Crane News

[Interview conducted on March 25, 2009]

Ladakh Farley: My name is Ladakh Farley, I am interviewing Mr. Smith, the Principal [of Crane High School]. Mr.Smith, what kind of progress do you think you have made over the last couple of years?

Principal Smith: Well, when we made progress, I can’t say I made it – we all made it as a school. We’ve made tremendous progress in terms of our Freshmen on track, our Freshmen doing an extremely good job, along with our teachers that touch Freshmen in terms of school-wide. I think students are now coming to school to actually get an education whereas last year was a changing of guard, I was new to a lot of students, this year the administration has one year under their belt so we’ve seen a lot of situations that weren’t familiar with last year which have made things a lot more smoother for the students that attend Crane High School. Another area I think we made big gains and big changes is in our college and post-secondary lab with our Seniors in terms of high percentages for faster completion, high percentages for college enrollment, and high percentages for college scholarships. I think we’ve done a tremendous job at facilitating our Seniors and getting them acclimated for college. So holistically, we’ve made a lot of gains from last year and I’m very proud of all the students and staff that work and attend Crane High School.

LF: What are some of your goals as principal, ways of improving the school?

PS: I have a lot of goals, but being a principal you only focus on certain amount of goals each year. This year I had two goals: one was to increase our college enrollment and another, my second goal, was to increase our attendance. And I actually had three, was to increase our Freshmen on track. To be honest we were successful, at this point of the year we’ve been successful in improving our Freshman on track, and right now we are at 83% school-wide. And we’ve done a tremendous job increasing our college enrollment, we have at least 68% of Seniors that have been accepted to college. I think in terms of the goals set this year we’ve surpassed two of them. Now the one goal that is troubling to me, which we are working on every day, is our attendance goal in this school. Our attendance has dropped since last year due to many different reasons but we not giving up and we are still going to encourage our students to come to school each and every day so that they can become acclimated for the college experience and that is one of my biggest goals that I will surpass as I become a better principal.

LF: I have a question about the Juniors, about the ACTs, how do you think the preparation helps?

PS: I think Ms. Washington, Ms. Barnes, and all the Junior teachers do a fantastic job in trying to get our Junior class prepared for the PSAE high stakes test. Saturdays we’ve been averaging about 60 students, here on Saturday mornings from 9-11, in which they study the different skills in order to be successful on the PSAE. Then we buy them lunch, then we let them do whatever they want to do whether it be play basketball or go to the computer lab, just to show them that we appreciate them coming. This year I expect us to do quite well on the PSAE, as I do every year. I believe in the Juniors, I think the Juniors have a tremendous class and we’ve set high expectations for them. And we just feel as an administration that they are going to do an excellent job in terms of passing the PSAE, and which will turn the perception of Crane into a positive perception. What I envision in us meeting and exceeeding at a high percentage on the PSAE so we can brag and hit ourselves in the chest because my thing is what are they going to say to us if we do this? So that is my goal for the Junior class, to prove everyone in the city wrong, and to prove to people we do have students here at Crane High School that do take a value in their education. And we do have Juniors and students at Crane High School who are good students, solid students, and students who are just as motivated to go to college as any other high school in this city.

LF: Alright, thank you for your time.

PS: Thank You.

Transcription by Kareema Groves