Photos PYC's Tyrone Kindle New PYC school PYC director Anne Long View full slideshow (4 images) Resources Plymouth Christian Youth Center Minneapolis Public Schools Transit corridor on West Broadway Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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A better place for troubled students
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
May 9, 2004

New Plymouth Christian Youth Center school cost $5 million (MPR photo/Dan Olson)

A private north Minneapolis school which educates some of the city's most difficult children has a new building. The Plymouth Christian Youth Center's grand opening is Monday. The school traces its roots 50 years ago to white seminarians who wanted to help young people in north Minneapolis.

Minneapolis, Minn. — Most of the 245 students at Plymouth Christian Youth Center are there because they have failed in public schools. PYC, as it's known in the neighborhood, is a contract school. It has an agreement with the Minneapolis public school system that it will take some of the district's most disruptive and academically troubled young people.

The PYC's middle school coordinator Tyrone Kindle says the troubles can often be traced to home. Some of the students, he says, have no parental supervision because they are homeless.

	PYC's Tyrone Kindle

"Mom may not be around, could be incarcerated, and so it's real difficult for them, and so when they come here for school it's a real welcoming and friendly setting, it's comforting for them, it's a lot more relaxed," Kindle says.

PYC's student profile is markedly different from most Minnesota schools. Nearly all the students are poor. About two-thirds are black. As many as 35 graduate each year. Others return to public school. Still others drop out. Calculating a graduation rate, officials say, is difficult since so many students come and go.

About one-fourth of last year's girls attending PYC were pregnant. Just under a fourth of the teenage boys were fathers.

	PYC director Anne Long

Kindle says even after leaving PYC many students return to spend time with teachers as a way of coping with the loneliness and absence of other adults in their lives.

"We have some kids that come back every morning, and one of our teacher's name is Clyde, they come every morning and they go into his classroom before school and they just come in and sit," he says.

The new PYC building design is an antidote to the isolation many of the students have in their lives. The bright colors, extensive use of natural wood and ceiling high windows act as a beacon to the rest of the neighborhood.

The library is open to anyone who wants to come in and read. There's a small meditation room for people seeking quiet.

	Anytrea Smith

PYC Director Anne Long points to the new flat screen computers in the school's technology room. In the past the school scrounged for supplies and equipment. Long says those days are gone.

"We discarded that (philosophy) some years ago, believing that it certainly was appropriate for many years," Long says, "But we think it makes a statement about the worth of the kids in the neighborhood, so everything is first class."

Besides donations and grants, much of PYC's $3.2 million annual operating budget comes from the state aid that travels with the Minneapolis students referred to the school.

The roots of the Plymouth Christian Youth Center on West Broadway in north Minneapolis go back half a century. White students at a St. Paul seminary were challenged by one of their professors to visit the north side to observe the lives of poor people. The experience kicked off a youth program which led to the school.

Even though crime throughout much of north Minneapolis is down sharply, there are still problems. A neighborhood shooting just days before PYC's grand opening had everyone on alert. Police say confiscation of guns in the area so far this year is up 30% from last year.

PYC director Anne Long is also a neighborhood resident. She says combating drug sales is a daily task for all the residents. The new PYC building eliminates one of the drug hot spots.

"The site on which this building is built was a fourplex that was truly the center of all that activity for many years. We had to post our staff outside to keep students from using the services over the noon time hours," she says.

PYC serves more than 6000 young people a year. It runs a summer school. It organizes an annual summer carnival and conducts various educational outreach programs.

Neighborhood resident Anytrea Baker says the after school program her seven-year old son attends keeps him safe while she works.

"There's not a lot of programs in our community that help out the youths and stuff so they actually like it, and they're learning, and that's a good thing, so we don't want to mess with a good thing," she says.

Plymouth Christian Youth Center's new $5 million dollar building is the most recent sign of change in north Minneapolis. There's a new coffee shop across the street. The city and county plan to revamp West Broadway into a transit corridor which means better bus service. The changes are welcome in northside neighborhoods still struggling to emerge from poverty.

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