As I move along in what has to be somewhere near the middle of my life, I feel a new sense of urgency around making progress toward realizing my dreams. Now more than ever, I feel a need to put the wheels in motion to ensure the legacy I desire to leave behind is created. Among my most heartfelt prayers is not to bury any of the “talents” God has placed within me. I want to give Him a complete return on His investments.
I was listening to a recent sermon where the minister spoke about the story of Jesus urging his disciples to launch out into the deep after they reported they had caught no fish despite their efforts all day. It spurred a nostalgic reflection and I remembered one of the many amazing experiences I had as Founding Principal of Johnson College Prep. I had gone through a tumultuous process to compete against fourteen design teams who also wanted to open schools in a former elementary school located in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. After months of public hearings, community forums, and interviews, we did it! What I didn’t understand then, was that this was only one of the many hurdles that lied ahead on this journey.
In the six months leading up to our opening, I would interface with architects, general contractors, and engineers to plan and oversee the work necessary to create a high school in our new space. The autonomy that we were given to choose our school colors, our mascot, our schedule, and everything down to the bathroom tiles was energizing. By the time we would open, I knew more about securing permits and upgrading electrical capacity than I ever thought I would care to. Amidst the furniture and paint selections, supply orders, and technological upgrades/installations, we needed to find about 175 willful guinea pigs to join me in starting a school this school that only existed in my imagination.
There were nine other campuses in our network, so this would be one of the easier tasks…I thought. We got out their playbook and swung into action. Since we couldn’t access our school building yet, we rented space in a nearby church. My first two hires joined my team that February, and we had done a great deal of work with our graphic designers, creating our website and logos. We had packets and flyers printed and ready to inform our guests about the great opportunity in store for our founding class. I borrowed cheerleaders and a choir from one of the other campuses, and I prepared a presentation worthy of a Ted Talk—at least in my mind it was. Our excitement was palpable, and as I walked in ready to take the stage and kick off our program, I saw a room full of empty pews and three parents with their 8th graders down front.
My heart broke. I felt like I wanted to crawl into a hole, cry and then die. Where was our crowd?! I had witnessed these events time and again at other campuses. You simply chose a date for your Admissions Information Session, pub’d it on your website and then the crowd appeared—standing room only. Hundreds of kiddos would fill their auditoriums and then have to go through a lottery and a waiting list just to attend. That’s how thirsty parents were for more non-selective, quality high school options, and we were coming into a community with great need. I didn’t get it. Where were my families eager to take advantage of this great college prep education our network was becoming so well known for?
Somewhere I mustered up the strength to go out and present to those three families as though the church was full. I reminded myself of the scriptures and the need to be faithful over few for God to bless me with many. I told myself that this was just a test of my humility. The show had to go on and that it did. We executed the full plan for our three families that showed up that night, and I assured my team that we could and we would get this right in the future. We had to. Our school’s budget was driven by expenditure per pupil. No/little students meant no/little funds for operation.
We went back to the drawing board. We chose to host our next session at our campus downtown because it was easily accessible from the Red Line, and it was safe. I reached out to other principals and secured a band a choir to perform. We hit the pavement and got the word out to every elementary school on the south side of the city, and this time…ten people came. One parent even did an about face when she realized the session was for the new Englewood campus and not the campus we were hosting in downtown.
I’m not sure I have the words to capture the despair I was feeling...again. Still, I gathered myself and went to speak with my team after the session. I don’t know how the story of the disciples came to me. One minute I was searching for my breath and the right words, the next minute I heard myself telling everyone to remain hopeful. Game face on! We just needed to cast our nets. I told them that we were in a place similar to the disciples who told Jesus they had toiled all day and caught nothing. Jesus told the disciples to launch out into the deep and cast their nets yet again. We would need to do the same.
The plan that had worked for the other campuses was not working for Englewood. My boss sat me down for a pep talk (that I interpreted as a loser talk). He told me the network would make up for the students I couldn’t recruit in my first year. I remember looking him square in the eye and saying “Boss (as I affectionately referred to him from the day he hired me) I’m going to get my kids.” I didn’t want any sympathy or any hand outs. I believed with all of my heart that God did not bring me to that point to not supply me with students. Growing up, my bedroom was a classroom. I was known for bullying children in the streets of Brooklyn to be my students. This school was my dream as long as I could remember, and how could it be coming true if i wasn’t going to have I have any students??
Someone from the Englewood TAC graciously arranged for me to sit down with Mr. Marv Dyson, the radio pioneer. I had never heard of him prior to our meeting at Kennedy King College, but God used him to save the day. I explained my plight, and Mr. Dyson, with no stake or gain, gave me a crash course on radio. He sat with me and explained that we needed to target the demographics for my school’s community and which stations were best for reaching parents and grandparents of 8th graders (at their peak times for listening). He had two of the most popular radio hosts, Joe Soto and Ramonski Luv, record an ad for me with a promise to make an appearance at my event. I will be forever grateful to those men for what they did. They didn’t charge us a penny for their voices or for the ads that played at peak hours seemingly all day every day.
My next session was in the library near the school, and we hosted two back to back sessions with standing room only. I did indeed get my kids, and today many of them have either graduated college or are en route to graduating college. Although I have moved on to bigger and better ways to make a positive impact in the field, Johnson College Prep is now a full high school continuing to serve students in grades 9-12 on Chicago’s south side. This was the first of many miracles I experienced in that role, but it’s not different from the faithfulness God has shown me all of my life.
As I captured what I have shared here, it reminds me of what God promises to do if we only have the faith of a mustard seed. I’m energized to go for it, and I hope you are too! I’m launching out into the deep and casting my nets in nearly every area of my life. Stay tuned!!
Keeping it real, true, and free,
Garland Darling
“...4 When Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked through the night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.” 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink...”