After five years on the state list of schools that need improvement, Myers Middle School had developed an academic reputation as bad as its behavior record.
So, Savannah-Chatham County school officials hauled in their big gun – Dora Myles.
The 35-year veteran principal has the heart of a grandmother and the demeanor of a drill sergeant.
She arrived at the start of the 2006-2007 school year with fresh batteries in her trademark bullhorn.
Getting Myers to make adequate yearly progress was her challenge, but it was also the furthest thing from her mind.
“I was thinking about order,” Myles said. “We had to get the children’s attention.”
She got it.
By the end of the year, everyone was orderly and focused on academics. If not for the noise as Myles blasted out warnings on her bullhorn, you could hear a pin drop.
“The climate is so different now,” said La Tashia Stroman Thomas, a language arts teacher at Myers for five years. “We’re allowed to teach during class rather than breaking up fights and arguments. The children know what is expected of them, and they don’t want to have to deal with Ms. Myles.”
When classes change, orderly lines of students make their way down the corridors, with their arms neatly folded and their ears on alert for the screech of the bullhorn.
Wednesday, a sixth-grade daydreamer inadvertently strayed from the line. Before he could make his way back to the group, the bullhorn squawked, and he stopped in his tracks.
“Gentleman! Please join me here against the wall so we can discuss where you are going!” Myles said.
The boy grimaced and reluctantly made his way to Myles’ side.
The strict disciplinarian makes her consequences clear: Stay focused and behave like ladies and gentlemen or face a heart-to-heart with your parents and Ms. Myles.
“Consistency is the key,” Myles said. “If they know what is expected and you are consistent and fair, they will respond positively.”
But Myles didn’t come to Myers with just noise and muscle.
“We knew who every child was and what they needed academically,” said assistant principal Jean Janufka.
“We got them help during the day, not afterward. We wanted to focus on what happened during the school day when we had total control over them.”
Test scores rose 20 percent without new hires or intensive teacher training.
“These are the same teachers who were here five years ago,” said academic coach Roslind Brown. “They could do it all the while, but they just needed strong backup. Having Ms. Myles behind you makes a difference. I wouldn’t work anywhere else.”
Meeting the standards
Myers met all of the state’s academic standards under the No Child Left Behind Act for 2006-2007.
But the school almost was not given the official designation of having met adequate yearly progress.
That was because so many students were sent out of class to see Myles in the first few days of school, it caused a data reporting mix-up that erroneously lowered the school’s attendance rate.
Myles had to explain her tough-love tactic to the Georgia Department of Education, which officially confirmed the school’s adequate yearly progress status last week.
Mary Burns said she’d like an explanation as well.
She realized just how strict things were last week when she was late in dropping her sixth-grade granddaughter off at school.
“I had to take her in the office, write a note and then they made me walk her to class, too,” Burns said. “It seems unreasonable to me, but the teacher said it was to prevent the kids from skipping class after they checked in at the office.”
Noticing a change
Some parents are noticing the change, too.
Sixth-grade parent Carmen Frazier said she had heard about the unruly behavior at the school, but hasn’t seen any evidence of it since Myles took over as principal.
“She’s not putting up with fighting or horseplay,” Frazier said.
“The kids know they’re here to do their work.”
Seventh-grade parent Donna Hutcheson compares Myles to the tough inner-city school principal in the movie, “Lean on Me.”
“She’s our female Joe Clark,” Hutcheson said. “I love what she’s doing.
She’s not playing around – not with students, teachers or even the parents.”
Students, who bear the brunt of the new no-nonsense changes at Myers, seem to be coping.
“Everyone is more serious about learning, and Ms. Myles can be strict. But she just wants us to get our education and know that we can go on and do something positive with our lives,” said eighth-grader Patrice Edwards.
“I think that’s why she uses that bullhorn.”