IN MEMORY OF BAILEY ALTERNATIVE: A.K.A. BAILEY MAGNET

It is with somewhat sadness that Bailey Magnet High School will be no more after this school year. I am surprised that it has taken the powers that be this long to bury the school's mission and not the name. I was hired at Bailey Alternative in 1987 by Mrs. Mary Ramberg the principal, who had helped to opened the school in 1985 as a link to the "Open Door" concept for students who had finished the process a Davis Elementary. I wasn't present in 1985; however,  I was told by Mrs. Ramberg that the name "Bailey Alternative" was chosen as a choice for qualified students within the Jackson Public School system, who wanted to pursue an alternate way of learning. For example, desks were replaced with tables and chairs; peer learning was encouraged, and teachers interacted with the students. Many people, who were not a party to the process that created Bailey Alternative, automatically rumored that Bailey Alternative was a school for "Bad Children." and the list included administrators and teacher from the central office down to the classroom.

When I returned to Mississippi in 1984, Bailey was a Junior High School therefore, my first attempts to gain employment in JPS, Bailey was not a high school. It was on my third attempt, in 1987,  that I left the packet at Bailey. Mrs. Ramberg was the only JPS Principal to look at my credentials, resume’ and references, and did not trash it because I was educated at a foreign University:  Chicago State University, and had worked Twelve (12) years experience in the public high schools of Chicago, Illinois. Bailey Alternative had a process which included a hiring committee that consisted of the Principals, Support Staff, Students, and parents. It was truly a unique experience. The school’s mission and focus was explained in detailed and I accepted the position and the challenge. I am not aware of any other schools that had a similar hiring process.

The following are the facts about the late Bailey Alternative School:

1. It was the only high school in JPS that was both a Junior High and Senior High in the same building;

2. All Students to be enrolled had to have maintained, at least, a "C" average in their previous school; (in 1987 there was a 300 plus waiting list to enroll at "Bailey Alternative";

3. It was integrated and diverse;

4. Lesson plans had to include a critical thinking component within written assignments and test. This did not happen in other schools.

5. Students were taught to be responsible for their work and conduct;

6. Community involvement and academic competition was sought out and encouraged:

7. Bailey Alternative was one of the first schools in Jackson to compete in the National Stock Market Competition;

8. Bailey Alternative was one of three (3) High Schools, in JPS, to compete, yearly, in the State Bar Associations and Magnolia Bar Associations Mock Trial Competition, assisted by attorney Mark Hodges of Wise-Carter Law Firm for Ten (10) years. Placing within the top ten most of those years;

9. The "Health Related" program was developed and presented to school board by the Student Council to counter an attempt to make Bailey a Ninth Grade Center with no athletic programs. This successful program is being given to Murrah High School, and I wonder why?

10. Bailey Alternative was one of the first high schools, in JPS, to promote service learning as a community outreach activity.

The list goes on.

Bailey's road to extinction was certain with zoning and, virtually no recruitment efforts, aside that for Health Related and athletic programs. Zoning brought about dumping of problem students from high schools in other school zones. The tables were replaced by desks and open door education was replaced by traditional, authority driven education combined with failed leadership, Bailey’s death march began.

When the zoning issue came up at a faculty meeting, there were only three (3) teachers, myself included, who pleaded with the principal to keep the middle school and not go to zoning.
The remaining faculty members sat quietly, many of whom had gone through the same hiring process that I had gone through, but had not bought into the Alternative School’s mission.

I am concerned, mainly because I graduated from a high school called Rasa A. Scott, in Madison, the school is still there, however, it serves as a 9^th Grade Center for Madison County School. During the transition period, all of the pictures of graduating classes, trophies that were won, even diplomas that were not picked up, were discarded as trash. All that remains are our memories and each year’s “School” reunion. After we are gone it will be an afterthought.

Therefore, I am appealing to graduates of Bailey through the class of 2001 (the year that I gave up trying to deal with leadership that was deceptive and without a vision and that, certainly, did not care about destroying programs that they did not understand, not to mention, people’s lives. In the Fourteen years that I was a part of Bailey Alternative-Magnet School only Mary Ramberg, its founder, and Marcus Burkes, who held and understood that vision. Beth Catanzaro, who followed Mrs. Ramberg, worked hard to replaced the name “Alternative School” with “Magnet School”, and quit two years later .It was through lobbying the school board by parents and students causing the appointment of Marcus Burks as principal. The destruction began with the departure of Marcus Burks and the takeover by Dorothy Terry, who began the process by killing the Middle School Feeder and petition the school board to permit Bailey to be a zoned high school. She also was one time proponent of gutting athletics in favor of Band and Music, and oversaw the removal of tables with desks in favor of the traditional learning that wasn’t educating anyone. It did not work then and doesn’t work now. An avid believer that “Bailey Alternative” meant a school for “Bad” kids. This is a prime example of people destroying what they do not understand.

Finally, if you are aware of the location of former Bailey students, please give them this blog address below, and encourage them to comment on this blog and send any information about what they are doing now. People need to know what Bailey Alternative was and not what Bailey Magnet did to it.

Actually Bailey died in 1994 (or there about), when Marcus Burks was transferred to Winfield High and people, who never understood the mission and concept, destroying its vision, and began the burial process. Last week the services were complete. “Sometimes “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”

FAREWELL AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!!!!!!

Dr. (Coach) Johnny Gilbert, Bailey Alternative, 1987-2001 (Who worked day and night trying to keep my promise to work with students and not dictate learning from notes and lecture). Rest in Peace.