SUPER-MAN
CAN JUAN BAUGHN TURN AROUND TROUBLED CHESTER UPLAND? HE’S GOT 4 YEARS — AT $215G PER YEAR — TO DO IT
“We believe ifwedoa good job with all those components, our youngsters will have choices when they graduate to do whatever they want.” — Dr. Juan Baughn, superintendent of the Chester Upland School District
CHESTER » Sitting in his airconditioned basement office of Chester High School last week, Dr. Juan Baughn was hard at work in the dirge of a summer heat wave. No students, no teachers, just a summer skeleton staff and the new man in charge, who laughed that his standing A.C. unit draped under a sheet of plastic by the only window in the room was a luxury of the job.
“I’m the superintendent, after all,” Baughn joked.
In the hallway, dozens of empty boxes of new A.C. units were ready for repackaging as the ceilings throughout the school had been gutted and were prepared for a full air-conditioning and heating system that is being installed for the start of the fall semester.
Students won’t miss school because of a lack of modern amenities, Baughn said. Yet he remained abundantly aware of both his dreams successful academic institution coupled the financial constraints that restricted the Chester Upland School District administrators who sat in the same seat before him.
“We do not currently have the resources that I need to do what I want to do,” Baughn said. “But, yet I have this grandiose plan, and that’s because I believe we can find the resources.”
Baughn, 72, will reiterate the fact that academic achievement is his primary focus, but acknowledges that the house of cards will crumble without the proper basis of learning. The four A’s that Baughn utilizes as an illustration of his primary focuses — academics, activities, arts and athletics — form a unison he believes will create a foundation of success for students in the district.
“We believe if we do a good job with all those components, our youngsters will have choices when they graduate to do whatever they want,” Baughn.
Earlier this month, State Receiver Peter Barsz and the district announced that after a nationwide search for a new permanent superintendent, Baughn, who had come into the position on an interim basis in January, had accepted the terms of a five-year agreement worth $215,000 a year, to lead the students of Chester back to prosperity.
“My expectation was that I’d be here for six months
and that I’d do everything I could to get Chester ready for the next superintendent,” Baughn said. He twice left retirement and returned to the Chester administration, his third stint at the district since 1970.
Born in Delaware County, Baughn graduated from Media High School in 1962, where he said he had “cardboard coming out of his shoes.” He would later earn degrees from Cheyney University and Temple University.
As the head basketball coach at Chester, in four years he led the team to 94 wins and took the 1972 team to the PIAA final, added that he coached Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland, who played point guard.
“I got the shortest of all the Kirklands,” he joked.
Ascending to dean of students at Chester Upland, Baughn went on to have careers in the administrations of Kennett Consolidated School District, North Penn, and Lehigh University. He was assistant superintendent for high schools in Washington, D.C., and later a special assistant to the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education.
And in his return to Chester, where he once lived at Seventh and Lamokin streets during his coaching days, Baughn never acted as though he was simply holding the baton for another to take his place.
Rather, he was setting the stage for growth.
His focus in the coming years will center around opportunities for students that go beyond academics, but instead for activities to bolster the application of the skills learned in class.
Already he’s revitalized the Chester High School band, who marched in the Mother’s Day Parade in Chester, and set up a brand new cosmetology lab and salon and an expanded culinary arts room for the return of career technology in the high school. Basement rooms that were left dormant and blocked off over safety concerns have been given new life and a new focus.
“I want our youngsters to have choices when they graduated. If they choose to go to work, so be it, if they choose to go to university, fantastic, if they choose to go into the armed forces, we’ve prepared them for the test,” Baughn said. “It’s a matter of providing choices and opportunities.”
Because, right now, he said, student scores were much too low, “embarrassingly so.”
The graduation rate Chester High is so low it remains unranked on the list of best schools in Pennsylvania, and stands among the worst-producing schools in the nation. The teacher-student ratio is 22:1, much higher than the 15:1 average in the state. More than three-quarters of the students are economically disadvantaged; 14 percent are proficient in English, and just 5 percent are proficient in math.
Baughn is certain that bolstering learning through the expanded career technical programs, vocational components and a greater focus on art and athletics with give students a renewed purpose.
“We’ve made a mistake in this country when we’ve assumed the arts and the activities for our students are not as important as math and science,” Baughn said. “I’ve seen it work, I’ve seen volleyball keep youngsters in school, I’ve seen youngsters come to school because they’re in auto tech.”
As an educator and administrator, Baughn said it’s his and his teachers’ responsibility to help every student find their gift, and for them to help hone that girl.
Finances he said, although daunting, would not deter his pursuit.
“I don’t think finances are the reason we aren’t doing better academically, I really don’t,” Baughn said. “I think that regardless of what our financial situation is, we can do well academically.”
It will be a community effort, he acknowledges, where the school will both be looking to invite the community in through the doors, while also expanding their learning out into the city. He intends to offer additional social and emotional learning — counselling and interventions — to greater support those affected by crime and poverty.
He believes that, in his heart of hearts, he is leading the Chester school system through an inherent, spiritual calling.
“The folks in Chester saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Baughn said. “They encouraged me, supported me and threatened me ... And I think that I want to do the same that they did for me.”
“I owe Chester and I’m here to repay that debt so I can retire in peace.”