A great staff ,we were a close staff and the principal (Mr. Bracy) he was very fair, and he expected the most professionalism out of each and every staff member and he was very supportive for the most part. The staff was basically a family, very close to each other. A lot of the kids who attended Coolidge, also had parents who attended the school. The parents wanted their children to experience what they did which says a lot about the school. We had a lot of community events, and the staff welcomed the community and participated quite a bit. I enjoyed never regretting having to come to work, because I knew between Mr. Bracy and the staff there was a great supportive unit. I was always surrounded by people that I could talk to. For several years, I did after school activities. When they eliminated community school directors, I kind of took over. I ran activities for kids and adults in the community. I did that because prior to being at Coolidge, I was the community school director at DTM.That’s probably my fondest memory, being in charge of the after-school activities for the kids and the adults. Building lifelong relationships with people that I worked with. I learned a lot from Mr. Bracy, he was also a former community school director, so we had that connection. When I went through the administrative training for the GISD, he was happy to be my mentor.From the time I started to the time of my retirement, one of my biggest disappointments was to see the decline. In the neighborhood we started to see more crime, and more bad things happening and that was my biggest disappointment and concern at the time. When they closed the school, it was almost like losing a loved one because I had spent so many years there and I had a similar feeling when I retired. That [Coolidge Park Aparments] was very uplifting, and I really appreciate your organization taking interest in that property. |