School notoriety, the famous and infamous. He had to paint that fence over and over again in the movie (and in reality), and finally asked the football team for help. “People thought he was autocratic or dictatorial, but he was just the opposite. “I was able to get kids from the local high school to get bit parts in the movie. “They said they were looking for something like a sequel of ‘To Sir, With Love’ and tell a story of what would happen to the Sidney Poitier character in this situation,” McKenna recalled. It was important to be hard on the system, because there was an environment of uncaring. The school stands as a role model for what can be done at all public schools when responsibility is taken by the professionals and the entire community. He also was one of the real-life characters portrayed in the film who met with the writers and filmmakers during the making of the movie. “McKenna made students feel safe to come back where some of the country’s most notorious gangs began,” Kakassy said. He says: “Some of the dreams at Washington Preparatory High School have come true. Allowing public school children the opportunity to acquire a quality education has been one of the tenets of Dr. George McKenna. In the first three years under McKenna, 122 of the 142 teachers transferred to another school or resigned. The movie “Stand and Deliver” about tough LA Unified teacher Jaime Escalante (which earned Edward James Olmos an Academy Award nomination) came out two years later. Posters for the movie based on George McKenna’s school success in South LA. [2], The George McKenna Story won a Christopher Award in the category of "Television Specials". Stay up to date by getting the lastest LA Sentinel News and Alerts sent to your email inbox. He concluded, “This is more challenging because in other districts, I had less concentration of poverty and under-achievement. My challenge, and my intent is to implement programs that may not exist and also reinforce those that do to significantly improve the academic, social, behavioral outcomes of Black and Latino students particularly those of lower socio-economic conditions.”Besides his professional career as an educator, McKenna gives his time and energy to a myriad of community services including the Brotherhood Crusade. “Change was not on their agenda. They’re yours, and the principal is responsible whether the grass grows. He’s not reluctant to tell it like it is and his demonstrated behavior is in the interest of Black children.”McKenna has been a principal, an assistant superintendent, a deputy superintendent, and a superintendent of Unified School districts around the Southland. At the age of twenty, he received a B.A. He believes that children have a fundamental right to receive a proper education to prepare them to be productive members of society and leaders of the future generations. He had a precise way of identifying what needed to be done and how to do it.”, Kakassy said the movie didn’t show the whole story. George McKenna Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family  Structural Info; Net Worth: $5 Million: Known for movies. Elsewhere co-star Denzel Washington and Lynn Whitfield. That incident, like the rest of the movie, was true, McKenna said, adding about the death, “It was one of the toughest moments of my life.” The gang fight motivates the principal to step up changes both on campus — which he does with the help of an idealistic white teacher — and off campus, including painting over graffiti on a wall across the street and recruiting the football team to help.
That was personal, and that’s when the graffiti stopped.”. George McKenna net worth is. Subscribe to The Los Angeles Sentinel for only $5.99 $3.99 per month, with 1 month free! “Time really goes by fast,” said the 75-year-old as he looked at the DVD version of the film, which has been re-titled “Hard Lessons.” (The movie is free online.) A principal is more important than a superintendent, board members, mayors, anything. “And I would ask teachers why things were so wrong and why their students were getting D’s and they talked about the gangs, the violence, the poverty, the drugs, all kinds of factors that wasn’t looking at themselves. “It’s like a square circle. Elsewhere” and directed some episodes. McKenna and Allan Kakassy as they are portrayed in the film.

Then, pulling out another McKenna-ism, he added, “Someday is not on the calendar. He loves the kids. That somebody in the movie, and in real life, is McKenna supporter Allan Kakassy, who retired in 2005 after 37 years in LA Unified and 17 years at Washington Prep. [1] It involves the events at George Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles. “This man had a movie made about him, and Denzel Washington played him,” King said as the students exclaimed, “Ooooh!”, McKenna gave his characteristically self-deprecating “aw-shucks” response and said about the two-time Academy Award winner, “You kids probably don’t even know who that is anymore.”. The graduation rate has fallen below the state average to 71 percent, and only 27 percent are college ready. “McKenna wanted us to fill out extra paperwork, make phone calls to students’ homes, stay a bit later to tutor. Biography. “I have never been married, no wife, no kids,” McKenna mused. The year the movie came out, the actor spoke at the graduation ceremonies, and of course the kids were thrilled, McKenna said. In the McKenna era, 80 percent of the school’s graduates went to college; only 69 percent now say in a recent survey that they even aspire to get a college degree. in mathematics from Xavier University and was awarded a teaching fellowship to Loyola University, where he … IMDB. Hawthorne Makes Run For Whittier City Council, Ken Miller Begins New Chapter with Rep. Richardson. “It’s not your fault that they came this way, but now they’re in front of you. “All the parts in the movie were real, everything happened, it was factual,” said McKenna, who read all versions of the script. Finally he said, “My job here is to try to maximize the schools beyond the norm of expectations, which is lower than I would expect it to be.” His tolerance for the acceptance of low achievement is very minimal. “George McKenna wanted to change the system, he is a pioneer,” Kakassy said, welling up with tears as he recalled his days at Washington Prep. “Some things have gone backwards, it’s out of my control, but ultimately that school and all the schools in the district are much, much safer,” McKenna said. … He claims to have the largest collection of McKenna archives, including his ticket to the movie premiere as well as teaching guides that CBS sent out to instructors throughout the country when the movie aired. The antagonist in the movie — the teacher who had it out for McKenna — was also a composite. It is not a day of the week. Don't be limited anymore! “I was a little embarrassed when the movie first came out,” McKenna admitted. “I had to say, ‘You are on my football team, you have responsibility. McKenna laughed about the choice of Washington playing him. At the age of twenty, he received a B.A. McKenna was at first surprised when told by LA School Report that it had been so long since the movie’s release. The George McKenna Story is a 1986 biographical television film directed by Eric Laneuville, which stars Laneuville's St. A great deal has changed in the three decades since the movie was made about this success in the LA educational system, but some things remain the same — and still need fixing. “In the movie, I was the white young liberal who came to the principal’s defense, but it doesn’t show how the union at the time and even the district made it so very hard for him,” Kakassy recalled. The “Sentinel” reached out to its President and CEO, Charisse Bremond Weaver for comments on McKenna’s appointment. George McKenna III was born in New Orleans into a family that was steeped deeply in the culture and history of the city. Subscribe Now », ** Existing subscribers, please Login / Register for Digital ». George McKenna III was born in New Orleans into a family that was steeped deeply in the culture and history of the city. It’s we shall overcome, not I.”. Your privacy is important to us. He received more than 400 citations and awards recognizing his work in education, including the Congressional Black Caucus’ Chairman’s Award in 1989, and was named to the National Alliance of Black School Educators’ Hall of Fame in 1997. African-Americans, who then made up 90 percent of the student population, are now 48 percent; 49 percent are Latino. “I was flattered.

(The actual school couldn’t accommodate such a large film shoot, so the production moved out of state.) Not only does Mc Kenna believe this, he has spent his entire professional career putting it into practice as one of the pre-eminent educators of our time.

McKenna explained that the Watts Riots in 1965 scared many of the white families out of the area. It wasn’t really too much, but it was enough to cause resistance. The idea of the movie ignited when the husband-and-wife producing team of Alan Landsburg and Linda Otto came to McKenna after reading some of the dramatic accounts of what was happening at the school in the local newspapers.

Some of the most infamous gang leaders were in Kakassy’s classes. It should work. And so, a darker actor playing the African-American principal was about the only part of the film that wasn’t quite accurate. “There were people who pushed back,” McKenna said.
He’s still trying to change it.”, Kakassy added, “It is a significant part of the aftermath of the movie that George McKenna is now on the school board, and maybe he can change things from there.”. “The school used to have 3,000 students, and when I got there, there were 1,700 and enough spaces for a whole other school,” McKenna said. If they need help, they should go paint that proverbial fence across the street, McKenna insists. Ultimately, he would return to LA Unified, where he began as a math teacher in 1962, as a school board member. McKenna, notorious for not talking to the media, agreed to discuss the anniversary and the issues the movie raised. Washington High is now Washington Preparatory High School. “I don’t ask principals to change the world, just change that part of the world where you have some control and some responsibility.”.

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