WS Chronicle

School system in talks to move WSPA from historic Atkins High building to WSSU campus

 By Todd Luck

The Chronicle

Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy moving to the campus of Winston-Salem State University may be part of an education bond on next year’s ballot.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is currently in talks with WSSU about potentially moving WSPA’s high school program to the historically black university’s campus as part of an education bond currently in the early planning stages. According to the school system, the move would be contingent on WSPA remaining its own school and retaining all its current academic and athletic programs.

WSPA Principal Richard Watts said it would be a good move for the school, which is a college bound magnet school.

“I think it would be wonderful for us because it gives us an early college environment where students are on the campus of Winston-Salem State University.” he said.

Watts said the move would expose students to college life on a daily basis and could let them interact with professors and experience cultural events and guest lecturers on campus. He said once he explained to nervous parents the school would retain its identity, parents and students at the school have been supportive of the move.

If it happens, Hanes Middle School would move into WSPA’s current location and merge WSPA’s middle school students with Hanes. Hanes, along with Lowrance Middle School, moved last year because of toxicity concerns on the school’s land. Hanes is currently housed at the building of the old Hill Middle School, which is too small to accommodate Hanes’ more than 800 students.

WSPA’s building, which housed the original historically black Atkins High School on Cameron Avenue, should be able to accommodate Hanes’ student population, according to WS/FC Schools Chief of Staff Theo Helm. He said if the move doesn’t happen, the school system would look for other options for Hanes. He said the idea for the move was first presented to the school board in July and talks with WSSU are still in their early stages. There will be upcoming meetings held to get public feedback on the move.

“There’s a lot of history in that building and we want to respect that history,” said Helms. ”I think partly because we were working on this thing in the summer, we haven’t heard very much. We’re really interested in hearing what the community where it’s at has to say, whether it be positive or negative, we want to hear it.”

WSPA was started in 2004 by a partnership of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WS/FC Schools and WSSU to create a small school for first generation college students. It currently has 450 students in grades 6-12. Watts said on test scores, the school is not meeting proficiency and didn’t meet growth for the first time last year. Changes are being implemented to help with that, such as a daily reading seminar, teaching students how to be better note-takers and implementing well-designed lesson plans.

But test scores aren’t the only way to measure success. Walking through the hallway, one can see the graduation rates for each school year proudly displayed. It was 87.2 percent for the 2015 graduating class. It’s typically been above 90 percent and was 100 percent in 2012.

Also, along the halls is another way the school measures its success: home-made college pennants with the names of WSPA graduates who were accepted into those colleges. Watts said 80 percent of WSPA students make it into college.

“I hear parents coming back and sharing with us that ‘if it wasn’t for this school my child would not have gotten into college,’” he said.

The school’s building was first opened in 1931 as Atkins High School. It was one of four black high schools during segregation in Winston-Salem. Notable Atkins graduates include former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West. The building housed Atkins Middle School after the high school closed due to integration, and the Atkins name now lives on in the Atkins Academic and Technology Magnet School on Old Greensboro Road.

Many still associate the building with the old Atkins, especially Atkins alumni like Annett Wilson, who chairs the reunion steering committee for the Atkins Class of ’71, the old Atkins’ final graduating class.

“It’s the pride of the African-American community, especially those of us who attended, just because of the legacy education, as well as the teachers who cared about us and nurtured us,” she said.

Wilson has mixed feelings about the discussions to move WSPA. She said it would benefit the students, but she would lament the building no longer housing a high school. Her class actively supports WSPA with monetary donations, giving a dependability award to a student at graduation and recently holding a fundraising golf tournament in partnership with the school. She said if WSPA moved, she’s unsure which school the class would support, but said it’s possible the alumni might stick with WSPA if the school still had a need.

There are currently four versions of the school bond before the school board, ranging from $552 million to $268 million. Helm said the board will likely chose projects from the different options for the final bond.

The moves for WSPA and Hanes are among the priority projects that are in all versions of the bond. Other priority projects include new schools for Konnoak Elementary and Lowrance (which would be on the campus of Paisley IB Magnet School), improvements for Mount Tabor’s stadium, renovations for Kennedy High School and a new middle school at a yet to be determined site to relieve overcrowded middle schools.

The school board will be getting feedback from the public this fall and will hold bond forums in January or February after narrowing bond projects into one list. Helm said the goal was to present the final approved bond to the Forsyth County Commissioners in April to be placed on the 2016 ballot.