Neighborhood News Bureau

Category: MIDTOWN NEWS

Parent category for all other news categories.

  • African American Heritage Trail: The Historic Manhattan Casino

    The Historic Manhattan Casino comes to life at night with Jazz performances from local Jazz artists following in the footsteps of former greats.

    Photo courtesy of Tim Arruda

    Listen to live jazz as you delve into a soulful menu of upscale southern comfort at Sylvia’s St. Pete.

    Experience southern staples and a new twist on old favorites.

    BY LAURA MULROONEY AND JASON SAAB
    NNB Reporters

    Constructed by Elder Jordan Sr., one of the first African American businessmen in St. Petersburg, FL and his sons was and has remained a quintessential establishment in Midtown since 1925.

    For 40 years, the Manhattan Casino played a significant role as a social hub for the community.

    The Manhattan was once a venue on the renowned southern “Chitlin Circuit,” a string of venues throughout the eastern, southern, and upper mid-west areas of the United States that were safe for African American performers of all genres to perform uninhibited.

    George Grogan served as the booking agent responsible for bringing in big acts, while simultaneously employed at Gibbs High School as a chemistry teacher.

    Major jazz and blues performers, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Fat Domino, Count Bassie, Otis Redding and local legendary icons Al Downing, LeRoy Flemmings Jr., Al Williams, and George ‘Buster’ Cooper played at the venue.

    Al Downing, also a teacher at Gibbs High School inspired many students throughout the years with his passion and skill, some of the impressionable youth followed in his footsteps like Buster Cooper.

    Cooper learned music from Downing during his formative years at Gibbs High School.

    Buster would eventually go on to play throughout the country, but started off at the Manhattan where he would play with his cousin’s band and any swing bands that would allow him to sit in as they visited. Buster remembers the Manhattan being the “only place we could play at that time.”

    The casino closed in 1966 due to effects of integration throughout the city, allowing African American musicians greater exposure by playing in once closed off parts of the city.

    In 2005 The Manhattan was renovated under the initiative of former St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster.

    After many years of debate and fiscal hardship, once just a dance hall and center for community events the space packs twice the punch.

    On the first floor Sylvia’s Queen of Soul Food Restaurant opened in 2013 and is the first upscale soul food eatery in St. Petersburg.

    Sylvia’s serves down home cooking with a swanky ambiance. Piping hot corn bread is served upon seating as a four-page menu is placed in front of you. The menu offers three styles of chicken and waffles, grilled, blackened, fried, and BBQ seafood options, and every southern side dish imaginable.

    Upstairs stills serves it’s purpose as a dance and event hall.

    The Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association, Inc. continues to keep the music alive at the Manhattan with live Jazz Jams every second Sunday of the month. With major events such as Jazz Jams culminating conclusion of the St. Petersburg Jazz Festival

    Jazz is offered every Saturday downstairs at Sylvia’s from 11-2. Sylvia’s also hosts a Gospel Brunch every Sunday.

    Buster Cooper Quote and Interview courtesy of Jon Tallon- Florida Historian
    King’s Dream Unite and Manhattan Casino night photos courtesy of Tim Arruda

    Visit the King’s Dream Unite mural painted by artist Ya La’ford to recognize unity within the community.

    Photo Courtesy of Tim Arruda

    Internationally known artist Ya La’ford incorporates lights with her murals to remind residents that hope can be found in the darkest places.

    Local musicians bring the old Jazz hall back to life every Saturday and the second Sunday of every month.

  • Renovation, Rouson to breathe new life into Faynne Ponder Council House

    Renovation, Rouson to breathe new life into Faynne Ponder Council House

    BY MARLA KORENICH AND IVELLIAM CEBALLO
    NNB Reporters

    Pausing for a sandwich, the carpenter stowed himself away from the cold in his white truck behind the historical building. He muttered about failing to notice the stolen AC unit while working inside the meetinghouse last week.

    “Thieves, man,” he said.

    The carpenter from All Trades Historical LLC asked to be identified as “Mike the workman.” His job to renovate the Faynne A. Ponder Council House on 9th Avenue South included installing new cabinets and doors.

    “I figured they wouldn’t steal out of respect for the old lady,” he said in a compassionate tone.

    The “old lady” is Ponder, who started the council house in 1940, establishing the local affiliate of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). The purpose of the group was to effect the integration of African Americans into the political, educational, economic, social, and cultural life of St. Petersburg, according to stpete.org.

    Not all sections of the organization have their own council house.

    “It’s rare that you will find an organization that has their own house, a single place where the organization can meet and call its own. Seeing an NCNW house here, it is amazing to me that this has come to fruition,” said Sandra Gibson, St. Petersburg section member.

    Gibson was the president of the organization’s section in Rochester, New York, and has been involved with the St. Petersburg section for four months.

    The group gets by with help from its members.

    Angela Rouson is the president of the section located in midtown St. Petersburg.

    Even though the house where they meet is being renovated, the women are still actively engaging the community. Their youth leadership development program is ongoing with an upcoming Health and Wellness Expo, according to Rouson. 

    And there are more plans for the future.

    “We intend to do a summer reading program again when schools are out, and we have been asked to mentor girls at Johns Hopkins Middle School,” Rouson said. “We’re working with the Museum of Fine Arts to bring a Smithsonian exhibit to St. Petersburg, and we’re planning our Founder’s Day Luncheon as well.”

    “We plan to apply for another grant to be able to educate the community about our history and contributions and to turn our parlor into a museum,” Rouson said.

    A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned when the renovations to the house are finished.

    “If we support our community then our community can be strong for the family it supports,” Gibson said.

  • Historic buildings with a hopeful future

     

    BY MIRANDA BORCHARDT AND BRIANNA ENDERS
    NNB Reporters

    MIDTOWN — Teresa Williams stood on the balcony of the historic Swain Apartments looking out onto The Deuces, 22nd Street South.

    Before the interstate, the desolate street was a hub of activity.

    “They say it used to be hopping back then,” she said.

    The interstate was built through the community in the late 1960s, forcing residents to relocate, “it became a dead area,” Williams said.

    Williams is the property manager of the business and apartments at the corner of 22nd Street and 15th Avenue South. She inherited this responsibility from her parents, William and Annette Howard, the current owners who are no longer able to maintain the buildings due to health conditions.

    Annette, a member of the 22nd Street Redevelopment Corporation, suffered a stroke in 2010.

    “(The community group’s) goal was to revitalize, make it functional, utilize it better,” Williams said.

    The commercial building was originally constructed in 1954 by Dr. Robert James Swain, a progressive dentist. He established his practice in 1954 and continued to practice dentistry in St. Pete until his death in 1996, according to StPete.org.

    Swain was an influential figure in the community, known for pressing for equal opportunity during the segregation era.

    He challenged Section 3 of the City of St. Petersburg’s Charter, which established separate residential and commercial areas for whites and African Americans in 1931, according to StPete.org.

    The state-of-the-art Swain Dental Office was built on the opposite side of 15th Avenue, impeding on the government allocated “white” territory, and was the first dental office for African Americans in the area at the time.

    Two years later, in 1956, Swain appended the residential apartment building behind his office to house African American Major League baseball players who were denied the right to stay with their white teammates during spring training.

    Annette Howard converted the Swain Dental Office building, which had previously been transformed into a doctor’s office years earlier, into the Golden Shears hair salon. Williams transitioned from her nursing career as an LPN at Bay Pines Medical after her divorce to being a hairstylist in order to “take advantage of what was here (her parent’s property),” she said. It also allowed her to have a more flexible schedule while she was raising her daughter.

    Her parent’s health issues in recent years caused Williams to re-direct her focus from being a full time stylist to tending to the well-being of her family members as their primary caregiver and managing the residential property to generate income for the family.

    Williams, along with her parents and 99-year-old grandmother, live in the three ground level apartment units and rent out the top three.

    “Everything’s so scattered,” she said. “Everything’s like… My life’s like a tossed salad.”

    The three one-bedroom units are rented for $600 a month and have original cabinetry with updated flooring, fans and appliances. Williams works to enhance each apartment as tenants cycle through.

    William’s dream for the business is a boutique-style salon where stylists would rent their own stations and bring in their own customers. 

    Making that dream come true could help make this area come alive again.

    Photos: Historic buildings with a hopeful future

  • Campbell Park, a community building block

    BY CATHERINE KOURETSOS AND JADE ISAACS

    NNB Reporters

    MIDTOWN — To Verline Moore, Campbell Park is a community building block.

    Moore, the park’s supervisor for the last 26 years, grew up playing in the park.

    “Much of the community has moved, but it’s still just as strong as ever,” said Moore. “We use the park for events, summer programs, and community leisurement. People always come back here.”

    Campbell Park provides recreational activities for children and adults. There is a playground, recreation center, outdoor fitness zone, football and soccer fields, outdoor and indoor basketball courts, softball fields, tennis courts, racquetball courts, a picnic shelter, and a lounge with a patio for grilling.

    The park was originally owned by Thomas C. Campbell until 1943 when he sold the land to the city, giving the community a place “where people could come and have fun,” according to the park’s official documented history “A Tribute to Thomas C. Campbell,” written by Thomas P. Zurflieh, Campbell’s great grandson.

    Under Moore’s supervision, the park has undergone several renovations since 1996. Improvements include a new kids room, a teen room, an extension to the lounge and kitchen, and the relocation of the bathrooms.

    “They do a very good job in upkeeping the park and maintaining it. Having more upkeep allows for more people, which then allows diversity,”said Moore. “The Juvenile Welfare Board also contributes in donations to help keep programs running.”

    The park is also special to St. Petersburg’s history.

    According to Moore, the park’s baseball fields were used for African-American Major League Baseball players for spring training during the era of segregation.

    Rosa L. Jackson, a prominent community member, also used the park’s lounge kitchen to feed the homeless every Thanksgiving, a tradition that is still upheld by Jackson’s daughter, Eloise Jones. The kitchen is now named in Jackson’s honor.

    “The history of the park doesn’t just stop there,” Zurflieh wrore. “It’s history lies with the people of the community.”

  • Jazz band benefit helps musicians make it to New Orleans

    BY SARAH MASON
    NNB Reporter

    DOWNTOWN — Friends, family, and teachers came together Saturday night at the Museum of Fine Arts to show support for the Lakewood High School Jazz Ensemble and the 54th Ave South Jazz Combo’s Black and Gold Benefit Concert.

    Special guests John Brown, Belinda Womack, and Butch Thomas also performed with the students as well as rub some of their knowledge and talents off on them.

    The concert was created to fund the ensemble’s trip to New Orleans in March for the Crescent City Music Festival, a national music competition. This event benefits the students by introducing them to other musicians and helping them improve their chops.

    Lakewood High School Jazz Band director Michael Kernodle said the students will also get the chance to go to Loyola University in Chicago.

    “They will do a master class and meet with musicians,” Kernodle said.

    This would be the second year they get to attend this event.

    “Last time we went, it changed their whole lives,” Kernodle added.

    David Deister, a Lakewood High School senior, plays lead trombone in the ensemble and can’t wait to get to New Orleans.

    “I’ve heard we will tour schools and maybe I’ll get to audition,” Deister said.

    After he graduates, Deister plans to join the Army. He hopes to keep playing music, by auditioning for the Army band.

    But even though the money was an important factor, it wasn’t the main goal of the event, according to Kernodle.

    “The biggest thing is exposure to the community and to let them know what we are doing,” he said.

     

    In order to make the trip more affordable, Kernodle hopes to raise around $13-$15,000 by March. Tickets for the performance were $20. There was also a silent auction, which raised $950.

    The event kicked off with a New Orleans style entrance. Kernodle lead the ensemble playing the trumpet while the band followed behind him passing out beaded necklaces as they performed.

    Everyone appeared to enjoy the event dancing in their seats as the jazz rhythms filled the room. The students on stage were having fun and playing with enthusiasm.

    “[I] thought they were amazing,” said Kristie Dowling, an English teacher at Lakewood High School. “I’m really proud of them.”

  • Admired African American women come back to life

    Admired African American women come back to life

    BY IVELLIAM CEBALLO
    NNB Reporter

    MIDTOWN — Two lively women sang a freedom hymn as they walked into a small, open gallery with no seats left empty.

    Historically important African American women Mary McLeod Bethune and Zora Neale Hurston shared their stories of perseverance during the “Two takes on a Dream” speaker series at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum Thursday, Feb. 11. The series is called “Two takes on a Dream.”

    Chautauqua scholars Ersula Odom Knox portrayed Bethune and Phyllis McEwen portrayed Hurston.

    McEwen’s portrayal of Hurston kept the room laughing out loud. Hurston came to life through her Southern accent and sass when sharing about her experiences and in her back-and-forth with her friend Bethune. She has been portraying Hurston since 1991.

    During the performance, the audience felt Hurston’s pride in her heritage when she said, “I was a negro baby, a negro girl and a negro woman.”

    Ceballo_Chataucqua_03

    Hurston was born in Alabama, but moved to Florida with her family as a toddler. She was a daughter of former slaves and dedicated her life to studying, collecting African American folklore and writing, according to her biography. She was influential to the Harlem Renaissance, a time when famous African Americans shed light on their culture through their creative and scientific work.

    “Zora inspires the creative spark for me,” McEwen said. “The way she shared her work inspires me to share my work.”

    McEwen said that the genius in these two women is “frightening.” The two scholars contemplated on the fact that these two women were very busy and the span of their influence was immeasurable to society.  

    “People are afraid of Zora’s intellect,” McEwen said when referring to the author’s books.

    McEwen’s favorite book written by Hurston is “Dust Tracks on a Road” because Hurston tells the story of her own life. Her struggles in life and the way she handled them were inspirational, according to McEwen.

    Bethune was an unbelievable woman, according to Odom who has been portraying her for public programs for the humanities council since 2006.

    “She did so many incredible things that people may not be aware of,” Odom said. “If (people) knew they would have personal pride because they can relate to her as an African American woman.”

    Ceballo_Chataucqua_01

    Originally from South Carolina, Bethune was born of former slaves and the only member in her family of 17 siblings that attended school, according to her biography. Odom shared her story with the audience and in her performance expressed Bethune’s love of learning and sharing her knowledge. While reminiscing on her childhood during the performance, Bethune remembered how much she enjoyed teaching her family the things she learned at school since they didn’t have the opportunity to receive a formal education. She was an educator since she was 10.

    The name Bethune-Cookman University may ring a bell when people think of this determined woman. After teaching in Georgia and South Carolina, Bethune’s dream was to open her own school so she did with $1.50 in Daytona, Florida, and five students, according to the university’s history.

    “She was able to do so much in one lifetime,” Odom said. “She was able to pull people together of diverse backgrounds in order to achieve a common goal.”

    One of the accomplishments that impresses Odom the most was Bethune’s access to the White House. She advised five presidents and founded the National Council of Negro Women, a civil rights organization to help the progress of African American women in society.

    Odom’s study and research of Bethune has inspired her to be more like the civil rights activist and educator.

    “After what would Jesus do is what would Mary McLeod Bethune do,” she said.

    Odom has written a new book which will be released soon. She tells the story of Dorris Rossreddick who was the first African American woman to sit on the Hillsborough County school board and to chair it, according to the author.

    McEwen, like Odom, is also a writer, and artist too. Her work will be displayed during an art show at Studio 620 in March.

    John Hayner, an 80-year-old philatelist from Clearwater attended the reenactment. Hayner was there because he went to Eatonville the day that Zora Neale Hurston’s stamp was issued on Jan. 24, 2003 and he let her know at the end of the performance when guests were welcome to interact with the presenters.

    Ceballo_Chataucqua_04

    Hayner lived in British Guinea as a child and appreciates African American history because he experienced being the “only white boy in school.”

    Miriam Romo, 35, of Meadowlawn, attended the performance to listen to poetry and for her son.

    “My son is mixed. The more I know, the more I can transfer on to him,” Romo said referring to African American history. “It’s important to know where you’re coming from.”

    Another mother, Ginande Jester from Clearwater, was also there for her 15-year-old daughter and is committed to go to events like this monthly with her.

    “My objective is to support local events so my daughter gets a sense of history,” Jester said.

    Jester’s daughter, Zxamara, said it was cool that the women being portrayed had Florida roots.

    Today their legacy lives on.

    “Someone said we’re dead,” Bethune jokingly said to Hurston when the audience had time to converse with them after they finished the performance.

  • Shame encourages hunger

    BY LAURA MULROONEY
    NNB Reporter
    [Edited By Ivelliam Ceballo]

    Twenty-five percent of Pinellas County’s underage population has no idea where their next meal will come from, the definition of chronic hunger.

    Approximately 86 percent of people in this country take for granted food choices available to them, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

    While food is freely distributed throughout the city at numerous food banks and outreach programs, what prevents residents from being food and nutrition secure?

    Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal nutrition assistance program, not a cash assistance program. Similarly, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) offers food for low-income women who are pregnant or have children under the age of 5.

    SNAP and WIC nutrition programs are used interchangeably with the word welfare, which causes confusion and misunderstanding for those who might qualify for the programs but never apply because of a perceived stigma.

    Participation in the SNAP program has dropped by more than a million people since October 2014. October 2015 marked the fifth straight monthly decline. Even as more people are applying for benefits, about 20 percent of eligible applicants will not receive them, according to the Food Research and Action Center.

    Why the decline?

    Beth Houghton, the executive director of St. Petersburg Free Clinic, believes awareness is the biggest problem.

    “Many families don’t know they qualify for food assistance like SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps,” said Houghton. “Many families are unaware of the qualifications they need to benefit from this federal program. Education about available programs and resources is key.”

    Some groups are working to raise awareness.

    The St. Petersburg Free Clinic Food Bank started advertising with other area food banks to share food resource information using social media.

    Did you know 1 in 4 children in Pinellas County are chronically hungry? Posted by St. Petersburg Free Clinic on Tuesday, August 25, 2015
    Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger provides education initiatives and resources through the University of Florida Extension program which includes help with finances, nutrition and home gardening. The Food Research and Action Center provides dedicated web space for research including resources on nutrition and healthy living. Short pre-screenings to determine eligibility can be done online for SNAP and WIC. Still, the suffering from chronic hunger persists and it’s not always visually apparent. There is a fear of being stereotyped, the stigma behind being a welfare recipient is harsh in a world where the rich are idolized and the poor are ignored.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/3"][vc_column_text] 27% of people in Midtown are at or below poverty level, which is much higher than the state’s average of 17%.  city-data.com [/vc_column_text][vc_separator color="grey" align="align_center" style="" border_width="" el_width=""][vc_column_text]Links to Program Prescreening Supplemental Nutrition Assitance Program (SNAP) Women, Infants and Children (WIC) [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] NNB reporters Esteban Rodriguez and Marla Korenich contributed to this report.

  • Flag raised over City Hall commemorates 40 years of Black History Month

    BY LAURA MULROONEY
    NNB Reporter

    ST. PETERSBURG – History was made February 1 at City Hall.

    Amid applause, whoops and laughter, Mayor Rick Kriseman raised a flag over City Hall commemorating 40 years of Black History Month.

    The flag featured the likeness of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, an educator, author and historian who is known as the father of Black History Month.

    After the flag was raised, Terri Lipsey Scott, chair of the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum in St. Petersburg, praised Kriseman for the important gesture.

    She commended him on doing what no other St. Petersburg mayor has ever done, “which was to acknowledge and commemorate the contributions that African Americans have made to this nation by flying, over a government institution, a flag in honor of not only Dr. Carter G. Woodson but African American history,” said Scott.

    In response, Kriseman said that “one of the many things that makes our community so special is our black history and the countless contributions that black individuals and families have made, and continue to make.”

    Last March, Kriseman also won plaudits when he announced that the city will try to purchase and preserve the Woodson museum, a long-simmering point of controversy between the museum board and the museum’s landlord, the St. Petersburg Housing Authority.

    Two months earlier, the Housing Authority board had voted 4-3 to sell the small community museum at 2240 9th Ave. S.

    Since then the city has announced a plan to purchase the building with the intent to keep it as a cultural landmark, museum, and now city building.

    In praising Kriseman’s recognition of the city’s diversity and the importance of keeping its history alive, Scott quoted Woodson: “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”

    Woodson announced the celebration of “Negro History Week” in 1926, in effort to preserve African American history, which had been routinely overlooked in history books.

    In 1976 “Negro History Week” was extended to encompass the entire month of February. Some say that the establishment of Black History Month is counterproductive to Woodson’s initial intent.

    Relegating black history to one month excuses the full integration of black history into mainstream education.

    This is not the first time Kriseman has made steps to unify the community and demonstrate St. Petersburg’s inclusiveness.

    During Pride Week in 2015, Kriseman flew the LGBT Pride Flag over City Hall and returned as the parade’s honorary grand marshal along with former St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief Melanie Brevan.

    Laura Mulrooney is a reporter in the Neighborhood News Bureau at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

  • County launches new program for struggling schools

    BY ANNA STEBBINS, IVY CEBALLO, DAVID STONER, JADE ISAACS AND KATIE CALLIHAN
    NNB Reporters

    MIDTOWN- Midtown schools are still undergoing the process of bringing in money for teacher training, in hopes for a better classroom atmosphere, but could the most important part be the passion of the teachers?

    After being deemed “Failure Factories” in 2015, Midtown schools continue to attempt to increase classroom success and teacher longevity, but the cure to the academic disease might lie in the educator’s passion to teach.

    In January of last year, Pinellas County school officials pledged to spend $1 million and partner with the New Teacher Project, based out of Brooklyn, New York.  The program, Scale Up for Success, could live up to its name for Pinellas County schools by offering teacher training, teacher’s assistance and mental health experts on hand.

    The program includes five St. Petersburg schools: Campbell Park Elementary, Melrose Elementary, Fairmount Park, Lakewood and Maximo.

    The partnership has had its start at Campbell Park Elementary, where turnaround efforts are a focus.

    Third-year principal at Campbell Park, Robert Ovalle, says that he is dedicated to the concentration of teacher training and support from all faculty and staff.

    “Our ultimate goal is to support classroom teachers. They are the teachers working hard on the front line,” said Ovalle.

    Ovalle is dedicated to use this ongoing opportunity of additional funding to not only train his teachers, but also give him the reinforcement to add further support as an entire school unit.

    “There are certain obstacles here that come up but that’s what my job is, to prepare teachers to have those skill sets,” said Ovalle.

    As for the Scale Up For Success program, which is expected to provide more advantages and will continue to provide stability in the classroom environment, according to Ovalle, it will only be successful if teachers are passionate about what they do.

    “Teachers stay at schools like this because they have that deep passion to give kids a quality education,” said Ovalle.

    Campbell Park Elementary third-grade teacher, Jordan Blakeney, conducts daily morale and welfare checks with her students on her classroom floor.

    “Some say, I haven’t had breakfast, I’m checking in,” said Blakeney, “If I have anything that I can give them, I will.”

    She uses this exercise to assess how to help her students’ performance throughout the day.

    “Whatever they feel like they need to express, they can say, and if they don’t want to say anything, I still require them to say I have nothing to say, but I’m checking in,” she said.

    For the school year of 2007, Campbell Park Elementary received a letter “B” grade performance at a 70 percent student minority rate. In consecutive years, the grade dropped from “B” to “C” to “D” and, finally, to “F”, according to the Florida Department of Education’s accountability report.

    The latest “F” grade is from the 2013 school year, at an 88 percent student minority rate.

    “Just because we’re an F doesn’t mean that we’re not teaching, we’re not working,” said Blakeney, “It’s the exact opposite actually.”

    Blakeney said that Scale Up For Success has helped her reflect on her teaching skills and find ways to challenge herself and her students. The program has provided her and other participating teachers with a math coach, a reading coach and a behavior coach to offer them individual feedback.

    “We neglect a lot of our own lives to support the school and our families. I know of co-workers who stay extra to help kids. Their kids at home aren’t seeing them,” said Blakeney.

    The same outlook about teaching is expressed by Connie Fowler, a Pinellas County teacher of 28 years.

    “The money doesn’t matter; teachers teach to teach. They love kids.  I didn’t come to this school to get a bonus or paid for the extra half an hour.  I’m just drawn to working with minority students who live in poverty,” said Fowler, who taught at Lakewood Elementary for 17 years.

    Over the past 80 years, Midtown’s educational foundation has been set, dissembled, and reassembled in a way where the pieces do not fit back together. Some pieces are broken and some pieces are missing.

    It was not until 1971 when the School Board voted to desegregate the schools across Pinellas County.

    Rules used to be active in making sure that schools were not more than 30 percent black. This caused students to be bused away from their neighborhood schools and instead receive their education in a mixed and fair learning environment.

    Complaints about the inconveniences and costs of busing these students away from their neighborhood schools caused a reverse in the zoning system in 2007.

    In December of that year, the School Board decided on a plan that stopped the integration and rezoned students to their neighborhood schools.

    This, in return, caused schools to lose their mixed social and economic learning environment. In time, classrooms turned into mostly all white and all black classrooms. This action resulted in a staggering drop in academics across the board, especially in Midtown.

    Students started failing at rates that teachers couldn’t keep up with. This created a cycle of discouraged and stressed out teachers who could not handle the mess.

    “I watched over 50 percent of a very dedicated staff walk out the door. I passed but lost most of my friends to the cut and then were fully a neighborhood school,” said Fowler.

    Today, the education of Midtown has been an experiment of trial and error.

    Leaving Lakewood Elementary in 2015, Fowler has seen the evolution of the school system after the re-segregation and zoning changes.

    The Scale Up for Success Program combined with the reinforced passion of teachers might finally be the answer that Midtown schools are looking for.

    “Teachers work harder than ever before and are so stressed. Money doesn’t even come into play, they do it because it’s who they are,” said Fowler.

     

  • Through Our Eyes: Midtown and Beyond 2015

    Through Our Eyes: Midtown and Beyond 2015