the information. The Greater East High Foundation called it "A Birthday Celebration of Accomplishments," the school announced the event as the "McVean Auditorium Dedication Ceremony," and The Commercial Appeal called it "a ceremony Tuesday to commemorate the school's 60th anniversary and the role the Greater East High Foundation has played in boosting student performance." The event was about as focused as the decision on what to call it.    Starting fifteen minutes late and going 30 minutes beyond the advertised time, the program mostly featured politicians, friends, and associates of Charlie McVean ('61) trading accolades with McVean about each other.    A former faculty member of East, Mrs. Margaret Taylor, was celebrated for her many years of educating the children of Memphis, first as a teacher at East High, then as an award winning principal at Grahamwood Elementary School. For the past three years she has been very involved with The Greater East High Foundation's efforts at East, first serving as its director and now as director emeritus. Mrs Taylor turned 90 years old late this month. Dr. Shirley Raines, President of the University of Memphis presented Mrs.Taylor with a certificate of appreciation for her service in education and City Councilman Jack Sammons gave her a key to the city. In response to the accolades, Mrs. Taylor said, "I think for the first time in my life I'm speechless. All I can say is I'll get even with you!" She went on to say, "Thank you for all your good thoughts. I'll try to live up to them. Thank you."    Some of the compliments seemed overly exaggerated. Mr. Red McCombs of Texas, a wealthy businessman who made a fortune with major league sports teams, a major broadcasting chain, and car dealerships, and who has donated millions to the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and to the University of Texas-Austin, alluded to Mr. McVean's inspired peer tutoring program at East as being one of the greatest innovations in education in the past 100 years. Peer tutoring may be a winning strategy for secondary school education, however, it was already an established program at several schools nationwide, most notably perhaps, through the Breakthrough Collaborative, before Mr. McVean began The Greater East High Foundation.    Dr. Carolyn Farb, a Houston, Texas, based fund raiser for charities, deviated from the ad-lib nature of the comments making a prepared speech.    According to Mr. McVean, both Dr. Farb and Mr. McCombs are associates and/or friend of his who he persuaded to join him specifically for this event.    There were brief moments of substance during the evening's comments. Mr. McVean called on the "rank and file of the middle business leaders" to get involved in programs such as his Greater East High Foundation. Mr. Jerry Freeman who has adapted the peer tutoring program at East for Whitehaven High School and Whitehaven High principal Dr. Vincent Hunter spoke of major gains in academic testing results after just one year of the program at that school.    There was a brief discussion of a chart displayed on stage showing that of those students to receive peer tutoring through The Greater East High Foundation's program at East, 51 percent graded "advanced" on state standardized testing of mathematics. Several other charts indicating academic improvement by pupils participating in the program were displayed outside the auditorium doors and in handouts for attendees to review. (see charts below)    Not to miss the apparent point of the night, councilman Sammons announced that the City Council had designated Poplar Avenue from Lafayette Street to Holmes Street "Charlie McVean Parkway" and that signs announcing that would be posted along that stretch of highway that fronts the East High School property.    Finally, near the end of the program, East principal Fred Curry was able to quickly announce the East High auditorium was being named in honor of Charles McVean, a fact already reported here several months ago when the city school board approved the naming. [If you attended the above event, The East High Alumni Page would like to know. Send us a message at editor@EastHigh.org Resources: Visit The Greater East High Foundation web site See the charts:   Good news at MCS From The Commercial Appeal Editorial page, November 23, 2007, posted November 25, 2007 Friday, November 23, 2007    If Memphis City Schools is the hopeless case it's portrayed as by some critics, how does East High senior Alexandria Jones manage a 4.883 grade point average while taking calculus through dual enrollment at Southwest Tennessee Community College and tutoring an East High freshman?    Why were last year's seniors throughout the MCS system offered 3,436 scholarships, only 189 of which were for athletics, worth $97,353,806?    The reason is that MCS has the resources to help students perform academically and even excel if they're motivated to do well.    While management problems in the district and a grand jury investigation of school building contracts dominate the headlines, there are good teachers and administrators quietly and effectively carrying out the district's educational mission.    And there are students like Jones, who manages to keep her grades up, take a college-level class and help freshman Jerica Falls in her studies, earning $10 an hour in a Greater East High Foundation tutoring program.    Greater East High Foundation is the creation of businessman and East alum Charles McVean ['61], who has a desire to see the school recapture some of the glory of its earlier years.    It's the kind of program that can provide the motivation and the role models to help students excel no matter what their socioeconomic status may be.    Help like that isn't available at every one of the district's schools, but it sets an example that alumni and support groups throughout the system should try to follow. Students reap benefits of peer tutoring TCAP scores soar thanks to East High Foundation program From The Commercial Appeal, November 18, 2007, posted November 20, 2007 By Dakarai I. Aarons Sunday, November 18, 2007    The way Jerica Falls and Alexandria Jones talk, you'd think they'd grown up together as sisters.    The two East High School students have formed a tight bond in the months they've spent together in the Greater East High Foundation's tutoring program, often finishing each other's sentences.    Jones, a senior with a 4.883 GPA, spends her afternoons helping Falls, a freshman, with her geometry homework.    She is taking calculus through dual enrollment at Southwest Tennessee Community College.    Jones said she's also seen a benefit from participating as a tutor.    "Being a tutor has taught me how to analyze a problem," she said. "That has helped me with my communication skills and people skills."    And Falls says learning from a peer is sometimes less intimidating than working with a teacher one-on-one after school.    "To have someone your own age who knows the subject, it helps you form a relationship with them."    And the personalized attention is also a plus, she said.    "In a classroom, the teacher has 20 or 30 other students to think about," Falls said.    Founded in 2004 by businessman and East alum Charles McVean ['61], the foundation aims to help return the school that has seen many transitions in the past decade back to its former glory.    Nearly 120 students participate in the foundation's program, which works with students for an hour after school Monday through Thursday and three hours on Saturday mornings.    Students receive tutoring from upperclassmen in mastering their math, science and writing skills. The tutors are paid $10 an hour.    The foundation's work will be celebrated at a Tuesday night ceremony in the school's auditorium.    Legendary Memphis educator Margaret Taylor [Faculty], who will turn 90 later this month, plays a key part role in the foundation's work, spending countless hours each day mentoring and tutoring students.    The student-to-student tutoring has paid off.    In the 2005-06 school year, 97 percent of the foundation's seventh- and eighth-graders passed the state's Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests. Last school year, 100 percent of students passed, said Bill Sehnert, the foundation's director.    In a study released earlier this year by the University of Memphis' Center for Research in Educational Policy, researchers found that students in the scholars tutoring program scored "significantly higher" than their peers at the school.    Sehnert said he is proud of the results, but those test scores are just the beginning.    The foundation's hope is to make sure these students advance through school and do well enough on the ACT college entrance exam that they can attend the nation's top colleges and universities on scholarship.    Along the way, students learn the benefit of giving back to their community and can help create a vibrant workforce for Memphis, Sehnert said.    At the end of the year, they can look and say, 'I've helped my fellow kids.'" he said.    East High Celebration    What: East High School is having a ceremony Tuesday to commemorate the school's 60th anniversary and the role the Greater East High Foundation has played in boosting student performance.    Who: Speakers include philanthropist Carolyn Farb of Houston, Texas, who has raised more than $35 million for hundreds of charitable causes and Clear Channel Communications co-founder Red McCombs.    When: The celebration will take place Tuesday from 5 to 6 p.m.    Where: It will be held in the East High auditorium, 3206 Poplar. Alumnus expresses views on annexation From The Commercial Appeal, October 26, 2007, posted November 1, 2007 Compiled by Raina Hanna Desoto Appeal, October 26, 2007     How do you feel about the city of Olive Branch's plans to annex the land east of the city to the Marshall County line? [italics theirs]    Well, I don't suppose we have any choice about it happening. I really wish they would let the residents vote on it. They didn't ask or get our opinion, but I guess we'll have to accept it.    Wes Lawson    DeSoto County    "My Two Cents" takes the pulse of the DeSoto County community on topics in the news.... Alumnus album features songs about Mid-South murders posted October 16, 2007    Bob Frank ('62) is featured in an article in the October issue of Memphis Magazine about his colaboration with another Memphian in producing an album with songs about legendary or actual murders having occurred in the Mid-South. There is also a web site for the album and the artists. Aim high, honors students are told Alexander cites work of East High Foundation From The Commercial Appeal, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 By Dakarai I. Aarons October 16, 2007    Sen. Lamar Alexander told East High School honors students Monday not to let challenges like poverty get in the way of their goals.    "Aim for the top," Alexander said. "There's more room there."    Tennessee's senior senator was on hand for a ceremony naming the school auditorium for businessman Charles McVean ('61), who founded the Greater East High Foundation.    Alexander said there is support on Capitol Hill for giving more flexibility to teachers in helping students succeed.    He cited the Greater East High Foundation's work in mentoring students as an example of local-based solutions that help schools succeed.    "Back in Washington, I think we need to make sure we give schools and states the flexibility they need to use models like this program and the work of Charles McVean to improve the rest of our nation's schools," said Alexander, a former U.S. secretary of education.    Alexander, who sits on the Senate's Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions, said the No Child Left Behind law has been good for the country, but could use some work, as it undergoes reauthorization.    The current rules heavily penalize schools that narrowly miss the benchmarks, placing them on the same level as schools that are consistently underperforming, Alexander said.    In a few weeks, he will introduce a bill that creates a pilot program that would allow 12 states to create their own method for calculating Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind, with permission of the U.S. Department of Education.    The states would have to keep the same standards, but would have more flexibility in determining whether students and schools have met those standards.    States would also be given more leeway in how to spend education dollars.    "We ought to catch people doing things right rather than wrong," he said. "In No Child Left Behind, it seems like we give only C's and F's." Former East Student Asks Mayoral Candidates Question    From WMC-TV Mayoral Election debate, September 21, 2007 John Reed (associated with the Class of '69) was one of the members of the public chosen to ask the Memphis mayoral candidates a question during WMC-TV's candidate debate airing Friday, September 21, 2007. He asked, I was wondering if there's one thing ... that inspired you to want to run for mayor."    The debate telecast can be viewed on the Internet by pointing your browser to www.midsouthvotes.com and selecting to view the "Memphis Mayoral Debate (Part 1)." Reed appears in the clip entitled "Memphis Mayoral Debate (Part 2)," which has to be selected separately. Family marks 90 years From The Commercial Appeal " My Life" section September 16, 2007 By Mary Mitchell Special to My Life Sunday, September 16, 2007    Winnie Allbright [Faculty]* recently celebrated her 90th birthday. She was feted by family on a railroad car in Collierville. Family came from Los Angeles, Atlanta, Gatlinburg, Mississippi and Memphis. Food and celebration were the order of the night.    Winnie has three nieces; Mary Mitchell and Martha Gandy of Memphis, and Charlene Stinson of Gatlinburg. Winnie has been a second mother and best friend to all her nieces, as well as her great-nieces and nephews. Her family feels that she's "the greatest" and that she has been a wonderful influence to all of them through the years.    Winnie was born in Arkansas and raised in Harrisburg. She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in education and began teaching at Oak Ridge, Tenn., during WWII. After college, she married Paul H. Allbright. He was sent to Pearl Harbor and was there on the day of the bombing.    In addition to her teaching, Winnie has enjoyed being active in community service. She served as president of the American Association of the University Women in Memphis and was honored by the AAUW with a Grant Fellowship Award. She also enjoyed being a docent for the Wonder Series.    Winnie's hobbies include pickling, cooking, traveling and educational tours. She is a member of Kingsway Christian Church.    Mary Mitchell is a niece of Winnie Allbright. *See Mrs.Allbright's page in the Elementary section. Harvey Goldner Remembered From KPLU, September 10, 2007 Daysha Eaton    SEATTLE, WA (2007-09-10) Earlier this year, Seattle lost a man who became known as the Bard of Belltown. Harvey Goldner ['60] was a regular at poetry readings across the city, where he became a mentor to many. After years of chain-smoking, Goldner died this summer at age 65. A memorial for him brought Seattle's poetry community together. KPLU'S Daysha Eaton has more. (5:00) [The story can be heard at this KPLU link.]. A printed obituary for Harvey Goldner is available. East principal, coach smooth over concerns From The Commercial Appeal, September 4, 2007 By Jason Smith Tuesday, September 4, 2007    While most of you were barbecuing and spending your Labor Day relaxing, I arrived at work Monday afternoon to find several urgent phone messages alerting me that Fred Curry, the principal at East, had fired his head football coach and his staff following the Mustangs' 12-6 loss to Wooddale last Friday.    The rumor had also reached the high school sports message boards. On CoachT.com, a post titled "Memphis East, Principal fires entire football staff -- new direction again?" also claimed that Curry dismissed the entire Mustang coaching staff sometime after Friday's loss.    Keep in mind, this is the same Fred Curry who dumped former Mustang coach Wayne Randall following the 2005 season for no reason other than "as a new principal, I want to take the football program in another direction."    But Curry said Monday that contrary to rumor, he has not fired second-year head coach Marcus Wimberly, whom Curry described Monday as "a good influence and a great guy."    Curry did confirm, however, that he met Monday morning with Wimberly and members of the Mustang booster club to discuss what he called "some concerns" he had about the program.    "I met with the coaches this morning and I met with parents. We kind of ironed out those concerns, so he's still my coach," Curry said.    "It had nothing to do with winning, because as you know, I would've kept my last coach if everything had to do with winning. ... I just thought that we needed to get on the same page in terms of what kind of young men we want to produce."    Also reached Monday, Wimberly, an East graduate whose Mustangs have gone a combined 6-7 since his hiring last year, said Curry's concerns were "smoothed over" during Monday's meeting.    "That's what he conveyed to the parents and myself, that it wasn't about wins and losses," said Wimberly, whose Mustangs (0-2) travel to face 12th-ranked Fairley on Friday. "Like I tell everybody, I have a young football team, and in the years to come, I think we're gonna be pretty good. I think we're gonna end up being pretty good this year.    We're going in the right direction. Everything's been smoothed over, so we're all right." Outdoor warning siren on the roof of East High School one of the oldest          In an article published in the "My Life" section of The Commercial Appeal September 1, 2007 (or possibly August 25, 2007, the newspaper gives both dates) focusing on the career of an employee of the Memphis/Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, a photo of the siren atop East High School and a cutline (caption) was included: Officer Thompson checking the Biersach & Niedermayer outdoor warning siren on the roof of East High School. It is one of the oldest sirens in Shelby County, powered by electricity now but originally operated by a gasoline engine. Recent articles in the "Memphis Memories" column of The Commercial Appeal have included the following: In the August 18, 2007 Memphis Memories features a photo of Mac Holladay ('63). The August 25, 2007 Memphis Memories also carried an article from 1982 about Jake Schorr ('58): August 25 25 years ago: 1982 Jake Schorr and Shawnee Cavnar have expanded their carriage business in the shadow of downtown Memphis. They're restoring several 1890s-vintage horse-drawn carriages salvaged from an old barn near Jackson, Tenn. When finished, the enclosed carriages will be used by River City Carriage Tours for cozy wintertime tours of downtown Memphis and others will be sold to collectors. Schorr, a woodworking hobbyist who does most of the restoration, says the restored carriages are worth about $5,000. The August 25, 2007 Memphis Memories featured a picture of former East High faculty member and head football coach Bobby Brooks (faculty approximately 1960-1966) when he was a student athlete at Memphis State College.   No verdict again in 2001 killing From The Commercial Appeal, August 21, 2007 Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Greater Memphis    For a second time this summer, a jury could not reach a verdict in a murder trial involving a shooting outside 150 Peabody Place.    John Edward McClee, who is now 25, was charged with killing Tedrick C. Dawson ['93], 26, on Aug. 26, 2001, outside of Jillian's.    Dawson was shot once in the shoulder and twice in the back, while a friend, Romond Arnold, was shot in the buttocks, police said.    McClee did not deny the 1:50 a.m. shooting, but said he acted in self-defense.    A Criminal Court jury deliberated more than 10 hours Friday before announcing it was deadlocked on the second degree murder charge.    McClee was convicted on three lesser charges, however, including reckless endangerment, possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of a weapon.    The case is set for a status report next month.    -- Lawrence Buser A previous story about Mr. Dawson's death is below. Laptop computers to be supplied to East pupils and teachers    August 21, 2007 - East High is among 16 Memphis high schools in which an "Interactive ACT-Designed Laptop Learning System" will be implemented, according the the Memphis City Schools system.    The Epic Learning System, developed by the academic standardized test firm ACT, provides the laptop computers loaded with Math, Science, English and Social Studies courses. The school system claims the pupils will be able to submit assignments and quizzes online to be graded automatically and placed in the teacher’s grade book, allowing students and their parents to receive immediate feedback.    “We believe that this supplemental curriculum and instructional support program will enhance the positive academic programs already in place that are designed to accelerate achievement and directly impact student performance on the ACT,” said Dr. Alfred Hall, Chief Academic Officer for Memphis City Schools.    The laptop computers should be in place at the schools in September.    There is a web site with more information about the Epic Learning System at http://www.epiclearningsystem.com/aboutEpic.asp    Source: Memphis City Schools 2007 ACT scores may show small improvement    August 19, 2007 - The academic testing service ACT has released the composite ACT scores for graduating high school seniors and it appears to show a very slight improvement in the level of accomplishment at East High.    The average composite ACT score for the East High Class of 2007 was 16.8, according to an August 19 article in The Commercial Appeal. State data shows the "three year average" ACT composite scores for East pupils at 16.7 for 2005 and 2006. However, the numbers may not be comperable since one is based on a "three year average" and may include all pupils who took the test and the 2007 figure purports to show the composite score of graduating seniors.    The 2007 graduating seniors average composite score average for all city schools was 17.7, the average for all Shelby County schools was 21.7. The Tennessee average for the Class of 2007 was 20.7 and the national average was 21.2. White Station High and Houston High had the highest local public school averages with seniors at both instutitions averaging a composite score of 23.6.    There have been other indications of some improvement at East High. While the state has involved itself with the running of East due to inadaequate progress over recent years, it did classify the school as "State/LEA Reconstitution Plan 1 - Improving" in July. The East High Alumni Page had earlier reported that the results of the Gateway exams showed significantly higher scores which met the level required by the state to be categorized as satisfactory performance. The results of other standardized tests have yet to be released to the public.    Please also see the reports below: "State recognizes improvement at East," and "Could these numbers represent the much needed turnaround?"    Sources: The Commercial Appeal, Tennessee Department of Education, ACT, Inc., The East High Alumni Page Race led to firing, alleges ex-coach From The Commercial Appeal, August 10, 2007 By David Healy August 10, 2007    Wayne Randall was a successful head football coach at East High School before leaving 17 months ago.    A lawsuit filed by the coach earlier this year, claiming racial discrimination, may shed some light on why he is now coaching Munford High.    In his lawsuit Randall contends that East principal Fred Curry fired the coach because Randall is white.    The lawsuit states Curry, "created an atmosphere of racial animosity and let it be known that he wanted a black football head coach. Although Mr. Randall produced a winning team that won a state championship, Mr. Curry never gave a reason for his dismissal."    Numerous attempts to reach Curry were unsuccessful.    In the defendants' answer to the complaint, attorney Michael R. Marshall, who is out of town, wrote that "the defendants had legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for relieving Mr. Randall as football coach at East High School."    Curry gave little reason for Randall's firing.    In a March 21, 2006, story in The Commercial Appeal, Curry would only say, "I can't tell you another reason other than as a new principal, I want to take the football program in another direction."    The lawsuit names Memphis City School board members and former Supt. Carol Johnson as co-defendants.    Efforts to reach school board officials regarding the lawsuit and Randall's claims were unsuccessful.    Randall, who also declined comment on advice of his attorney, became head coach at Munford a month after his dismissal at East.    Randall seeks $500,000 for mental and emotional distress from his termination, and another $100,000 in punitive damages against Curry individually.    Randall's attorney, Richard B. Fields, filed the lawsuit March 9 in Shelby County Circuit Court.    "We have a great case. There was no reason for him to be fired," Fields said. "Coach Randall's teams did extremely well and he was universally loved by the parents and the students at the school. He was one of the most outstanding coaches in the history of Memphis football. The principal simply didn't want him to coach anymore because he was white."    Fields said it may be two years before the case is finally decided.    In his 12 seasons at East, Randall led the Mustangs to nine straight playoff appearances and won the 1999 Class 4-A state championship. He had a record of 100-42, and over the last eight years averaged 10 wins a season.    Last year, Randall led Munford to an 8-4 record and the District 7-4A championship. Munford won just two games the season before Randall's arrival. State recognizes improvement at East August 6, 2007 The latest State evaluation of East High School, released Aug. 6, 2007, puts East in the category of "State/LEA Reconstitution Plan 1 - Improving." For the previous school year (2005-2006), it was listed simply as State/LEA Reconstitution Plan. The "improving" aspect may reflect better TCAP results anticipated after scores on Gateway exams were higher. See our related stories below: "Could these numbers represent the much needed turnaround?" and "State intervenes in running East High School - details now available." State intervenes in running East High School - details now available by Ken Welch, editor, The East High Alumni Page August 2, 2007 [updated 4:05 pm CDT with comment from Principal Curry]    The State of Tennessee Department of Education intervention into the running of East High school calls for changes in the guidance office but endorses the leadership of top administration at the school.    See the directives    Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind and other monitoring methods early in this decade, East High has performed poorly. The State put the school "on notice" that it needed to improve during the 2001-2002 school year. Each year thereafter the school has received some classification indicating significant improvement was needed. On July 31, the State announced its direct intervention in the troubled schools, its most forceful step yet. It has classified East as being in the State/LEA Reconstitution Plan category.    In its directive to the school system, the Department of Education says it found East's principal for the past 2 years, Fred Curry, to apparently be "an effective administrator who communicates high expectations to both staff and students." The report says Mr. Curry is well respected by the faculty and has 2 educational facilitators who also seem to be effective. This endorsement of the school's leadership is in contrast to some other of the schools in which the State is ordering the administration be changed.    After the directive was issued, Mr. Curry said, "My vision of East High is to not only raise the academic rigor to where it was [decades ago]..., rather to raise it to a level where our kids can compete academically with the Japanese, Indians(India) and the rest of the global community."    The primary personnel directive given by the state for East High is that it orders the reconsideration of the removal of one "effective" guidance counselor and the retention of one "ineffective" counselor. The report indicates the retained counselor was kept on the school's staff due to seniority and tenure issues. The report also calls for the school system to ensure that the school has a "highly effective" attendance clerk to address student attendance and participation rates.    Beyond those personnel considerations, the orders from the State for East High generally are of a supporting and monitoring nature. It calls for an incentive plan, including bonuses, for attracting and keeping qualified administrators and teachers who meet performance benchmarks for student proficiency. It also directs that the school to be afforded the necessary resources for behavioral and family specialists.    The State is requiring the school system to provide special oversight and support to East and the other school in which it is taking direct action. It also is requiring a number of reporting actions such as a response within 10 days of how it will implement the orders it has been given and to show cause if it fails to follow staffing recommendations made by the principal or the special personnel assigned to oversee the school's rehabilitation.    The Department of Education says the current $12.8 million renovation must be completed by the time students are to resume classes on August 13 and that some stolen technology equipment be replaced in the same time frame. (See our report on the renovation in a August 1, 2007 edition of the Mustang Roundup - Alumni Edition.    You can see all the directives ordered by the State Department of Education by clicking/selecting this link.    It should be noted that East no longer has a middle school component. The seventh grade was removed from the school for the 2006-2007 school year and with the opening of classes August 13, East becomes a pure high school with only grades 9 through 12.    The State is expected to release its latest "report card" on the evaluation of East and other schools within the next several days.    For more information about the academic performance at East, you may review the Today's East High section of The East High Alumni Page and the story below about the improvement on some standardized tests. Mustang Roundup — Alumni Edition: Photo tour of $11.5 million renovation as construction rushes toward completion Biggest visual change in decades underway at East High Click here to go to the current edition of the Mustang Roundup — Alumni Edition. State intervenes in running East High School August 1, 2007    A day after the announcement, details as to how the Tennessee Department of Education intervening in the running of East High and 16 other Memphis schools remain hard to come by. [see above update] As reported yesterday, the Department of Education is intervening in the running of East High School and 16 other city schools after years of unsatisfactory performance.    Memphis City Schools did finallly post some general information on its web site about the state's intervention. Out of the $42,040,000 in additional state revenue (BEP 2.0) going to the Memphis City Schools district, $9.7 million will be used for intensive improvements in teaching and learning in a core group of Memphis City Schools currently on the state’s probationary list of “striving schools.” The remainder of the funds will be used across the district for additional teaching and teacher support and enhanced academic and student support programs. Governor Phil Bredesen has mandated that the school district adopt and implement a stringent action plan for schools that still remain on the state-identified probationary list. Each of the Memphis schools in the core group will receive academic support tailored to its particular needs. In addition, the probationary or “striving” schools will have longer school hours beginning with the start of the 2007-08 school year. The plan for these “striving schools” is modeled after Douglas Reeves’ STAR Model for Success, and other strategies successfully implemented in the Miami-Dade and New York City Public Schools. Schools will be provided with ongoing professional development for their teachers, more visible tracking of student progress, additional staff and greater collaboration between school staff, parents and students. The plan also provides district-level accountability and support, such as content-area specialists to work with school-based literacy and mathematics coaches and an academic superintendent to directly supervise the principals in the core group of schools. The anticipated group of schools to receive this support are: Airways Middle, Carver High, Cypress Middle, East High, Fairley High, Frayser High, Geeter Middle, Hamilton High, Kingsbury Middle/High, Sherwood Middle, Treadwell Elementary, Treadwell High, Vance Middle, and Westside Middle. The school day at those schools for the 2007-08 school year will begin at 7:30 a.m. and end at 2:45 p.m. This change adds 30 minutes to each school day, for the equivalent of approximately 14 additional days of instruction each year. In addition to a longer school day at these schools, other changes for the “striving schools” are: * Graduation coaches will be hired for high schools, based on a state recommendation to increase graduation rates. The coaches will provide intensive support of schools and students. * Additional staff will be hired for the probationary schools, including literacy and mathematics coaches to help monitor and improve teaching and learning. * Based on the need of the individual school, an additional parent/family or behavior specialist will be allocated to the school. * Based on the school’s need, an additional school counselor or social worker will be allocated. * Performance-based incentives for principals, teachers, and staff will be offered. Slightly more than $14 million of the funding will be used across the district to hire additional teachers and staff to support schools with high percentages of Special Education students, additional mathematics teachers and tutors to lower the student-teacher ratio in secondary schools, additional support for English as a Second Language teachers, for ongoing, comprehensive school-based professional development for teachers, and an additional allocation for supplies and materials for every teacher in the Memphis school district ($200 per teacher, double the amount teachers received previously). The changes will be in place for the 2007-08 school year. Memphis City Schools will work collaboratively with the state to successfully implement the measures.    Neither the Tennessee Department of Education nor East High Principal have yet responded to requests from The East High Alumni Page for more informaton.    As indicated in the story below, East Principal Fred Curry had hoped improving test scores would keep the state from taking immediate action. To what extent the improved scores, if they hold true for all the standardized tests, may mitigate the state's intervention in the oversight of East High remains to be seen.    More details here as they become available. Special Report: Could these numbers represent the much needed turnaround? Indications are of academic improvement at East High A special report from The East High Alumni Page July 13, 2007    The top administrator at East High School is smiling these days. After years of academic and disciplinary difficulties, there is hope a new trend is beginning. Although some of the aggregate standardized test scores for the 2006-2007 school year have not been released to the public yet, those that have seem to indicate a considerable improvement. “I’m amazed and pleased,” said second year principal Fred Curry as he discussed the “quick” turnaround he’s seen since coming to the school.    With some data to indicate improvement and optimism by East’s principal, for some the dismay about the school’s performance may now replaced by questions. Has East High turned the corner? Could East High be headed in the right direction with enough momentum to establish an ongoing trend leading to it regaining the academic status it once had?    Pupils who entered the ninth grade in 2001-2002 must obtain a score indicating “Proficient” or “Advanced” on each of the Gateway examinations in three subject areas - mathematics, science and language arts - in order to earn a high school diploma. Mr. Curry says the Gateway results for East for the 2006-2007 year were up significantly. The school’s percentages of students taking the Algebra I Gateway exam this year getting proficient or advanced scores was 77% compared to 52% the previous year. In English II, essentially 10th grade English, 91% attained the proficient or better categories. In 2005-2006 the figure was 85%. The Gateway results for Biology were 91%, an increase of 9 percentage points over last year’s scores. All of this year’s Gateway scores are above those the state requires as satisfactory performance.    After more than two decades as one of the premier academic public schools in Memphis and the region, the problems were first noted in the 1970s. East High becomes a school administrators considered as a school in trouble. At that point, a public acknowledgment of the problem was that many in the school’s attendance district were choosing not to go to East. By the 1990s and 2000s, as standardized testing scores were mandated to be made public, the highly questionable academic performance of the school’s students became apparent. Average ACT composite scores had plummeted to the low 16s. As a comparison, White Station High School’s 2005 composite ACT score was 23.2. ACT possible scores range from 1 to 36. The University of Memphis requires a 19 on the enhanced ACT for admission without a student being required to take special remedial courses. Since the federal government got highly involved in academic accountability in the past few years, East was characterized as deficient in meeting No Child Left Behind requirements. It was assigned the status of "restructuring 2" by the state in 2005, meaning significant changes in the school were required. Options included conversion to a charter school, replacing existing staff, taking over management or contracting with a university to take over management.    Principal Curry has made changes. A number of faculty members, including coaches, have left the school, more advanced placement (AP) classes have been offered, and he has continued the work with The Greater East High Foundation, which had begun to organized peer-to-peer student tutoring and classes the year before Mr. Curry was transferred to East, and with other individuals and organizations offering help to the school. It takes two years of satisfactory performance for a school to get off the “target list” of troubled schools. The tale is not yet told as the full assessment for this year has not been released and it will take likely take years of improvements to bring East High into academic repute. The alumni of East High will be watching closely and with great hope. Critic back at Malco job -- temporarily Chain now requires 'confidentiality agreement' From The Commercial Appeal, June 19, 2007 By John Beifuss June 19, 2007    It was more like compromise time than clobberin' time when projectionist Jesse Morrison and Malco senior vice president Jimmy Tashie ('66) met Monday morning to resolve Morrison's suspension for writing an unauthorized early review of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."    The outcome: Morrison is back at his 30-hour-a-week, $7-an-hour job at Malco's Ridgeway Four for the next two weeks, after which he'll leave to pursue other opportunities.    What's more significant is that as a result of the Morrison incident, Malco projectionists and other employees who see advance screenings of films will be required to sign a "confidentiality agreement" stating they will not write about the movie in advance of its opening date.    Other movie chains may follow suit, Tashie said. "There's heightened security now, there's no doubt about it," he said.    Morrison, 29, became something of an Internet celebrity after he was suspended June 11 for posting a week-early pan of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" on the popular Web site, Ain't It Cool News (aintitcool.com).    Morrison -- who also writes reviews for his own site, Memflixbeyond.com -- blasted "Silver Surfer" after seeing the film when he projected it at a private "trade screening" for Malco officials and other local movie exhibitors.    Angry representatives of 20th Century Fox, the studio that produced "Silver Surfer," contacted Malco to complain, and Tashie suspended Morrison for what he called a breach of trust.    The disciplinary action generated nationwide debate about freedom of speech, job responsibility and the Internet's impact on movie publicity.    Many members of the online community accused Fox and Malco of violating Morrison's free speech and punishing him for not liking the movie.    The story was picked up nationally, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that the incident "might mark the first time someone working in the entertainment industry has lost a job for voicing an early opinion online."    Monday, Tashie lifted Morrison's suspension, but with the stipulation that the projectionist would no longer work advance screenings. Morrison decided to return to work but gave two weeks' notice.    "The national exposure ... put a strain on the employee-employer relationship," Morrison wrote Monday on his Web site. "I don't believe it is a reparable situation. I feel it's better to just move on."    The brouhaha didn't hurt "Surfer" at the box office, where it was No. 1 this past weekend, earning more than $57 million. Longtime East coach moves on From The Commercial Appeal, June 7, 2007 Jason Smith June 7, 2007    After 21 years, the hardest part of leaving East High was packing up his white van with more than two decades worth of memories as the Lady Mustangs' track and field coach.    "It hurt me," longtime East coach Danny Joe Young remembers of last Thursday, his final day at East. "All the kids had gone home, and I had one girl that came up there Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and helped me real hard, crating stuff up and boxing stuff up and loading stuff up.    "It hurts, but they understand. They understand it wasn't my doin