West Side Stories: Washington High School

Unconditional love.

That’s the thread that binds the staff of Washington High School to the students they teach.

It’s an aspect the news often doesn’t pick up on when reporting about the West Side.

Maybe it’s because hate tends to present itself louder than love, but the latter runs deeper in the halls of Washington than what the former leads many to believe.

“Every parent that we've met with...they didn't realize that the culture and the atmosphere of Washington, when you're in this building, was so much different than what they heard. The outside perception is not matching up to our inside reality.”

That’s Washington High School Principal Kenard Robinson. He just wrapped up his first year at the school.

He knows the assumptions Washington is up against. He also knows they’re wrong. Instead of occupying his time with deconstructing them, he’s letting the experience speak for itself.

Because a positive student and teacher experience, one where students learn well and both parties thrive, is a priority for him.

Robinson came into this first year with a mindset of innovation. He wanted to bring in new ideas without changing the integrity of the building or what current teachers have been doing successfully at the school.

He’s designated a number of staff members his “blind spots,” ensuring he’s doing all he can to make sure students and teachers benefit from their time at Washington.

One of those blind spots, department head and economics teacher Tim Balasa, is a Washington graduate himself, so he’s familiar with the family-like culture Robinson wants to sustain.

“We all care about the kids. We love them all, even the ones that drive us nuts,” Balasa said. “But they know that. When I was in school, I knew that too. I knew that the teachers loved us. I know that, our kids know that we love them.”

Robinson also enlisted outside help to recommend new methods of learning for students.

“Instead of lecturing, you're doing group assignments now, to where the teacher serves more as a quarterback than actual standing up and instructive of 48 minutes,” he said.

This way of learning is also meant to take some weight off of teachers’ shoulders.

“Teachers were getting burned out, because they're pouring so much into the students and not really getting anything back,” he said. “So for me, from the outside looking in with fresh lenses, to say, if you would put more of the weight back on the students, and say, ‘students, I need for you to take ownership over your education,’ that will free up the teacher, in my opinion, to be more rejuvenated.”

One thing both students and staff at Washington will be prepping for in the coming years are the repercussions of the South Bend Community School Corporation’s Facilities Master Plan.

Despite not feeling the shift yet, Robinson said staff is gearing up for any number of changes that could come. This includes bringing students from other schools to Washington and accommodating a range of student learning needs.

Though talk of the closure of Clay High School has rumbled throughout the South Bend community for months, Robinson cares more about the student experience.

“I don't care if you’re a Colonial, you’re an Eagle, you’re a Wildcat, if you come to Washington, and you're taking classes with us, you're a Panther...maybe, you know, it’s another school out there for you. But for us, we're going to keep up the tradition, and we're going to make sure that we do things the right way by students.”

This isn’t the first time Washington has dealt with a shift in the school corporation. LaSalle High School closed in the early 2000s.

Regardless, the priority stays with the students and how staff can provide the best experience and education for them.

Another way Robinson and staff do so is by simply showing up for students. He and his staff attend sporting events and personally get to know students and their families to help boost morale.

They also rely on the tight-knit peer-to-peer student community to encourage kids to pass a class or graduate.

“When, you know, someone starts slipping, there's usually somebody else there that's like, ‘hey, get your work done so you can graduate.’ You know, there's a lot of peer pressure, accountability-type stuff to keep people on track,” Balasa said.

Without those relationships, Robinson said that this year alone, they wouldn’t have made such strides as reducing disciplinary issues and increasing attendance and graduation rates.

“None of that would have happened if we stayed in our own cocoon,” he said.

A separate hurdle Robinson, Balasa and the rest of the staff face is the outside perception and negative media coverage of the West Side and its impact on how students see themselves as students.

"That's something that we struggle with, because they're constantly told, ‘oh, you go to Washington. I'm sorry,’” said Balasa.

The stereotypes have even convinced kids they somehow can’t achieve certain feats because of their environment.

But Robinson, Balasa and Washington staff are in the business of proving the negative perception wrong. Not for the sake of being right, but for the sake of every student that walks through the halls.

And for those who are convinced a student can’t thrive at Washington, Robinson encourages them to reconsider.

“Every parent can decide where they want to send their baby. That's their baby. But before you make that final decision, just come check us out, give us a fair shot,” Robinson said. “I'm confident enough in our staff, and our abilities to educate our students to high standards, that any family who has preconceived notion about Washington, when they walk in, there will be a shadow of a doubt in their mind. Like, ‘okay, it wasn't what I thought it was.’”

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