Chanting greetings and writing raps: City Year completes first year supporting Memphis schools

Every school day, at least four young adults in khaki pants and red flight jackets stand at the entrance to Brownsville Elementary and belt out cheerful greetings to students on their way into the building.

"Hey! It’s you! You’re here! That’s great, that’s awesome!" goes one of the chants, the "you" sometimes replaced by the name of an approaching child, who more often than not stops to give the greeters a hug or a high-five.

The enthusiasm — the kind only youthful, service-driven energy can provide — has transformed Brownsville this year thanks to an AmeriCorps program called City Year. Memphis is a new market for the program, which is wrapping up a pilot year at Brownsville and Westside Achievement Middle, a state-run school in Frayser. 

City Year and school leaders say the program has been a success in its pilot year, and plans for expansion are underway.

City Year recruits young adults between the ages of 18-24 to spend a year in a school, not as a teacher but in a supporting role assisting teachers and administrators with both academics and school culture. 

The seven City Year participants and their team leader at Brownsville this year focused on behavior and attendance. They also do small group work with students struggling in reading and math, and help teachers give attention to students who are both behind and more advanced than their peers. 

Brownsville principal Charles Newborn, the school's leader since 2003, said attendance is up for the first time in three years to almost 97 percent, and students are more motivated to learn.

"They needed someone to connect with them to make them feel like education is important — 'this is going to help me in the long run, I need to do this for myself,'" Newborn said. 

Teachers also have added support for classrooms in a school where the majority of students are considered economically disadvantaged, and only one in five students is reading at grade level.

Newborn first heard about City Year from a principal friend in Washington, D.C., and did his research when he learned they would be coming to Memphis. Shelby County Schools administrators allowed principals to write a proposal for their school to be the pilot site for City Year in Memphis.

"I was like, 'Yes, I really want this program where I can get these eight to 10 young people that are fully energized and want to give a year of service and help our students,'" Newborn said. "I went all out trying to make sure our proposal was the best."

City Year aims for about half of its participants to be from the city they are serving. Six of the 14 current members are from Memphis.

That includes 25-year-old Brittany Brown — she was within the age limits when the program began — who graduated from Overton High and the University of Memphis but was tired of working in childcare. She's also the mother of a 1-year-old girl.

"Having my child has really just broadened me, made me really go after what I want," Brown said. That now includes graduate school and teaching at Aspire Coleman charter school down the street from Brownsville next year. 

Team Leader Janelle Mulvaney, 24, participated in City Year in New Hampshire last year and agreed to come to Memphis to help launch the program at Brownsville. She made an impression on the school leaders — Newborn hired her to teach third grade at the school next year.

Mulvaney said the City Year members bond with students to the point where teachers come find them when a student is having a problem. It's a trust that took time to build, as even those from other parts of Memphis are seen as outsiders.

"I think I’ve seen them trust and realize that there are adults that care about them," Mulvaney said. "They become more self-motivated, they just want to prove themselves."

Shelby County Schools said reports from Brownsville's experiences this year with City Year are positive, but the district will wait to review two years of data before deciding whether to spread it to other schools. The district has a four-year contract for $100,000 a year for City Year to operate as a pilot at Brownsville.

Karmin-Tia Greer, the startup director for City Year Memphis, said the program will expand to three additional schools in the Achievement School District next year for a total of 42 participants.

"When we got here, it was almost like people we’re saying, 'We’ve been waiting on you!'" Greer said. 

But growth has to be strategic, she said, and the intent is to work within school feeder patterns. City Year focuses on students in third through ninth grade. The corps members run campaigns with incentives for coming to school every day, and try to find new ways to make learning fun. 

Newborn said the City Year members prepared his students to take state testing by writing new lyrics to a rap song the students knew.

"The kids, they loved it. They can sing the rap to you right now," the principal said. "I didn’t even know all the songs."

Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.