26792: Hermantin(News)Gentrification squeezes a school (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, Dec. 06, 2005
Miami Herald


Gentrification squeezes a school
Morningside Elementary is ground zero in South Florida's latest gentrification 
battle as two neighborhoods -- Little Haiti and Upper Eastside -- dispute the 
school's potential.
BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@herald.com

Kathryn and Daniel Mikesell want to send their 4-year-old son to the local 
public school less than a mile away from their Morningside home next year. But 
come September, he may be enrolled at a private school.

''Mediocrity is unacceptable in my opinion when it comes to educating our 
children,'' said Kathryn Mikesell, 34, a software company executive. ``I want 
my child to be pushed to excel, not to meet just basic criteria, and I don't 
think that's the case at the school.''

Morningside Elementary and its principal are at the center of a tense dispute 
between two neighborhoods along Biscayne Boulevard: working-class Little Haiti 
and the Upper Eastside, home to the gated Morningside subdivision where the 
Mikesells live.

The clash is a forecast of friction to come amid a real estate boom found not 
only in the Biscayne corridor, but throughout South Florida, particularly in 
the working-class neighborhoods in the central corridor along Interstate 95. 
> From Little Havana to Little Haiti in Miami-Dade to Lauderdale Lakes and 
Pembroke Park in Broward, developers are eyeing deteriorating rental apartments 
and empty lots as sites for higher-end homes and condominiums.

Call it gentrification or revitalization, but one thing is clear: The area 
along Biscayne Boulevard from Northeast 36th to 87th streets is changing 
dramatically. More higher-income families have been moving into subdivisions to 
the east, once mostly populated by singles and empty-nesters, and similar 
pockets are emerging on the west side. Morningside Elementary serves as the 
uneasy setting.

Leaders in Little Haiti see the Upper Eastside parents as arrogant newcomers 
pushing for the removal of their principal, Josette Paris, who is Haitian 
American.

In July, about 50 people from Upper Eastside neighborhoods met with Paris and 
other school officials to discuss ways to improve Morningside Elementary, now 
an international studies magnet school. Parents say the discussion was less 
than productive.

''Following this meeting, we don't feel any closer to real, lasting 
transformation of this school,'' they wrote in a letter to Miami-Dade 
Superintendent Rudy Crew.

The parents' complaint went beyond academics. It included: malfunctioning 
traffic signals, a typographical error on the school's home page, and even a 
reputedly odoriferous security monitor.

But it was the perceived void in leadership that prompted parents to write a 
letter to Crew in which they laid out a wish list: 95 percent of the students 
should read at grade level, a ''graceful campus,'' and a ''high quality'' music 
and arts curriculum. In short, a learning environment not unlike Miami Beach's 
A-rated South Pointe Elementary.

Signed by the ''Concerned Parents of the Upper Eastside,'' a copy of the letter 
ran in November's Biscayne Boulevard Times, headlined ``Morningside Elementary 
Needs New Leadership.''

ANGRY OUTCRY

The public missive prompted an angry outcry from Haitian leaders.

''I thought, `My goodness, what is this?''' said Gepsie Metellus, executive 
director of Little Haiti's Sant La Neighborhood Center. ``My gut really tells 
me that the Morningside community's wanting to take over Morningside 
Elementary. . . . . You just don't come out and say this school needs new 
leadership.''

And so, Metellus and almost two dozen Haitian leaders, parents and even a few 
non-Haitian residents fired off a letter of their own to Crew. A copy appears 
in this month's Biscayne Boulevard Times.

'The fight has moved to Morningside Elementary. . . . Well, dear anonymous 
group of `concerned parents,' as you meet to plot the demise of our educational 
leader, we have also been active'' they wrote. ``Please note that we will not 
allow Mrs. Paris to be railroaded and intimidated.''

Metellus and others were also miffed the group of parents didn't sign their 
names in the published letter.

For their part, Upper Eastside parents say they have no plans of taking over 
the school and that a racially mixed student body benefits everybody. Some of 
them, however, add that Paris was unresponsive to their concerns, a claim the 
principal disputes.

''I felt like we were getting the stiff arm,'' said Wendy Stephan, a mother of 
two who lives outside the school's zone in Buena Vista East but said she feels 
obligated to help her neighbors. ``Under her leadership I don't see anything 
changing, when she sees everything as great.''

Homeownership tells much about the area's dynamics. More than half of the 
eastside residents own their homes, compared to 30 percent west of Biscayne. On 
the east side, the median sales price is $440,000, twice as much as in Little 
Haiti.

EAST-WEST DIVIDE

The make-up of Morningside Elementary's student body reflects this east-west 
divide of socioeconomic differences. The majority of the students are black; 
only 2 percent, white. Less than 5 percent pay full price for lunch; the rest 
get it for free or at reduced rates because their family's income is low. 
Almost a quarter of the students have limited English proficiency.

In recent years, whenever young parents from such affluent Upper Eastside 
neighborhoods as Morningside, Belle Meade, Bayside and Palm Grove, and Buena 
Vista East -- just south of Little Haiti -- get together at birthday parties, 
the topic inevitably turns to their children's schooling.

Parents say, given what they pay for home ownership and in taxes, they want 
what any parent would want.

''For $800,000 for a home, you expect trash to be picked up regularly, the 
police to patrol your neighborhood. And you expect to be able to send your 
child to a good school,'' said Stephan, who wrote the controversial letter.

Principal Paris concedes the school has retained the state's C-grade over the 
years -- since 2002, a D in 2001 -- but points to modest gains in school 
scores.

Improvement has been steady. Between 1998 and 2004, the percentage of 
fourth-graders flunking the FCAT reading test dropped from 78 to 42 percent, 
although schools statewide have shown similar improvement.

Paris believes that parents' frustrations stem from far more than academic 
achievement. The standoff, she said, is really about gentrification.

''That's basically what this is,'' said Paris, who has been Morningside's 
principal for 10 years and also served a two-year stint as assistant principal. 
``There's been a drastic change in the community. I have seen the change in the 
neighborhood. I have seen a reduction in drug-related activity and 
prostitution.''

Hookers still solicit on Biscayne -- just blocks from the elementary school -- 
but now they're in front of a crowded Starbucks. Other signs of a changing 
neighborhood: Yoga studios, al fresco dining and a children's design shop, 
Genius Jones, where $700-plus Bugaboo strollers sell well.

ENROLLMENT DOWN

Further, Morningside Elementary has seen its enrollment drop by one quarter 
since 1998 -- a product, Paris says, of rising home prices that make housing 
unaffordable to those of modest incomes.

One Morningside resident -- a Haitian professional who owns a medical center 
and works as a real estate agent and investor -- disagreed with Paris and 
community leaders about the reasons for Haitian flight.

''They are not being pushed out. They are choosing to move,'' said Ary Moise, 
whose wife Sandra is dean of Miami-Dade's Parent Academy. ``It's not that we're 
pushing Haitians out. The prices have gone up so much that a lot of them choose 
to move, and a lot choose to stay.''

Through all this, the Miami-Dade school district is trying to accommodate both 
sides. A school open house set for last week was postponed until January. Upper 
Eastside parents said they were not given adequate notice.

''I think that the tension is not of our making,'' said Miami-Dade schools 
spokesman Joseph Garcia. ``It is in our hands to be able to help resolve 
this.''

Herald database editor Tim Henderson contributed to this report.