Saving a School

An Oklahoma health system dives into the education field after a single program sponsorship turns into a whole-school overhaul.

The entire school was crumbling, from the floors to the ceilings to the inoperable bathrooms. The kids were unruly, unhappy, and promoted from grade to grade out of desperation.

This was the environment that Integris Health System, Oklahoma's largest nonprofit health organization, stepped into when it began its involvement in Western Village Academy in Oklahoma City in the spring of 2000. At first the 13-hospital system was just a sponsor of an after-school program, then later a summer program. But soon President and Chief Executive Officer Stanley F. Hupfeld and Integris employees became steadily more invested in the children and knew something dramatic was necessary to rescue the school.

After securing the Integris board's blessing, Hupfeld made the decision to add Western Village to the health system as a charter school. This was no small task. In addition to a complete overhaul of the facilities, Western Village required new staff and administration. The school had seen seven principals cycle through since 1995, and many of the teachers sent to the inner-city environment were inexperienced--even inept in some cases, says Hupfeld.

Integris hired a mix of first-year teachers that the system hoped to mold into strong educators and experienced staff who would mentor the younger teachers, says Peggy Brinson, Western Village's principal. Brinson was among those early hires during Integris' initial transformation of the school.

"The first year was a huge year of survival," says Brinson. "The problems that inner-city kids come to school with even far exceeded the expectations of the teachers who had taught for years." Additionally, neither Hupfeld nor any other Integris staff had experience in running a school. But, as Hupfeld often jokes, the school had nowhere to go but up.

"We knew that we were not educators by training," he says. "But the school was last in the school district, and we figured we couldn't make it worse."

Perseverance and guidance from experienced educators like Brinson helped Integris create small successes that the neighborhood families noticed. For example, when the health system first took over the school, enrollment was at 160 kids and steadily declining. After the school was renovated, enrollment jumped to roughly 200; now 320 children are enrolled in the school with a lengthy waiting list. Additionally, Brinson saw more than 500 disciplinary office referrals in the first year. Now she sees five or six in a year, and the school was recognized as one of the top 53 charter schools in the United States by The Center for Education Reform, a nonprofit corporation based in Washington, DC.

Such improvements, says Brinson, are in large part due to Integris' continued commitment to quality education. Although Western Village gets the state's standard per-pupil allotment for public schools, the health system invests anywhere between $500,000 to $1 million in the school each year for daily operations, building and technology improvements. The Integris funding also helps ensure that the students have access to a full-time nurse practitioner, a physical education teacher, arts, literature and music; the school previously offered none of those things. Integris created a director-level position to be the system's direct liaison with Western Village and alert Integris leadership to the school's needs as they arise, but designing the curriculum is left up to the educators.

Integris' involvement in the school stems from a broader directive from the system's board, Hupfeld says. "They want us to be focused on whatever we do in the community, because there are too many things that need fixing for us to try to do it all. They want us to be able to measure our results, so whatever time or money or human resources we put on a project, we can really demonstrate that we made a difference. And finally, they don't want us quitting. They want us to view these commitments that we've made like the utility bill. It's not an option--it's a commitment."

Beyond the opportunity to revive a floundering school and give back to the community, Integris has realized some ancillary benefits from the arrangement, as well. "It does open us up to a whole new kind of donor who is fascinated by what can be done to improve public education," Hupfeld says. In addition, the system's involvement in the school has even helped boost staff morale. "It makes our employees really proud that they work for an organization that will do this."

Hupfeld and roughly 150 other Integris employees serve weekly as mentors to the children; that commitment has helped inspire 200 other individuals from the community to act as mentors, as well. Hupfeld also takes the entire school staff for screenings of inspiring movies, such as 2007's Freedom Writers, which starred Hilary Swank as an inner-city teacher who used innovative methods to reach her students. And Hupfeld ensures each year that every school staff member and child's family has a turkey for Thanksgiving.

The CEO explains the altruism this way: "Hospitals are usually more practically about the absence of health, so in order to truly live up to the mission of improving health in the community, the hospital or health system has to get outside the walls, and make words actions."

-Corey Christman