Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
John Hopkins Middle School was divided by more just its two campuses when Ed Baldwin took over in 1998. Now its a community asset with students earning high marks.
By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 5, 2001
With the imminent end of busing and the beginning of a school choice plan, Pinellas County educators face a big challenge: Find new ways to attract students and deal with mandates to improve basic reading, writing and math skills.
John Hopkins Middle School is already ahead of the curve, due in large part to its principal, Ed Baldwin.
Baldwin, 49, is Hopkins' only principal since its opening in 1998. He had the daunting task of bringing together a faculty, student body and parent association that had been divided by two campuses over several years while the school was being built. It also was divided by ideological conflicts between participants in the magnet and traditional programs offered by the school, formerly called Sixteenth Street Middle School.
"There were two different campuses and a lot of factions," said Mary Zimmer, a parent. "Teachers argued at SAC meetings.
"He was a good listener," said Luanne Ferguson, another parent. "He had a vision and a sense of the history of the school. He really cared about the kids. All of that came together to move that school forward in a dynamic direction."
"We were going to make sure it was a community school," Baldwin said.
Baldwin is a career educator with the Pinellas County School system, beginning in 1973 as a special education at Paul B. Stevens. He was the principal of Oak Grove Middle School in north Pinellas County when he was tapped to head John Hopkins. He traded that comfortable job for a new school in what was then identified as the Challenge Zone, not far from the racial disturbances that rocked the city in 1996. His job was to create a school community for about 1,500 children and 100 faculty members.
"We needed him to pull the two schools together," said Lewis Williams, superintendent fo Area II, who persuaded him to go to John Hopkins. "He has really good communications skills and the ability to cause people to do things with and for him. Throughout his career he has accepted challenges."
Baldwin has opened the school up to community activities that range from police training to a back-to-school fair that offers free school supplies and vaccinations.
To dispel what he called "a sense that some students were haves and some were have-nots," his staff designed two "strand" programs for students not enrolled in the arts magnet.
And he said teachers have developed strategies to keep students in school, setting up their own timeout areas rather than sending them to the office as referrals, "where there is the greater chance for a suspension. The attendance rate has gone up and suspensions are down, from 972 the first year to 300 this year."
The school received a B rating this year, based on its FCAT scores, barely missing out on an A.
For all his success, he said he may retire in a few years. He is not particularly interested in a promotion to a higher level within the county school system, saying, "I like working with kids."