Detroit school for pregnant, parenting teens to stay open as a charter

Sade Lewis, 18, a teen mother and student at the Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit, poses for a portrait with her son Ziaire, 9 months, at the installation set up by the Detroit Public Schools near the entrance to Catherine Ferguson Academy, a school for teen mothers. Not having much contact with parents since she was 2 months old, Lewis was raised by her grandmother until the age 13 when the grandmother died. Last year, Lewis lost her father to complications related to AIDS. A couple weeks ago, Lewis found out that her mother, who was a crack cocaine addict, also passed away in the beginning of 2009. In January 2009, after attending 9 other schools, Lewis enrolled at Catherine Ferguson Academy, where she maintains a B average and plans to study nursing and anthropology in college. / March 2010 file photo by MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/DFP

The Detroit Public Schools today announced that the school for pregnant and parenting teens will not close , but be operated as a charter school. The announcement came an hour before a noon rally planned to try to save the school.

Ferguson was scheduled to be one of three alternative schools to close this summer due to the district’s $327 million deficit.

• Related: Rochelle Riley calls for Ferguson to stay open

Barsamian Preparatory Center, for high school students who have been expelled from all public schools in the state, will also remain open along with Hancock Preparatory Center, a school for expelled kindergarten to eighth-grade students.

"We have found a solution," said Roy Roberts, emergency manager for DPS. "This is a great day as far as I'm concerned for everyone in this community."

The operator for the schools will be Evans Solutions, the same company that operates the Blanche Kelso Bruce Academy. The schools will be authorized and overseen by Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency.

The alternative schools will no longer be part of DPS, but as charter schools they will be open to any student who wants to attend.

Roberts said DPS will save about $2 million by chartering Ferguson.

Only half of teen mothers have a high school diploma by age 22, according to the National Women’s Law Center. But at Ferguson Academy, 90% of students graduate, and for the past nine years, every graduate has been accepted to a two- or four-year college, according to DPS.

At Ferguson, students tend to an award-winning urban garden located on a farm right in the middle of a neighborhood. There’s a horse, rabbits, chickens and a barn powered by a windmill and solar panels on the roof.

Ferguson has been site of workshops about urban gardening involving the Garden Resource Program, a collaborative effort of the Detroit Agriculture Network, Earthworks Garden/Capuchin Soup Kitchen, the Greening of Detroit and the Michigan State University Extension.

The school also was the subject of an award-winning documentary, “Grown in Detroit,” and it was profiled in Oprah Magazine.

In terms of academics, Ferguson was designated a Breakthrough High School in 2004 - one of just 12 recognized by the National Association of Secondary School Principals for outstanding achievement among schools with high poverty rates.

DPS had planned to close the schools because they are expensive to operate – Ferguson’s total cost including facilities operations is $12,619 per student, Barsamian costs $35,636 per pupil to operate and Hancock costs $31,689 per pupil, according to DPS spokesman Steve Wasko.

DPS gets about $7,600 per pupil in state aid and an additional $500 million in grant funds – or $6,700 per student - for its 74,000 students, according to the amended 2011 budget.

The operator of the schools will be Evans Solutions, the same company that operates the Blanche Kelso Bruce Academy. The schools will be authorized and overseen by Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency.

G. Asenath Andrews, the principal of Ferguson since it opened 27 years ago, said the planned rally will become a celebration. “I am relieved, excited and pleased,” she said.