‘Don’t Walk Out With Your Head Held Down’: A Teacher’s View Of Takeover

Kyle Stokes / StateImpact Indiana

T.C. Howe High School teacher Kevin Sandorf has stripped his classroom walls of the posters, decorations, and even several flatscreen monitors he bought himself. T.C. Howe will be controlled by a state-appointed turnaround company next year. Sandorf will teach at IPS' Shortridge High School next year.

Freshman English teacher Kevin Sandorf considered Room 224 at T.C. Howe High School a second home. But in the final days of this school year, he says he felt “a little naked” in that room.

Sandorf had poured thousands of his own dollars into the room, buying flatscreen monitors, a sound system, and even desks at school auctions.

But with a state-appointed school turnaround company taking over Howe on July 1, Sandorf is moving to another IPS school next year. So a week before school let out, Sandorf cleaned out his room, leaving few decorations on the whitewashed cinderblock walls. Students, he says, were surprised.

“The thing I’ve tried to get across to students this year,” Sandorf said as he watched kids file into Room 224 on the second-to-last day of school, “is that even though we’re walking out of here tomorrow at 2:30, please don’t walk out of here with your head held down.”

• One View Of State Takeover From Room 224StateImpact Indiana‘s Kyle Stokes profiles a teacher at an Indianapolis school bound for state takeover on July 1.Download

Room 224 is one of the few signs big changes are coming to T.C. Howe — a new operator, an almost-total turnover in staff, a mass exodus of students.

There are few visual reminders of the state takeover now in progress at five schools in Indianapolis and Gary — a process marked with frustration over countless detail questions for administrators.

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Kevin Sandorf says he considers Room 224 a second home.

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On the second-to-last day of classes, Sandorf passes out John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" to his students. He hopes he can "get them hooked" and that some students will finish the story over the summer with the assistance of a district-provided online program.

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Teacher Kevin Sandorf makes sure students are following along as they start reading "Of Mice and Men." Sandorf says his walls used to be covered with flatscreen TV's and posters. With less than a week to go before school let out, Sandorf cleaned out his room.

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Kevin Sandorf reviews senior William Heise's writing portfolio. Heise did not pass the state English test required for graduation, so he has to submit a binder of writing samples in order to receive a graduation waiver. (Heise eventually did graduate, Sandorf says.)

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Teacher Kevin Sandorf checks in with a student in his class.

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Indianapolis teacher Kevin Sandorf leads a discussion in his English class.

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"I am challenged with a reluctant reader, and a reluctant writer," Sandorf says.

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Kevin Sandorf prepares to teach his English class as his students file into Room 224 at T.C. Howe High School. He says he prefers to stand, so there is no teacher's desk in his room.

Howe’s persistently low state test scores sealed the school’s fate. Barely 43 percent of T.C. Howe students passed state English tests last year. Even fewer students passed at the other high schools facing takeover. State education officials say it’s been this way for years and a fix can no longer wait.

But Sandorf says the rhetoric around the takeovers has become a bit harsh. He bristled when the head of one school turnaround company compared Indianapolis Public Schools’ academic problems to stage three cancer during a recent state board meeting.

“That’s hurtful,” Sandorf says. “For someone to come in and say that when, for me to be quite candid, you probably don’t even know where the main office is, give yourself some time to really be in the trenches before you come back and make some of those comments.”

Sandorf says it’s easy to focus on the negative at Howe. He says the school had a dedicated staff, good teachers. But getting students to show up was often his biggest problem. The school serves some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“Look at attendance, and that is a screaming piece,” Sandorf says.

But some of the criticism is justified, Sandorf adds. He says Indianapolis Public Schools administrators understand the challenges of educating inner-city students, but officials’ good intentions are often lost in ineffective action plans.

“The initiatives start out in central office with the pressure of a fire hydrant and by the time sometimes it hits the classroom, we’re down to a garden hose. And I don’t know how that happens,” Sandorf says.

Sandorf says he hopes the takeover schools succeed next year.  He just hopes next year’s Howe won’t be compared with this year’s Howe. He says it wouldn’t be fair — the turnaround companies are getting extra financial support from the state next year.