A Lesson of Hope : Teacher of the Year Urges Schools to Take Initiative

Sandra McBrayer, named this week as 1994 National Teacher of the Year, has a message for America’s schools: Arise and do something.

“Too often schools assume the role of victims, that society has dumped all its problems on us and nothing can be done,” McBrayer said. “My school demonstrates that you can do something about the problems. If students are hungry, feed them. If students need clothes, give them clothes. Take action.”

McBrayer is being honored by the Washington-based Council of Chief State School Officers and the Encyclopaedia Britannica for her work at a school she founded six years ago in downtown San Diego to serve forgotten teen-agers living in marginal circumstances.

McBrayer’s boss, San Diego County Supt. of Schools Harry Weinberg, calls her a cross between Mother Teresa and Jaime Escalante, the Garfield High School teacher whose success in turning out math superstars was chronicled in the movie “Stand and Deliver.”

“Sandy is demanding and she is consistent,” Weinberg said. “She insists on perfection from her students and she gets it. She is the real article, not a media creation. I had to talk her into applying for this award.”

As the 43rd winner of the annual award, McBrayer will spend a year traveling to schools around the country and using the honor as a bully pulpit to call for greater public support for education. She begins Thursday by meeting with President Clinton in the Oval Office.

“Without this school, a lot of the girls would be laid up somewhere pregnant, and the boys probably would be selling drugs,” said a 17-year-old student at McBrayer’s school.

“Sandy makes you want to go to school,” said James Allen, 19. “She’s got a good attitude. Teachers at my other schools didn’t care, but here Sandy and the others really care.”

Housed in a former bar that was popular with sailors when San Diego was an anything-goes Navy town, the Homeless Outreach School serves about 400 students a year, teaching them survival skills and providing an emotional safety net.

McBrayer’s students are known in education jargon as unattended and at-risk, which means that most of them are without supportive families and vulnerable to social dangers.

“With students like these, you can’t fake it,” said Pete Treadwell, an administrator at the San Diego County Office of Education. “Either you’re interested in these kids or you’re not. It takes the ability to withstand a lot of rough language, frustration and disappointment.”

McBrayer, by all accounts, has that ability. “Sandy has a rare gift,” Treadwell said.

“I’ve never met a person who is so giving of herself as Sandy,” said Lisa LaRosa, an outreach worker at the school.

LaRosa’s job is to find teen-agers living on the streets, alone in rooming houses and sometimes on the roofs of buildings, and persuade them to enroll in school. One study said 1,500 children were living on San Diego’s streets.

“We have children who were sold into prostitution or to a crack house because their parents owed money to a dealer,” McBrayer said. “We had a boy whose father played a game of ‘chicken’ by putting lighted cigarettes on his arm and waiting for him to cry. These children have been through all these things and still they want an education.”

McBrayer was teaching juvenile offenders in the court school system when she decided that it was time to take a school to the streets. “I realized that part our responsibility is to take school to the students and not just wait for them to come to us,” McBrayer said.

Officials at the county Office of Education agreed with McBrayer and now the Homeless Outreach School, with three teachers and a squad of assistants, is located in a gritty section of Market Street. For the students’ protection, the school front has no name.

The daughter of Marines, the 33-year-old McBrayer believes in equal doses of discipline and compassion.

Students are required to use a sign-in sheet and sign contracts pledging to meet certain educational goals. Disruptive behavior is not tolerated. McBrayer carries a pager, has an 800 number and considers herself on-call 24 hours a day.

Students who have children are encouraged to bring them to class. Information is available about avoiding pregnancy and staying away from gangs.

Ana Aguilera, 18, attended the school for two years while on-site care was provided for her two daughters. She graduated recently and plans to enroll in community college.

“Sandy is very special,” Aguilera said. “Whether you’re from the ghetto, or some rich part of town, she takes the time to listen and find out where you’re coming from.”

Dozens of students from the school have received their high school diplomas, 25 are in college and one is getting a master’s degree. But there have been failures: Since December, three students have died, including a 14-year-old student who was shot in a fight.

McBrayer says she has a simple standard for measuring the success of her school.

“I consider it a success when a kid is living better today than yesterday,” she said.