Parents build courtyard at White Station High
Dignitaries gathered. Guests flew in from out of town. Alumni and donors withstood a brisk afternoon outdoors to watch giant scissors slice through a green ribbon.
All for a new courtyard at White Station High School.
It was a scene common for a university or even a private high school. But at the public county school in East Memphis, the courtyard was more than a courtyard.
The $225,000 project to renovate a communal space was the first executed by a group of parents who saw an opportunity for private funds — along with private control of projects — to help improve public schools.
If they could promise donors naming rights, they reckoned, buildings in rough shape but far down on Shelby County Schools’ staggering list of $500 million in deferred maintenance could receive a face lift.
“It was hard to persuade people it would happen,” said Richard Myers, the former White Station parent and lawyer who spearheaded the effort.
But over the course of years, it happened. And on Thursday, the group leaders cut the ribbon on their first success and set their eyes on larger projects: a new library for White Station and a new classroom building focusing on science, technology, engineering and math at Whitehaven High.
They also hope to share their model with any other parent group, in Shelby County or elsewhere, that wants to give it a shot. It’s a model, though, that worked because of well-connected parents with time to spare, school board members who advocated on their behalf, and a school district willing to allow privately managed construction projects on district property.
What Myers saw was untapped potential.
“What everybody wanted was to reengage with their public schools,” he said.
The group worked over the last five years to develop plans, with the help of University of Memphis architecture students, and had concrete ideas before approaching the school board two years ago.
They convinced the board to adopt a policy that would allow naming rights to be attached to academic facilities, as they often are athletic fields.
Their list of intended projects was ambitious. Myers said he received advice to start small, prove his plan could work and build trust.
That’s how the project to revamp the courtyard, a previously dirty and deserted space between classroom buildings and the school’s cafeteria, climbed to the top of the list.
“It was pretty much a drainage hole,” Myers said of the space.
Their privately contracted construction company broke ground June 1 and wrapped up before the first day of school in August. At the center of the courtyard is a raised concrete circle that serves as large benches. They added green trees and galvanized metal art, including a water wheel, from local artist Elisha Gold.
“It brightens up the school,” 11thgrader Joshua-James Claybon said.
Vice Principal Carrye Holland said teachers now bring their classes outside to work in the space. Seniors like to dress up and take group pictures there.
“The kids saw that and said, ‘wow, somebody did that for us?’” she said.
Some questioned why they chose a space that couldn’t be seen from the street, Holland said. But it was never about making the school look more impressive from the outside.
“It was about people here having a place of pride,” she said.
The city of Memphis contributed a grant of $40,000 toward the project. A few school board members pooled their allotments of discretionary funds to contribute another $33,000.
The rest came from private donors, including the White Station alumni class of 1970.
Myers called raising money “a nightmare.” But now, he said, they can show off the courtyard to create buy-in for the other projects at White Station and Whitehaven.
A second phase of the courtyard project will revamp another 8,000 square feet of space between the buildings, and will feature work by local artist Rachel Briggs.
Myers acknowledged there are schools that don’t have the alumni base, or parents with enough time and resources to do what he and his team accomplished on behalf of their children’s school.