After years of planning and work, Delta Streets Academy will begin the school year in its new home.
The building on Church Street will finally consolidate the school under one roof, and T. Mac Howard, Delta Streets’ head of school, is optimistic about the prospects.
“This is the most excited I’ve been since we started it back in 2012,” he said.
Classes will start Aug. 9, and staff orientation will be held Aug. 6. Howard said he hopes to enroll 75 to 85 students at the school, which serves boys from grades 7 through 12.
“We should have about 12 seniors this year, and there are going to be two or three GED guys — which would be the biggest graduating class we’ve ever had, which we’re excited about,” Howard said.
He said the new building will help simplify many aspects of the school’s operation. Parents will know where to pick their children up, and student-athletes won’t have to walk to practices.
The building has six classrooms and space at one end to add more later. The layout makes it easier for adults to monitor the students who have to stay after school for disciplinary reasons or to keep an eye on things if Howard has to be out for fundraising or other work.
“As an administrator, you can open your door and see all the classrooms. So it’s just going to be easier to manage,” he said. “Things will be more efficient, more productive.”
Howard said the students are excited about the new place, too.
“For the guys themselves to have their own facility, it’s going to be awesome to be able to say, ‘This is Delta Streets,’” he said.
In fact, a number of them can take special pride in the facility because they helped build the walls as part of their carpentry class.
Howard estimated that the building is 75 percent complete, but he expects nearly everything to be ready when classes start.
“The only thing that might not be fully complete would be the kitchen, so that Thursday and Friday we might have to come up with a creative way to feed the guys for lunch,” he said.
Volunteers also played a major role in the project, helping with everything except plumbing, roofing, heat/air and electrical work. Howard said the project initially was budgeted at $185,000 and the amount spent will probably end up being $185,000 to $195,000. Had they used contractors for everything, it probably would have cost $350,000 to $375,000, he said.
“The walls, the Sheetrock, the ceiling tile, the doors going in — all of that has been done by volunteers, which has just been awesome,” he said. “Very, very thankful for that.”
The carpentry classes, which were taken by students in grades 10 through 12, went very well and will be offered again this year, although this time they will be only for 10th-graders.
Howard said every student will have a Chromebook laptop computer to take from class to class. The devices were first introduced at Delta Streets last year, and they will be put to better use this year, he said.
James Cheatham, who has served as a teacher and coach, is now Delta Streets’ principal.
Anthony Degani has been hired as an English teacher and also will coach football. His wife, Lindsay, will teach seventh- and eighth-grade reading. They come to Delta Streets from Memphis. Other additions include Hunter Walt, who will teach middle-school science and math, and Tate Johnson, who will teach high-school science and help coach football and basketball. Both graduated from Mississippi State University.
Melanie Jennings is returning for her second year as reading specialist, working three days a week with students who score low in that area. Also, Natalie McClellan will teach a new career readiness class to seniors, which including ACT preparation and accounting.
In athletics, Delta Streets will return to eight-man football, which Howard said should make the team more competitive.
Fundraising requires a lot of work, but Howard said the school is on more solid footing now. “We’re typically three to four months out before we would be out of money if other monies don’t come in,” he said. “But we’re about six months out at this point.”
He said it’s been satisfying to see how things have come together for the school.
“It’s fun to see where we are,” he said. “I think we’re finally kind of hitting our groove to where we have a pretty decent idea where the students are and what they need — and then just equipping the staff and just having the proper staff in place to be able meet those needs and the facility now to be able to do that as well. So it’s like a perfect storm.”
•Contact David Monroe at 581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
