LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND INSTALLATION

LEIGH ANN ELLIS

“tardy tanks,” where she could weed out and punish the chronic offenders.

With the help of Dallas Police gang units, she identified nine active gangs and gang leaders within the school, met one-on-one with the gang leaders and let them know “there is only one gang between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. and that is Bryan Adams High School,” she says.

The students were surprisingly responsive, she says, and they even helped her rid the walls of longstanding gang-related graffiti. She enforced a school-uniform policy, turned the library and courtyard into a coffee house and reading plaza, and asked student-led advisory groups what was important to them.

“They said they wanted the bathrooms fixed up, so that was one of the first things we did,” she says. “They started to see that I would do what I said I would do — that’s when they began to buy in.”

But Goodsell says she couldn’t turn things around without the teachers’ cooperation. “Failure is Not an Option” is not only Goodsell’s credo, it’s also the name of a book by popular author and motivational speaker Alan M. Blankstein on which she based the school’s reforms.

She presented the plan for rehabilitation and “courageous leadership” to the staff and asked them to stand if they were willing to do things differently to bring about positive change. Every teacher stood, she says.

The enhanced quality of campus life made for a richer learning environment, she says, and test scores improved. The sense of pride once experienced by only a select few began to spread among the students and throughout the community.

“It’s safer, cleaner we had a carnival. It’s been a long time since the community flocked to Bryan Adams,”

McCollum says with a smile.

For some of today’s students, the fear that once permeated the Bryan Adams community is a thing of the past.

“We hear stories about the fights that used to happen,” says junior Jenae Green, one of McCollum’s students.

“Kids used to hope for fights to get broken up, and no one would come until it was way out of control. Now we can barely toss something across the table in the cafeteria, and someone is there to stop it.”

Green, her brother Gerame, a 2009 graduate, and Kelsey Cook volunteered at the school during the summer, helping McCollum with a few projects.

It comes as no surprise to any of them that Mac was honored as last year’s DISD Teacher of the Year.

“He knows how to handle any situation — he is relaxed, but he definitely has the respect of the students,” Gerame says.

McCollum credits his students for the district-wide honor.

“It’s the theater kids who have done a lot of work for the school. I guess they attribute my good kids to me.”

He’s not the only Bryan Adams staff member recognized for achievements last school year. Stacey Segal was honored as DISD athletic director of the year, and Goodsell was named DISD principal of the year.

Goodsell also accepted a promotion to lead the West Secondary Learning Community, where this school year she will manage 43 DISD principals. Administrators believe she can mentor other principals dealing with some of the difficult issues she has addressed.

“Cindy Goodsell has done an incredible job of turning things around,” says Donna Micheaux, DISD’s chief administrative officer. “(She) has created a culture and climate for success at a lower-performing school.”

When discussing her promotion, Goodsell tears up at the idea of leaving Bryan Adams behind (at press time, her successor had not been named).

“This has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done,” she says.