FRESH CAMPUS
Trenton Public Schools begins Ninth Grade Academy in renovated building>>
TRENTON » Trenton Ninth Grade Academy staff entered the failed $17 million charter school building on Perry Street earlier this summer and discovered an unwelcoming interior.
“When International left the building, they left a mess,” Principal Dewar Wood said, referring to the former International Academy of Trenton Charter School. “It was a mess. They left a lot of supplies, books everywhere, holes in the wall.”
Trenton Public Schools inherited the hot mess in July after signing a lease and becoming the new occupants of the former Trenton Times building at 500 Perry St. The district quickly went to work and restored the 82,000-square-foot building to pristine condition before the new schoolyear starts Sept. 6.
“Our facilities did a wonderful job getting this building together,” Wood told The Trentonian on Friday. “The floors were nasty.”
The former Trenton Times building underwent a $17 million, privately funded renovation before it opened 12 months ago as the new IAT charter school headquarters. But IAT’s 2017-18 schoolyear proved to be a disaster, and the institution ultimately failed to survive.
IAT ceased operations effective June 30 because the New Jersey Department of Education refused to renew the troubled school’s charter. The state cited IAT’s weak educational program, unmanaged classrooms and leadership instability as reasons for shutting the school down.
Trenton Public Schools immediately capitalized on IAT’s misfortunes by making moves as early as March to transform 500 Perry St. into the new location for the Ninth Grade Academy. The investment paid off, and now all ninth-graders in the Trenton Public Schools district will be educated at the Perry Street facility beginning this week.
“We are looking forward to opening up the schoolyear,” Wood said. “We are going to have high expectations for our students and teachers.”
Trenton’s Ninth Grade Academy, also known as TNGA (pronounced Tanguh), has a new slogan: “Loving to learn! Learning to lead! Leading the future!”
Wood is the new principal of Trenton’s Ninth Grade Academy and the mastermind behind TNGA’s new slogan, but she is not new to the district. She began as a paraprofessional 25 years ago before working her way up the ranks and serving as principal of Columbus Elementary for the last six years.
Upon the recommendation of Schools Superintendent Fred McDowell, the Trenton Board of Education voted May 29 to transfer Wood from Columbus Elementary to the Ninth Grade Academy effective for the 2018-19 schoolyear. Wood raised academic achievement and enforced the school-uniform policy at Columbus, she said, adding she intends to enforce the dress code and promote academic success at TNGA.
“I’m really pushing the envelope with the district and parents,” she said. “Kids should have their own IDs; they should have their own laptops. We are going to set the bar high. We are going to treat them as scholars.”
About 700 students are expected to enroll at TNGA this year, according to Wood, who said each student will receive a Chromebook computer before the Christmas break.
Wood said she expects students to come to TNGA with their uniforms on, cellphones off and laptops in tow. “I expect you to be a scholar,” she said of the students, “because we are going to treat you as scholars. We are going to have fun, but we are going to learn.”
The former IAT charter school was known to be chaotic, as documented by the state Department of Education, which said: “The level of instruction and student engagement appeared to be low, and disruptive behavior, such as using cellphones, talking during class, and frequently leaving the classroom, was observed. Observed teachers did not appear to effectively redirect student behavior.”
By setting the bar high, Wood is seeking to steer TNGA on a path to success unlike IAT’s road to failure.
Enforcing the district’s rules and expecting students to comply is “important,” Wood said, “because it sets the groundwork, it sets the culture of the building.”
TNGA History
Before becoming the new occupants at 500 Perry St., Trenton Public Schools previously operated a ninth grade academy at other sites, including Trenton Central High School and the former Monument School, but those previous incarnations were not true academies.
“We are excited, the team is excited to really make this an academy,” Wood said of TNGA’s new home on Perry Street. “Not just the word ‘academy,’ but making it an academy instructionally, and so we will be learning together.”
Former Trenton Public Schools Superintendent Francisco Duran became Trenton’s top educator in July 2012. During his three-year tenure, Duran reconfigured the schools and set initiatives in motion to decrease the high school’s dropout rate. He pioneered the Trenton Ninth Grade Academy concept, which has advanced to the next level under the current superintendent and Board of Education.
School districts throughout the United States are increasingly establishing ninth grade academies, seeing them as a vehicle to better prepare students for future success, according to Wood.
“If students experience in ninth grade a successful nurturing ninth-grade experience,” Wood said, “it increases the probability of them graduating, staying in school, increases the graduation rate and decreases the drop-out rate by providing them with a learning experience that is successful.”
Trenton Central High School had a prior history of being an academic facility for students in grades 10 through 12. That changed in the early 1990s, when TCHS added freshmen into the mix alongside sophomores, juniors and seniors, officials said, noting Trenton ninthgraders previously attended school alongside middleschoolers.
The new TCHS, when it opens next September, will be a facility for students in grades 10 through 12, while TNGA will continue being the exclusive educational venue for freshmen enrolled in the Trenton Public Schools district.
“I’m happy for the children to be able to come to a new building,” Dana Williamson, a vice principal at TNGA, said of his ninthgraders. “They deserve it.”
The district gave ninthgraders their own exclusive space under former superintendent Duran, and Williamson served as a TNGA vice principal from the beginning as the program bounced around from site to site over the last five years before landing its new home at the former Trenton Times building.
TNGA in the last schoolyear operated at the former Monument School off Pennington Avenue and had up to 535 students enrolled. The district in the last schoolyear housed some of its ninth-graders at the Trenton Central High School West campus, but the 201819 schoolyear will house all Trenton Public Schools ninth-graders at 500 Perry St.
In addition to Principal Wood and Vice Principal Williamson, TNGA has another administrator on board, Vice Principal Evette Reyes.
Newly hired into Trenton Public Schools, Reyes previously served as a vice principal at Perth Amboy High School’s ninth grade program in Middlesex County. She began her career as a schoolteacher in Jersey City, where she was born and raised, she said.
Reyes resigned from Perth Amboy earlier this year to join Trenton Public Schools, saying she wanted to be in a larger urban setting that closer aligns with her big-city roots. “I wanted something similar to where I flourished and made a difference for my students,” she explained, “and Trenton was it.”
TNGA has over 45 classrooms, a full-sized gymnasium, a cafeteria, a computer lab, a library media center STEM lab and main office spaces. The current remodeled facility provides educational accommodations for a capacity of 1,100 students, according to the Trenton Board of Education.
“We look forward to assisting our incoming freshmen in making a smooth and successful transition to the rigorous standards of Trenton Central High School,” Principal Wood said in a recent letter to TNGA students and families. “It is our main goal to develop respectful, responsible, dedicated students, that are highly motivated in reaching their potential; and a positive, supportive environment designed to foster energy and enthusiasm for learning.”
TNGA had an open-house event last week that allowed scores of students and parents to tour the building and grounds. “They loved it,” Wood said. “They were so excited, so I am really looking forward to this year.”