tell him i can hear him hey welcome to this edition of keep it real america i'm your host rodney best and we're going to be talking about education has a change our has a change and how will continue to change tonight i have the privilege of having dr laura armstrong of east oakland leadership academy located right in the heart of open and i'd like you to meet dr armstrong  she said a mellow good evening that was just great you know so we're going to sit and take a minute and we're going to ask dr truong about the east oakland leadership academy because five years ago i had an opportunity to walk into that academy and i was amazed but she made one thing perfectly clear she said i'm here to make a change so you've been in the east oakland leadership academy director for how many years now ele years now eleven years so you you came to o'loghlin you decided to do this what how did holding come about what prompted you to say i want to just do the leadership that well there was it's always been my go to open my own school so when i came here in eighty six i worked at a private christian school and then i went to public school san francisco and then there was there that i decided to learn how to open my school and so it took me three years to open a school and i was that middle school during a time and so i chose to east oakland is because that's where my church is so now i hope community church oh ok so i wanted to make an impact in my own community and so i walked around the socal in and i found a location that was a warehouse and i said that's where i want to open my school you know i remember when you you know as you would see that i remember when he was saying it was a warehouse but the way is designed today tell us a little bit about the structure was worse to kill a garden in the first grade tell us look when you get inside the walls of the leadership again well when you first  in you're walking to the office and then in a big open area my idea was to have a circular room where you had the classrooms all in a circle in the middle is where we gather in the morning for circle morning circle i started with  twenty five kids and now we're a k eight so we had to expand so we have the center where our upper grades are and then in the connecting buildings we have k one two three and then five six seven eight  l there's also a part of the academy did smoove across the street on what it did i tell you this was similary avenue foothill in oakland california that's right right in the heart but don't know you've got another location right across the street that how long has that been open in the near we open our high school in two thousand and three two thousand and five we opened it kate in two thousand and three five years later we opened a high school across the street and we renovated and it was an old bank that the birds had taken over and we worked with their own in the city but redevelopment money at that time and then invaded that building and to a high school w so when i'm first met you at the local leadership academy you were talking about the high school in the eighth graders were all excited that they were going to be able to continue to work on the your tool  graduating class was it was around eight to ten students and all of our graduates were accepted into college where there was two year or four year college and all of our graduates were first time college students in  family while i'm very pleased to say from the high school our first graduates in our sophomore is in college and they're attending east bay and san francisco state whoa i mean you know i have to smile about it because when you told me about it i was like man i gotta really go to really come back and chip to sell in here we are today in you're told because they were did your mind's made up you know it was they were saying to me when we were filming  home you can even those family members but education they can never take it away so you need think to acquire something in this life that yours and something that can help you be successful in life and education this to key in you know  you know don't i don't cause i don't want any secrets to come out people me john what does it take for one the say i'm going to do what charter school well you don't find that today happening  one of the few founders still operate anti school the law schools have been founded but a lot of them have changed in leadership so the founders usually don't stay because they have the vision most of the founders actually are not educators they just have a vision to help the children in the community and they get to start it and so i am the founder and still director  fifty in your in a growth of how many two or three hundred corporations that have these charter schools so i'm actually in a fight keep my school wall wait a minute saw corporations saying they can educate the kids analysis that's what they say they have the money behind them to do it what about the standards of leadership that really needed to do it that something that america need to question the environment today so i certainly think america needs to question i think that they need to go in and look at these schools and see what's happening because you don't hear about my school because we're a small school we don't have the money for marketing anything we're just in a community supporting a community and i children this real because you set a foundation you springboard it up to where people in the community recognize the leadership but now you're saying the corporations are saying to the community or to the community leader i can do better yes but they have but you see they have to go to a school district charters approved a school district so the just like talking to the board of education of so we see where our boat does count with the board of education so we got is of the corporations going in here and saying yes i can but we know they children to to advance that stats are real good thing so you said the governor has allocated the ones in what does the community think about the whole there's a there's a funding formula ok ok ok and so it has changed so that the kids that are have the most need they get more money and those schools get money the money follows the kids so if you have a child that  needs more help some someone that size income is a big factor so you know the free i'm deuced lunch program is what drives the money and that's based on income and poverty level so if you have kids that like or in our see more money which is a good thing here i think that's a that was the community doesn't know in the community needs to get out they need to go to the schools they have a right parents have a right to know they need to call their  school district representative and find out what's happening with the money and in the schools they have a right there boys a matter of fact there's an accountability issue there are areas that the parents have a right to have a it seemed like parents were just in there just a little bit more you know what i was looking to design their statement that to to put down these education is one of the basic needs parents should give their children along with love  shelter structure and when i read it as it was you know that's just a way i was raised you know my mom insisted that i you know get educated and you know i mean insisted ok so they really i'm telling you but so is that what you're saying the parents need to do now is to get more involved in in the system would just change and make sure we're going in the right direction or yes i think parents must man in education and they need to make sure that their children go to school every day unless this sit they need to go to school every day and they need to be prepared so what parents need to do is they need to provide an environment at home that child can do their homework are they given where you've seen the change of them wanting to do more well my kids when they come to me most of the kids that come to me are pretty much shocked the first day because when they come to my school this tradition i'm from no school i believe in children the children adults are those children respect adults and all of that so i demand respect i give respect and so they're held accountable for coming to school on time with paper and pencil and prepared all they need to bring is a paper and pencil and if they don't have that i'll give it to become a uniform they don't have that i give it to be on time do i have that happen with transportation there is no excuse my school ferry is not an option so we do everything we can to help our kids be successful but we can't make them learn so we have to create an environment that they want to learn and so there's there's a lot of caring we're going to six o'clock and nurturing you know all our families and so they feel a sense of love and want and so they have to come up they create a desire to want to learn why you know i had an opportunity to visit one of your parent teachers conference in the mid tell you something the room was for it was standing room only but so just so your message is getting out there to to to the parents your messages been given to the kids what is the one specific changes that  you put in the place that you think will make that change continuously be successful what was one change that you're going to put in the place to see that continue involvement from the kids to parents for you think what i have to continue to have quality teachers you know yes yes it's all in leadership is i'm the leader and i demand excellence and so we have to have teaches that the men excellence from my students no matter what level they are they still demand excellence and as it's their good teachers everywhere right getting to everywhere and so at our school we have to make sure that i teach it to a dedicated committed and believing that every child can little schools that are out there that are doing magnificent things to assist with change in the community you don't hear about them but this time hero keep it real america you're meeting why in that little area of east oakland similary in foothill there is a change that has occurred in dr johnson i mean no patrols no police none of that none of this stuff at all i'm just going t in the community as you know the corner symon and for the hail he put it right is a very active right and has a history so i wanted to change that history that's why i located it there so we have our kids out in the community and they see them a change in the community even with a man of vision of that building now when we walk up and down the street and we see people even people that don't belong there they know we're there and they say i know you write it directed at school kids are being let out of school they are just proud that you know they have an opportunity to be a part of that in i'm impressed let me say something for him to recommend you talk about patrol we have a relationship with the police department they have been very very helpful in coming down the street and just being a presence they're not there all the time but if we need them we can call them one of the issues was speeding because  also is an instructor with here with the school yes he is a certain level black belt master yes and he has several masters under him so  yes mr found works with us he works with our kids and he partners with that because when he first came to our school he was impressed with the structure and the respect and and went right along with his principals in martial arts  going to get her back i'll keep it real america but i tell you if you want to see a change and you want to see some leadership take a visit down you get given it was the address of the of the leadership academy two six one ave two six one four seminary avenue of fantastic place in what time slu bring them in and keep them going and keep them motivated in line to tell us a little bit about you know how that how you decided to do that because a lot of people don't do that well first of all i promote education and so i don't have any children birth children but all my students are my children so in my family i promote education so it would make me look kind of man if i had people in my family they couldn't read or write so i could i did all of the education of the young people in the family and there were some and they go to college and sometimes they spend some time doing some internal ships at the school and working with me so have you had any children this just really achieved like unbelievable success that through just came through the walls you know anyone comes  have a lot but i want to tell you about our our now four successful student who was with us when we started in the sixth grade and she graduates this year from exam year and so we had we started with twenty five students and this one made it all the way she went straight through others are still in college others had been tours or whatever right right she stuck with it and she's in education special education wise and so i'm very proud of tyson williams well who would she comes back let me know that i'm well i'm going to come down i want to let you you know we're going to meet her if i have to get footage or if i can get her you know i live they'll be really good so look i want to thank you for coming out tonight you know i know would say your day start but that was interesting