All the right moves
Private partnerships benefit pupils as well as parents at Dunbar Elementary
Dunbar Elementary principal Anniece Gentry sets a high bar for the members of her adopta-school committee: One new sponsor for the school per month.
“I tell them when you’re out eating, tell them about Dunbar,” she said.
It’s an aggressive campaign that has resulted in all 337 students experiencing at least one new activity each year, from outdoor adventures to dance.
One of the private partners, New Ballet Ensemble, a Memphis dance company with studios in Cooper-Young, has already been in the school for six years teaching ballet and hip-hop. But now they are reaching out to a new group in the Dunbar community: parents.
The group held a grand opening this week for the school’s first family resource room. Made possible through a $25,000 grant from Arts Memphis, the room is a place for parents, grandparents or guardians to come use a computer, take finance or GED workshops and receive help crafting a resume or filling out a job application.
Gentry said some parents have requested help with reading so they in turn can help their children with homework.
Katie Smythe, CEO and artistic director for New Ballet, said it’s unusual for an arts group to run a family resource room, but it was an opportunity to fill a need.
“The missing link was that connection to parents,” Smythe said.
Gentry said she hopes the resource room, with opportunities for parents to find their own successes, will have a ripple effect on their children. “So that my child can see, ‘Hey if I’m doing well, you can do well too,’ ” she said.
New Ballet, which uses the philanthropic opportunity to create a pipeline of local dancers for future residency programs, is just one of the private groups invested in Dunbar. Gentry said others include Corky’s BBQ and New Hope Baptist Church. Central Church in Collierville runs an outdoors program for students.
“I just believe that if our
babies are exposed to positive things, they can’t help but think positive,” Gentry said.
Fifth-grader Marshunn Wright’s inspiration was his dance teacher from New Ballet, Shamar Rooks. When Marshunn first entered the dance studio at Dunbar two years ago, he noticed the walls were lined with photos of Rooks showing off his moves. He auditioned for the in-school dance classes, which accommodate 40 students, and since then has been able to dance and play basketball thanks to his good grades and conduct.
“I’ve been on my best behavior so he allows me to participate,” Marshunn said of his teacher.
That’s the exact attitude Gentry said she wants from her students: academics first, and extracurricular activities second.
But she also knows the advantages of extracurricular activities — especially with one motivating the other — in a neighborhood where the school’s front entrance looks out to a half-dozen boarded-up homes.
“It raises their selfesteem to let them know there are activities beyond Orange Mound,” Gentry said. “And that is what my No. 1 goal is here — to expose them beyond Orange Mound.”