Leveling the Playing Field

Serving students in challenging economic circumstances, Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School’s teachers, administrators and parents are in it for the long haul

by

During a recent visit, Head of School Mike Maruca pointed to a framed photo of the current graduating class at Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School (AJCES) and named each student individually, along with the high schools they will attend in the fall. Not every school leader knows every student’s name and where they’re headed after graduation, but Maruca, 61, isn’t one for patting himself on the back.

“I’m careful not to take too much credit or too much blame,” Maruca says. “It’s a long-running play. The curtain goes up every morning. [You] have to know your lines by heart, but you also have to be able to improvise. What if a kid melts down? It’s as if the teachers and staff, we’re all the actors in this play, and we study and study and study, and the kids get a taste of it, and they want to be a part of it.”

The play at AJCES has been running for 10 years now, with Maruca directing since its opening day in 2009. The faith-based middle school, which originally opened in a small house, is located in Richmond’s East End, on the edge of Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s sprawling Creighton Court community. To qualify for admission to AJCES, families must demonstrate economic hardship, and residents of Church Hill or Richmond’s East End receive preference. Students and their families do not have to be Christian to be admitted, but attendance at weekly chapel services is mandatory, and the school was established on Christian principles, with the Bible verse John 15:12, “that you love one another as I have loved you,” as a guiding foundation.

Today the school is housed in an expansive building intended for a day care center, with low cubbies and shelving; the original toddler-sized bathrooms have been converted into closets or reading nooks. Murals and portraits line the bright and airy corridors, and each classroom has an outdoor patio with a well-used picnic table. Outside, there is a cheery garden and an outdoor chapel. The atmosphere may be ripe for learning, but that’s not all that attracts parents and families to AJCES.

“They see how we treat one another,” Maruca says. “They see how we don’t yell, they see how we don’t give up on one another, how we give others a second chance, and that feels good. If you do good things, good things happen to you.”

Good Things

The school was founded in 2009, and 100 percent of the first graduating class — the class of 2012 — has graduated from high school, with 70% of those graduates enrolled in college, Maruca says. When asked about some of the school’s success stories, Maruca is hesitant to share names or other details. “There are dozens and dozens,” he says, adding, “I try not to highlight a particular student.”

Parents of children at the school aren’t so reticent. Catina Hickman is the mother of a fifth grade daughter and a son who graduated from AJCES and now attends Fork Union Military Academy. She cites the curriculum and the small class size as the school’s biggest selling points. That’s what she credits with turning her son from a class clown into a scholar.

“They see how we don’t give up on one another, how we give others a second chance, and that feels good.” —Mike Maruca, head of school at Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School

“It’s the best school my kids ever went to in Richmond,” she says.

“They provided transportation. It’s inexpensive. They assist you with any- and everything. They are very family oriented.”

She adds that her son’s connection to the school continued after graduation.

“Mr. Maruca really encouraged my son,” Hickman says. “His first year at Fork Union, he wasn’t assimilating too well, and with the assistance of Mr. Maruca, he decided to go back. I really thank him for being there.”

AJCES wasn’t a place that Taneka Swann’s daughter wanted to be. However, she soon went from protesting against wearing a uniform to giving a speech at her graduation and not wanting to leave, her mother recalls. She now attends Collegiate School.

“Education, that’s what matters to me,” says Swann, who told her daughter, “I don’t care how broke we are, you’re going to college, and you’re not going to get into debt while you’re there.”

At AJCES, families pay an enrollment fee of $50 per year per child. They must purchase the school uniform — khaki pants or shorts with navy or green AJCES polo shirts — and commit to participate in the Parents’ Association, attend school meetings and go to parent-student-teacher conferences. All books and supplies are provided by the school, as well as breakfast, lunch and two snacks through the USDA’s Community Education Program. As for the $14,000 annual tuition, each student is given a full scholarship that is automatically renewed each year. Class size is kept low, just 12 students per class, which may increase to 14 in the coming school year. The school is accredited by the Virginia Association of Independent Schools.

Shared Values

Dr. Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964), for whom the school was named, was born into slavery, a descendant of John Haywood, known for being North Carolina’s longest-serving state treasurer and a founder of the University of North Carolina. Cooper grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio and the Sorbonne in France. Only the fourth African-American woman ever to earn a doctoral degree, she became well known as an author, educator and civil rights activist who was sometimes referred to as “the mother of black feminism.”

Cooper began her formal education at the age of 9 in a school founded by her local Episcopal diocese. Today, that would have been approximately the fourth grade. The school that proudly shares her name values individual achievement, but it reveres the community works and strong relationships that Cooper championed in her decades of work.

The AJCES curriculum is based on the philosophy that “true education instills a sense of mystery and wonder and a love for God and our neighbor,” as well as the belief that “education is essentially liberating,” according to the school’s handbook. AJCES operates on an extended school day that begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. Academic classes include the core subjects of English/language arts, mathematics, social studies and history, and science. Physical education includes extended blocks for sports such as basketball, swimming, football, cheerleading, track, soccer and squash. Prayer, Scripture reading and chapel service are part of the daily and weekly schedule at this school, and summer school is mandatory.

Maruca has spent 10 years as AJCES’s head of school, holding master’s degrees in philosophy and divinity. He also spent a decade as middle school head of The Steward School. He’s looking forward to future expansion at AJCES, from a middle school serving grades 4-8 to a K-8 school that will have students for all of their elementary years. The school recently acquired land on the adjacent block, with plans to build additional classrooms and a gymnasium that could be used by the community on weekends. This would enable the school to double its enrollment from 112 to 224 students. A capital campaign would be funded by individuals and foundations.

The school boasts a 98.6% high school graduation rate, according to Maruca, and while many students go on to colleges and universities, several have opted for the military.

“Kids come with tremendous talents and gifts,” Maruca says. “Like a garden … we provide the sunshine and water.”