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| Bryan Reed, School Director, YES Prep Northbrook High School |
Senior Writer, SBISD
Bryan Reed could hardly contain himself as he sat down recently for an interview in the commons area at Northbrook High School.
“I’m really excited to be leading the YES Prep high school
here,” he said, unprompted, while looking around the large open area, the walls
and ramps leading to the second level adorned with motivational slogans – and
the Northbrook Raider, astride a black steed, setting the tone.
That YES Prep high school will be YES Prep Northbrook High
School, and classes begin there this summer. The high school program represents the maturing SKY Partnership,
an innovative collaboration between Spring Branch ISD, a traditional school
system, with YES Prep Houston Public Schools and
KIPP Houston Public Schools, the highly
successful state charter schools.
The founding school director for YES Prep Northbrook High
School, Reed has been splitting his time this spring between YES Prep
Northbrook Middle and Northbrook High School. He’s spending much less time at
his now-former school, YES Prep North Central, on Aldine-Westfield Road in
Northeast Houston, where he spent 10 years as a teacher, then principal, then
school director.
He didn’t grow up wanting to be a teacher – like so many, he
really didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do. Changing majors several times
at the University of Florida (UF), he graduated in 2003 with a degree in
psychology.
But it was his work at a small Catholic school during high
school and college that set him on his current path. By the time he graduated from UF, he was a counselor at the school, as
well as serving at one point or another as athletic director and working
after-school programs, security – even performing custodial functions.
“I was their utility infielder,” he said.
An apt analogy, because coaching is in
his blood. Coaching has been the root of several of his teaching jobs, and
serves at the core of his leadership philosophy.
“I consider myself a coach first,” said Reed. “It drives who
I am as a leader. I’m someone who’s always looking to get the best out of
folks.”
The Catholic school experience made Reed realize that he
liked working with kids. And he was ready to leave Gainesville after spending
most of his life there. He had a friend who worked with Teach For America (TFA)
and the more he learned about TFA the more he thought about educational
inequality in the United States.
He signed up for TFA and was assigned to teach social
studies in a New Orleans high school. It was an eye-opening experience, he
said.
“The students were phenomenal,” he said, “but not at any
level ready for college.” He said that he had 11th graders there who
were “pre-literate” – they could barely read and write at all. “They were kids
with no resources, who could have been successful.”
In 2005, the school was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. Reed
had evacuated two days prior to landfall but watched the storm from afar and
knew how bad it all was for New Orleans.
Legions of evacuees made their way to Houston, including
many school-age children who were missing school. Reed said TFA called him and
asked for help recruiting students from shelters to enroll in schools in
Houston. “I slept on teachers’ couches across Houston for a month,” he said of
that time here.
It was in Houston that he first learned about YES Prep,
through a friend he met here. Reed was skeptical at first.
“I wasn’t sure I believed it,” Reed said. “He was so
positive.”
But Reed checked it out anyway, stepping on the YES Prep
North Central campus one day and teaching eighth-grade social studies the next,
as well as coaching basketball and directing athletics.
Ten years later he finds himself the founding school
director at YES Prep Northbrook High, leading what will be the transitioning
and opening of a 140-student ninth-grade program.
The school will add a grade each year as the ninth-grade class progresses.
He hopes to have his staff of seven teachers and five
support persons hired by the end of this month. Space at Northbrook High School
is currently being remodeled and is scheduled to be completed by the first of April.
He said the SKY Partnership is a big reason why he’s excited
about his new role, considering his background at the large public high school
in New Orleans and his 10 years at YES Prep.
“It’s an opportunity to be part of YES Prep but also be part
of a larger school community,” said Reed. “It plays to my strengths, I think,
to help partner these two worlds and make sure
every student in the city is served.”
Reed is working with school leadership on the transition and
has started integrating himself on campus, working the lunch area once a week.
He has nothing but praise for Northbrook High School Principal Randolph Adami
and his staff.
“Randolph’s team is awesome,” he said. “They’ve been so
accommodating. I’ve been blown away so far at how receptive they are … I’m
going to hire staff that are equally as gracious and eager to partner.”
And that certainly fits in with yet another part of Reed’s
leadership philosophy.
“Relationships are the foundation of everything,” he said.
“We’re in the people business – students, teachers, parents, community.”
For more information about the SKY Partnership and school
choice in Spring Branch ISD, go to www.springbranchisd.com.
At a Glance
NAME: Bryan Reed
AGE: 35
HOMETOWN: Gainesville, Fla.
EDUCATION: Master’s degree, Education Leadership, Sam
Houston State University
Bachelor’s degree, Psychology, University of Florida
PLACES WORKED: Sarah T. Reed Senior High School (New Orleans), YES Prep North Central (Houston)
INTERESTS AND HOBBIES: Coaching basketball, college football
(specifically Florida Gator football), mediocre golf
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