AUX 2020 PROGRAMS

During Obama Elementary’s 2019-2020 Partners‘ Meeting, Principal Thomas-Bethea and staff shared their greatest wins and challenges in serving their students and parents. keep scrolling for a full recap of the Partners’ Meeting.

Principal Angela Thomas-Bethea:

"We have almost 1,200 students here now. We started off four years ago with about 700-800 students. People are just starting to come here in droves through our magnet programs. We have a magnet program for technology, We also have a Spanish immersion program (K-4th grade) so that by the time those students leave Obama Elementary, they will be fluent in Spanish.

What I want you to understand is, when they built this school, a lot of people in the district and around DeKalb said, “Why are you building this big, beautiful school in an impoverished area? With children who typically fail and who don’t have the means to perform well academically. So when we came together, the odds were stacked against us.

‘This is my 26th year in DeKalb. I was a high school English teacher at Southwest DeKalb High School. I was also an assistant principal at SW DeKalb. I ended up being the first female principal. But when I had my own children, that high school schedule was just overwhelming for me. I had to scale back so I could be present and stay married and keep my family in tact, because I was working all the time. So I requested to come to the elementary level. I ended up at Clifton Elementary.

I do feel very strongly that my high school experience in education is what’s making this work at the elementary level as such a large elementary school. I came here with kind of a high school mentality -- we have a lot of extracurricular programs that other elementary schools don’t have. For one, the two magnet programs, and also a residential program and a tremendous amount of programs. 

Every other afternoon, we have groups of students in here staying. Because what I discovered was a lot of children were going home to apartments and houses and they were unsupervised in the afternoons. And that really bothered me. Because we would here from the community that they were on the playgrounds until nine, ten o’clock at night. Or just craziness was happening in the communities. So I said, “Well, we gotta do something to keep the kids after school a little longer. So they can be supervised, get a snack. And a lot of parents cannot afford to pay for an after school program. That’s the reality. We have reasons for our students to stick around."

Principal Thomas-Bethea:

"We have all of these organizations so that students can be a part of something else beyond the normal academic program. Because we know that we have to develop the whole child. right? We wanna make sure that somebody is pouring into them at all times. We talk about exposure. Just being exposed to positive people for a longer period of time."

Organizations:

- Chess Club

- Beta Club

- Safety Patrols

- Chorus

- Art Club

- Cheerleaders

- STEM Club

- The Obama Gents

- Cool Girls

- Pretty Brown Girls

- Technology Club

Contact AUX directly to learn how you can contribute to an organization at Obama Elementary.

Principal Angela Thomas-Bethea:

"When I came to the elementary school, at the time they told us, “We can’t take these kids on all these trips. Especially in this neighborhood, because the kids can’t pay for the trips. We have parents who are paying $150 for tennis shoes. Surely, we can come up with $5 to get on the bus and go on a field trip.

The awakening for me, and it broke my heart, was when we took our kids to Phillips Arena. They had a STEM conference. And a partner paid for the whole South End district to go to this STEM event with the WMBA. As we were driving to that event, a lot of our students were on the bus, and they had never seen the Ferris Wheel. They had never seen the city of Atlanta. Fifteen minutes from here. They had never seen the city, and that deeply disturbed me.

Sometimes we take for granted that everybody has the exposure.

They were fifteen minutes away from their homes, and they were "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing" like we were in Disney World. That was an awakening for me. When you’re in SW DeKalb and you have middle class, you kind of just assume that everyone has the same experience.

We mandated in our school that we would take our children on four trips per year. If children behave appropriately, they can go, even if they don’t have the money.

My staff would sponsor children. I’m talking about teachers, paraprofessionals. They would all give ten dollars, twenty dollars, to make sure that the children were able to go who could behave appropriately.

We decided that we were just going to go hard for the children in our community.  We have seen tremendous growth in our children."

Principal Angela Thomas-Bethea:

"When we opened the doors here, they put us on the failing school list -- we didn’t even have any data as a school. 

This school comprises of Meadow View Elementary and Clifton Elementary. So they put us on a failing school list before we even had data as a school. Which was so disrespectful to me. It was hurtful. How can you already claim failure for my children? So we decided that we were all going to stand in the gap and present something better to our children. So we have an expectation of success for our kids. We expect you to excel. We can’t control what’s happening in your home or with your parents, we can control what happens when you come here.

We keep the foolishness out. We are very strict about security here. We have some parents who can be unsupportive and disrespectful. We stop ‘em at the door. We had to set a tone for excellence. I will talk to you. The doors are always open. But you cannot curse at me. You cannot curse at my staff. You cannot curse in front of my children when they come here. Because we’re going to show them something different. If the children come here and they’re hungry, we feed them. 

If they’re late to school, I don’t care if they get here at nine o’clock and they have lunch at eleven, we’re gonna feed them. Some cereal, whatever. Because we have to address that issue first before we can get to the learning. 

We have children that come here and they don’t have adequate clothing. So we give them coats. They have dirty clothes, we have a washing machine and dryer here. We provide clothing, shoes, any barrier that we can remove to get them to learn, that’s what we try to do here. That takes a staff that’s willing to be empathetic and sensitive to the needs of others. 

Some people had to leave her. Because they did not have the mindset to nurture children. We teach our staff to forgive and forget. We have to forgive over and over again.  Even our parents, who can be very rude to us. So we might have to ask them to leave that day. But when they come back the next day, let’s try it again today. “We didn’t have a good conversation yesterday, but today is a new day. So we’re gonna try it again. That takes training. Because we understand that positive communication between the parents, guardians and community members matter. We have forged a relationship with Gresham Park Recreation Center. We send students to parks and recreation to participate on teams. We allow their coaches, if parents permit, to come in as mentors and talk to their players. It has changed the entire mindset of this community.

Our students are winning all the competition that the county offers. These are two schools that they thought nothing good would come from. We’re dominating competitions for technology every year for the past four years we have had the most students to place for the Technology Fair. Our scores are going up. We’re experiencing a lot of growth.

We’re going to be at the table. That’s what we tell the kids.

We’re not gonna be on the table, where people are deciding what’s happening to us. 

We’re gonna be at the table. We’re going to be competitive. You can do anything. Because I think some of them had the belief that they couldn’t do it. Our chorus, can rival any of those theme schools, the fine arts schools, and we have that right here in Gresham. We just found the kids who could sing. And we’re nurturing that in them so they can be confident. So as the kids leave here, they are the ones who are excelling in the middle and high school. Now my students who were at Clifton are now in high school, and they are the top performing students in their high schools because of something that was planted right here.

The community matters in this. We have to all wrap around our children to support them in these endeavors. We can’t look at their backgrounds, we have to nurture them where they are and just grow them. And that’s what we’re trying to do here.

I love my team because we all know that we could be somewhere else. We could all go up to the north end, or some other school where the parents are more supportive. But my staff chooses to stay here. Every year, our jobs are on the chopping block. Because if we don’t grow our kids, then they blame us. So a lot of people leave. Because you can work somewhere else.

But I feel that what we’re doing is a mighty work. I feel like we’re walking in our calling. And I feel like we’re positively impacting children in the community so that makes it all worth it for me. I’m a spiritual person. I tell everybody I'm a praying principal, and I don’t really care how anyone feels about that. But I feel that’s important.

Ms. Irvine is the Region 7 teacher of the year. We have a Pre-K teacher here, Jonathan Hines, he is the state of Georgia’s public school Pre-K teacher of the year. The first African-American man to win that title. It has never happened before. Georgia can be a very racist state, we know. So out of all the teachers in Georgia, this African-American man in our school is representing the state. That’s a calling. We are trying to do a mighty work here, and we need your help and support."

Principal Angela Thomas-Bethea:

"It’s not all about money. We want your time. We want your expertise. We want you to meet our children and share your stories. Because that’s important. A lot of children feel like when they fail they can’t get back up. It’s no way around it. They have a defeatist attitude. Well we need to share our stories of failure. And how we’ve overcome to get to where we are. 

You don’t have to have a college degree to serve your community. I tell the kids, the entrepreneurs in my family make way more money than I do. So you don’t have to have a college degree. There is a pathway to success that’s legal. You don’t have to do anything illegal. And you can be more than a rapper and an athlete. There are other things that you can do that are lucrative and that let you give back to the community.

So I want you to feel a part of this. I want you to give in any way that you can. Your time, your service. I you sponsor five kids for a trip, that’s more than we have. The Dream Center has partnered with us. They have adopted our third grade class. It doesn’t have to be that big, but any child that can benefit from you being here, that’s very important to us.

When I say the work that our partners has done here really does make a difference. I love seeing all of these men standing around us. And we need more men. Because a lot of our children do not have any positive interactions with a man. They’re coming from single parent homes, and they don’t even know how to communicate with men. So we appreciate you coming in. We would like you to come back.

We had officers come one morning to shake hands. And the children were screaming and crying. They were terrified. That’s scary. Somebody has taught them that the police are enemies. So we have to show them a different side. They are community helpers. They’re not here to lock people up and take people away all the time. But they didn’t want to get off the bus. They were screaming and crying. Because officers were there to shake their hands and wish them a good day.

Ladies, we need you also. We need you to pour into our girls. They need a talk. And we need more of you to spread the word and teach them high self-esteem and having high standards and high expectations in their relationships. A lot of our girls suffer from low self-esteem. A lot of our children are not having positive discussions with adults. Parents are sticking ‘em in front of a TV, or handing them a device, and they just feed ‘em and bathe ‘em. A lot of our students don’t know how to cope. Just coping skills. And we see it in the parents. They think coping is get something to drink, it’ll make you feel nice. Or smoke something and it will calm you down. We have to teach them how to talk through their feelings and emotions. Go to church, get a word. We need more people to send that message to our children because life is hard. And they really don’t know how to deal. A lot of our children are dealing with adult situations and they’re little kids. No water. No food. Not the proper clothing. Getting evicted every other six months. So they’re having some psychological issues. And we need to help them do that. So I want to thank you for everything you’ve done. Whatever it is that you have to offer, whatever your background is can change a child’s life.

No contribution is too small. If it’s just reading to a class and seeing a positive male or female sitting before them. You can come to an Obama Gents meeting and talk to the guys. Teach them how to be appropriate. Teach them how to speak to each other and to women. 

They need to hear from people other than just the adults in the school. We have parents with mental health issues and we are the first advocate for a lot of our children. We are the first ones that they encounter that will speak on their behalf. It’s a collaborative effort, we can’t do this work without your support. 

They need to be held accountable beyond this building. Seeing your faces, being in your presence and the positive outpouring is going to make a difference. If we all in here change five children's lives, that’s gonna make the world better. But we do need your help and support in any way that you can give it."

S.T.E.M. Programs & Certification

Principal AngThomas-Bethea:

"Science, Technology, Engineering, Math: Those fields are very limited when it comes to African-Americans. So our goal is to immerse our students in those studies. So when they leave here, they have interests that a lot of us may not have been exposed to. African-Americans as a whole, and women, are very limited in these subjects and careers. It starts at grade three right now. We have third through fifth grade classes. It’s made up of about 100 students. And they will travel on from third grade through fifth grade and while they’re here, we will give them as much exposure to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math as we can and we hope that when they leave here they will travel on and remain interested in those subjects and go to another S.T.E.M. program and take it further on past middle school and high school.

We take those subjects and we integrate them into our normal studies. So we’re building things, we’re creating things, we are making connections with our students on that level and getting them interested in that. We have S.T.E.M. days once a month. In February, we’re taking our students on a trip to Sea World. A lot of students cannot afford to go on that field trip, so donations are welcomed. Snacks are welcomed. We also have a S.T.E.M. club that participates in competitions. If you have any interest or know anybody who can bring those S.T.E.M. careers in and expose them, we’re grateful for any way you can contribute. We are currently working to get our full S.T.E.M. certification from DeKalb County."

S.T.E.M. Coordinator for DeKAlb County School District Andrea Wright:

"Anybody that dreams big and tries to create a school like this, that’s who I work with. They come with an idea, a passion to help kids, and everyone has something to contribute. Motorcycle Club, I see force in motion from what you do. Law Enforcement, there’s S.T.E.M. all over everything that you do. Insurance agents, you can tell us about business, protecting our lives, protecting our assets. Everybody in this room has something to contribute to those children. They have to see outside of this neighborhood. Business owners, you have done things to be successful, they need to hear about that. They need to hear about the positive side, and they need to understand how to stay out of prison and meet the law enforcement team in a positive way, not in a negative way."

Obama Elementary is trying to do something special and unique. There is no other space like The Obama school. Technology focused, passionate teachers, these teachers are on fire and dedicated to what they’re doing. This building is full of teachers like that. But they can’t survive and continue to do the things that they’re trying to do without you all. So what I’m asking is for every single one of you to contribute to children in this building. Because when I’m asked what about the S.T.E.M. schools on the southside, we have a handful. But we don’t have as many as on the northside. And it takes the community and the passion of the individuals in the neighborhoods to make some of those things happen. This is Andrea speaking to you, not DeKalb Country speaking to you. Please come out and help this school. Because when they go up for certification, they have to see the power of the community is behind your school. And they can’t do that without you."

Literacy

Academic Coach for Reading Cara Fagin:

"We are working hard on new incentives to push literacy for our students. A lot of our students, they don’t like reading. They don’t like to pick up a book to read.

Last year we had the opportunity to compete in a program called “Who’s Reading?” Our students showed out. What we realized was not only are students competitive, but our teachers are competitive. We have classrooms that read over 1,000 books from October to December, a short amount of time. 

This year, we’re going to kick off that program using AccelleratedReader. A student can read almost any book in this library, they’ll go on AccelleratedReader portal and take a quiz. And they’ll be able to pass quizzes and earn points based on their score. 

From Thursday until the end of December, we’re going to have a school-wide competition from K-5th grade. We would like to add incentives because last year, we had so many students who read over one hundred books. And we had to purchase medals and trophies. So just having that extra support, whether it’s a pizza party for the top class, or doing workshops, or more medals and awards. 

We want to show our students that if you’re reading books that you like and you’re reading every single day, it will definitely increase your scores and improve your quality of life in any academic area that you’re in. Math, science, social studies, if you’re able to read fluidly and comprehend, that will impact everything that you do. We’re starting Thursday (November 21) with competitions. So any way you can support us would be greatly appreciated."

Chorus

Chorus Instructor Vickie Jones:

"I’d like to make an appeal for anyone that is looking to sponsor the music program. 

One thing I’ve learned in my 20-plus years of education, the arts curriculum is a lot of times what motivates our children to come to school. I did my student teaching at Frederick Douglass High School, and I’ll never forget a young man who didn’t care so much for school. But he loved chorus so much that he did what he had to do to keep his grades up. And I remember his schedule was messed up. And he was so upset. And I remember the teacher told me, “If we don’t get this schedule fixed, he’s not gonna come back to school.” 

I actually liked school, but if it was up to me, I would have stayed in the band room all day. A lot of times, the arts is what’s motivating our children to do what they’ve got to do academically. One thing I tell my students is I don’t treat them like an elementary school chorus. I tell them that they are professionals. So everywhere we go, we need to look professional. So, our students are looking to get nice blazers for our Choral Festival second semester. We’re going back to the Hawks game. After last year, they invited us to come back. They’ve been featured on television. They were the background vocals for the DeKalb County commercials and campaigns. 

These students are busy. And we’re growing every year. So I’m looking forward to some support. We need snacks, we need water when we have rehearsal. And I’m looking forward to you all coming out and supporting us."

Contests, Events & Drives

Instructional Support Specialist Ke’Andria Foreman-Edwards:

"Friday, December 6th at 8:30 am, our students would love to have your support at the Spelling Bee. You can be a judge if you like. You can just be a smile in the audience. Also, we’re looking to buy trophies for our students. We always have a first place and a second place winner for our school. And we will have 28 students competing in fourth or fifth grade this year. We are excited about our spelling bee and we look forward to seeing your faces."

Student Relations Specialist Ms. Thompson:

"Our partner Mr. Worthy has a joke. He says he can stand there and talk to me, and before he knows it, he’s giving me his gift cards and money. He’s like, “What did she just do?” But God gave me a vision. He gives all of us a vision. Some of us ignore it. And I can honestly say, I thank God for every partner in here. Killer Mike donated gym shoes, so at least 60 students got Nike gym shoes, socks, underwear. Churches and our other partners donated clothes. 

And Mike gave me a vision to open up a clothing closet. And I thought to myself, Ms. Bethea is gonna look at you like you’re crazy. But when I went into the leadership meeting with it and shared with her, she said, “Yes, we need it.” So every child that wet themselves, or fell in the mud, they’ve been given brand new clothing. Someone asked, “Well do they bring the uniforms back?” I don’t look for them back. Sometimes things happen for a reason. They probably needed those pants or needed the shirt. And children will come and say, “We need this or that Ms. Thompson.” And we give it to them.”

Click here to learn how you can contribute to Obama Elementary's upcoming events, programs and drives.

Full Transcript:

Read full comments from Obama Elementary Principal Angela Thomas-Bethea and her staff as they speak to partners about the past and present challenges they overcome to serve their students.