North High School in the news

City schools face image battle

This year, 14 suburbs of Des Moines had a combined population estimated at about 206,650, vs. Des Moines' 201,600 -- making it the first time that more people in the metro area lived outside the core city's limits than lived within. The shift is driving development away from the city, hurting its tax base and squeezing the school district.

The situation has created a Catch-22, says North High School Principal Vincent Lewis. A city needs vibrant schools to attract new families, yet schools need a thriving residential base to draw students and revenue, he said.

"We are fighting this perception, which isn't deserved, that we are rough-and-tough schools," Lewis said. At the same time, he added, "far too many Realtors push people to the suburbs."

Lured by the idyllic picture of big green yards and new schools, homebuyers have swarmed into western and northern suburbs.

Ummm, yeah. There's certainly something appealing about suburbs, although for me it has nothing to do with big green yards and new schools. I go to church in Norwalk, one of the southern suburbs that isn't really involved in the megasprawl of the western and northern suburbs. The Norwalk school system is much closer to the kind of high school I attended... where kids still have "school spirit" and where the community is highly involved and invested in the success of the school. Here in Des Moines, I've found that most of the kids are rather bored with the idea of being loyal to one school... they have friends in all the schools and interchange among the dances and proms and football games all the time. Heck, if they can't make it in one, they just transfer to another. It's difficult to generate excitement during Homecoming Week because a lot of the kids just don't care. It's definitely a different perspective than I grew up with.

I'd like for my kids to go to school with the same kids they go to church with. In the urban schools, Martha gets to be anonymous -- no-one at school goes to church with her, and vice versa, so there's little accountability. She gets to assume whatever "persona" she likes. If, however, she goes to school in Norwalk, there's a better chance that the "village" will help keep her on track. Not a guarantee, of course, but it helps the chances.

North High embodies the shift: 63 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-priced meals; 53 percent are minorities; about 27 percent take special-education classes. "Poverty here is something you live, not just read about," said Bob Gibbons, a science teacher at North. "When you're worried about what you'll eat next, you're probably not worried about the big assignment that's due in a month. So as a teacher, you have to be aware of all that."

Educators say North and other city schools remain good places to learn, thanks to committed staff and hard-working students, but the challenges grow every year.

North does not have air conditioning, or elevators to the second floor for physically disabled students -- both givens in new schools. With about 1,200 students, teachers said North needs 12 science labs but has four.

Lewis sighs at the thought of prosperous suburban schools such as West Des Moines' Valley High School and its three-year-old $8 million football stadium. Lewis said he'd like to raise $50,000 for new bleachers in his gym, but he calls it a dream.

How about classroom space? And I'm sorry, but it's ridiculous that in the year 2005, a school building hasn't been retro-fitted with an elevator already. There is no excuse for this; I was completely dumfounded when I discovered this fact about North High School. That's just misappropriation on the part of the district, in my opinion.

Lewis, the Des Moines North principal, said his school is reputed to be a haven for gang members, street brawlers and drug users.

"They think we're a junk school, that we have graffiti all over the place and fights all the time, but anybody who has spent five minutes at this school knows that is flat wrong," Lewis said.

Indeed, the school has clean, orderly hallways and a well-kept campus. Gibbons, the science teacher, who previously taught in Ames, said he has plenty of top students, many of whom simply have to rise above obstacles that students in wealthier areas usually don't face.

Take Paige Oxenford, a North junior who lives with her single working mother. Oxenford is in marching band, speech and drama at North. She also takes advanced English, math and Italian classes at Des Moines' elite Central Academy in hopes of landing a scholarship to Princeton University.

"We get a bad rap. There isn't gang violence in the school or anything like that. I wouldn't transfer to any other school if I had the chance," Oxenford said.

No, there isn't much violence at NHS, mainly because we don't tolerate it. We don't even tolerate trash-talking in the halls; kids get suspended for that, too. But the general atmosphere of an urban school is of diffidence, of streetwise canniness, of exposure to the trashiest elements of our culture. I'm increasingly uncomfortable with this, at least for my oldest daughter.