Decibel

- People say, "Who cut your hair?

"It's pretty good."

And I go, "7th grader."

(bell rings) (people chattering) And they just look at me with this look like, "You're joking, right?"

And I go, "7th grader.

"You should come over and let her cut yours."

You ready to go?

You've been ready.

She the first one in the door.

My name is Wilton Harris.

I put together the school's after school activities through a program called ACE.

Who's next?

Navaeh.

Oh, Jaquora's next.

All right, Jaquora.

We have the city's only Junior Medical Academy.

So let's do it.

We have culinary classes.

We have cosmetology.

- So what we're gonna explore first is the right side of the heart.

- We have science.

- Lemme see.

- We have quality programs here.

Take your time.

Lean over, that's okay.

Come over.

All right, stop.

But one of the things that Dobie has not had for some time is stability.

(people chattering) (tv static) - district announced that they were potentially going to close Dobie because of consecutive years of failing accountability scores.

- The state tests are the state tests.

We can't change that.

This is what we're operating under.

- Save!

- Dobie!

- The school's low performance put the entire Austin district at risk of being taken over by the state.

- You have the state coming in and essentially taking control of your school district.

- We're doing this work at a moment when public schools are under attack.

and a time when we are losing federal funding as well.

- they're expecting to be $181 million short for the next school year.

- The agreement effectively hands over control of the day-to-day operations of Dobie Middle School as well as Burnet and Webb.

(overlapping voices) - Dobie si se puede!

Thank you.

- For now it appears the school will be open in the fall.

But it will look different.

(people chattering) I'm glad your dad said you could come.

I, I, I, yeah.

- I am the ACE site coordinator here at Dobie Middle School.

I've been at Dobie for six years.

This program called ACE, it's a national program which stands for Afterschool Centers for Excellence.

We're in 22 schools in the district, - We gotta go.

You got everybody together Angel?

Hey ladies, we gotta go.

The ACE program had been running about two years before I got here.

I just happened to be coming through at the right time.

I said, I want to go to Dobie.

It was nothing to talk about.

They said, you want to go to Dobie?

I said, well, I want to go home.

(camera clicks) Check it (upbeat music) I am a proud alumni of Dobie Middle School.

We were bused to Webb Middle School and then we came to Dobie and we got off the bus to cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and we were like, what is this, you know?

This is the wild west.

So there are a lot of memories here.

Some of the classrooms that you walk past and you go, that was my science classroom, that was my art room.

Next step is you check to see, Jackie.

You check to see if the person is breathing.

And when you see the kids walking up and down the hall, you find yourself kinda going, that's a little bit of me.

That's, I was like that in my own way.

(upbeat music continues) We had a lot of different clubs.

We had Future Teachers of America, we had 4-H.

We had athletic teams.

And that made a big difference.

'Cause for some of those students they never left the neighborhood.

That was their opportunity to leave the neighborhood.

It's the same with these students.

- [Student] I think that's for blood pressure.

- Why is it so pumped?

- I don't know.

Our programs are mostly in Title I schools and we provide social-emotional learning opportunities for young people.

- A lot of our students' parents are working.

A lot of them keep little brothers and sisters.

So for some of them, it's school and home so they don't get those opportunities but if we can start planting the seed as early as sixth grade and we continue to nurture that seed and water that seed, by the time that student hits high school, we've got a tree that's blooming.

- Boom, boom, boom, boom, yeah.

- But, it can be a stretch because again, you're working with a very very tight budget.

(people chattering) - Peggy and I will be there in like two more minutes.

- You drive by some of these schools and look over the fences, it's who's who of support of those schools.

When you drive by Dobie, we don't have that.

- So everybody needs one scalpel and one scissors.

We might not have enough scalpels for everybody.

- And so we work with less sometimes and that makes our job challenging.

And when budgets are real tight, you gotta be creative.

(people chattering) It's not like it should be.

I think it should be more, it could be more.

Some days you leave here and you just shake your head and you go, I gave it all I got and did I make a difference?

(gentle music) As far as the ACE program, we are re-upping for our grant.

Dobie was not included in that grant.

It looks like it would be the end of me here as a staff member, as a Dobie site coordinator for the ACE program here.

(keyboard clacks) It was just a matter of timing, funding and how the grant was written.

Several of our ACE schools have been affected by school closures and reassignments, and so it's not just Dobie.

(gentle music) Yeah, a lot of thoughts, lot of feelings.

This school, this community is very dear to me and been a part of me.

- [Person] I have a little surprise for you.

- Oh wow.

- [Person] Yep.

- Oh wow.

Man, I remember this yearbook.

Mr.

Mett, my science teacher.

Mr.

Elliot, my social studies teacher.

Oh, this is neat.

Oh wow, this was us.

So you're all really doing this?

- Do it, smell it.

- I can smell it.

- We ready to do transplants.

Situations occur that change the course of your journey.

I want our students to learn from me, that yes, this is happening, But we're going to finish strong.

- Misa patito!

- I know, yes!

For me, it's sort of, um, As I tell them, it's not a goodbye.

It's just, I'll see you down the road.

(gentle music)