Topeka businesses can and should partner with local schools, independent school leader says

Wanda Holland Greene couldn't help but get choked up as she walked through the halls of Monroe Elementary School, now the site of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.

Growing up in New York City more 40 years ago, Holland Greene, who is Black, had been one of the "school bus" kids who were shuttled around the city in the first attempts to desegregate the public schooling system.

Although she was born and went through school a couple of decades after the monumental U.S. Supreme Court decision, Holland Greene still was painfully aware of the legacy of racism and discrimination that Brown v. Board tried to end.

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"I'm a direct descendant of Brown v. Board," she said.

Now a world-renowned educator and member of the Columbia University Board of Trustees, Holland Greene said she sees a similar need to help students everywhere see equality of opportunity, regardless of their backgrounds or ZIP codes.

Holland Greene is the head of school at The Hamlin School in San Francisco, where the independent school educates girls in kindergarten through eighth grade. She is in Topeka this week as a guest and featured speaker for Topeka Collegiate School, as part of the school's yearlong celebration of its 40th anniversary.

Holland Greene: Topeka businesses should work as partners with area schools

At a lunch with business leaders in the Topeka community, Holland Green urged the representatives to do more to work with the schools in Topeka, public and private.

She said businesses and schools, particularly independent ones like hers and Topeka Collegiate, are much more similar than most people might realize. Both are value-driven types of organizations, with responsibilities to stakeholders and commitments to re-imagining the various ways to do their work.

Businesses and schools, then, could bolster their connectedness by bringing people together to talk about ideas on how to support students from a whole-child perspective — including academic, socio-emotional and living needs — while exposing them to potential opportunities in their communities. Kansas children, she suggested, could even be experts in lithium batteries by the time they graduate, if companies like Panasonic invest in their communities' schools and talent.

"When great people from all walks of life get together, great ideas and things can happen when they connect their energy, intellect and resources," Holland Greene told the business leaders.

Independent, public schools should work together, Hamlin head of school says

Speaking to media before the lunch, Holland Greene said independent schools are often looked at "with one eyebrow raise" — with many associating the type of private school with exclusion.

But she argued that independent schools offer parents a choice where there may otherwise be none.

"Excellence is everywhere, but opportunity is not everywhere," she said. "Excellence is equally distributed, but access and opportunity are not."

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Public and private school systems can and should co-exist, she said, perhaps by sharing resources, knowledge, training and other best practices in education.

"It’s like all flavors of ice cream," Holland Greene said. "You might want vanilla, or chocolate or rocky road, but it’s all ice cream. They’re all children, and they all need us. They don’t need us fighting, arguing or fighting for resources. What they need is our cooperation and our deliberate efforts to make sure that all schools are excellent."

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka Collegiate hosts Hamlin School's Wanda Holland Greene