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Kimberly Henderson, Principal, Bradwell School of Excellence:

After spending 12 years teaching at a public school in the Englewood area and three years managing the Chicago Public Schools’ college readiness program, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), I’m very excited about helping turn around Bradwell. We’ve got many exciting things in store.
Bradwell has been on a steady downward slide, and the 2009 ISAT scores showed less than 50 percent of students were meeting state standards. The [new] staff voted on the school motto and decided on “Academic excellence, no exceptions, no excuses.” We’ve built a plan around making that happen, starting with giving all of the students a bagged hot or cold breakfast every day, which they’ll eat in the classrooms each morning with the teacher. That way they’ll get the energy they need, but will be able to get going on learning at the same time.  If they don’t come with school supplies, we’ll provide them.  No excuses means giving them everything they need to be successful within our walls.

There’s a lot of violence in the area and even though the lakefront is nearby, the kids don’t feel safe going over there because it’s the territory of a different gang.  So we’re demolishing a dilapidated addition to the school and putting a soccer field on the site.  It will give the kids a green area, and a place to practice with teams. Also, the entire building is undergoing a complete renovation, including a new science lab, a new art room and new furniture.

An even bigger issue was that the students had very few extra-curricular activities, so they weren’t engaged and didn’t have much of anything safe to do after school. This year we’ll be adding many after-school activities. I told the staff members it would be a shame if they only share their talents with 30 students. I asked them what skills and talents they have, and now we have a long list of programs they have stepped up to lead, including service learning, a drum line, guitar lessons and a choir.  With all of that talent to share, we’ll have a football team, a tennis team, girls’ volleyball, boys’ softball, basketball, a track program for girls, after-school dance, including ballet, hip hop and tap, homework club, yoga, an all-girls book club, science club and art club. One I’m really excited about is the Chicago Club, where we’ll teach students about the city and take them on field trips.  The kids don’t have many opportunities to go outside of the neighborhood, and there’s so much Chicago has to offer.