we have beaten the odds. every kid who walks across the stage beats the odds. 90% of girls who drop out of school do so as a result of pregnancy or parenting. so if you walk across the stage, have you beaten the odds tremendously. that video was excellent and produced by the detroit free press. all week, we have been expecting today to be the catherine ferguson academy s last day ever. that was what the emergency manager had ordered. the principal had been told to say goodbye to the students today. to hand in her keys to the school tomorrow. on friday. there was to be a protest at noon today at the school. the actor danny glover was expected to be there as well as lots of other people. principal andrews went to bed last night thinking this was it, her school was done. but early this morning her phone rang. the emergency manager wanted to see her for a meeting at 10:45 a.m. then another call, meeting changed to 10:00. no, another call, please get down to the emergency manager s offi
the fate of the catherine ferguson academy is in this private company s hands now. but this time yesterday, this school was due not to exist. as of today, catherine ferguson academy has a tomorrow. joining us now is the only principal that catherine ferguson canada has ever known. ms. andrews, thank you for interrupting what i imagine is your celebration to be with us here tonight. i just can breathe. thank you for having us. let me just personally say congratulations. i feel like i am very invested in you as a principal because of all i have learned about this school. am i right that you had no idea this was coming at all? not at all. everybody has had some scheme or some way they said they were going to save us. and i had gotten really excited and then deflated. and so i just i couldn t i couldn t imagine that they would wait so long. so i my office is packed. well, sort of packed. and i just thought i d be gone,
and my girls would be just thrown to wind. so we are excited. we re excited. when you were heading to the protest about the school closing, i understand this decision was really made within something like an hour of when that protest was due to start. instead, when you re headed to that protest, you know that the school is going to be kept open. did you in fact have to break the news to people in part when you got there? yes. i was so surprised. the media beat me there. but everybody thought the media was there for the rally. and so i asked the assistant principal to pull all of the staff into the library as well as aretha marshall, who was the person who asked me to start catherine ferguson academy. and when i told them, they just jumped up and applauded and everybody was just so relieved. you know, it was it went from just absolutely desolation, depression, anxiety, crazy to celebration. it was just it was incredible. it was incredible.
but this time yesterday, this school was due not to exist. as of today, catherine ferguson academy has a tomorrow. joining us now is the only principal that catherine ferguson canada has ever known. ms. andrews, thank you for interrupting what i imagine is your celebration to be with us here tonight. i just can breathe. thank you for having us. let me just personally say congratulations. i feel like i am very invested in you as a principal because of all i have learned about this school. am i right that you had no idea this was coming at all? not at all. everybody has had some scheme or some way they said they were going to save us. and i had gotten really excited and then deflated. and so i just i couldn t i couldn t imagine that they would wait so long. so i my office is packed. well, sort of packed. and i just thought i d be gone, and my girls would be just thrown to wind.
academy opened. they asked if she minded, and she said no. just under an hour before the protest was to begin, they made the announcement. dps announces me operator of catherine ferguson academy. the gladys barcamian prep tory center saying they are pleased to announce that the students and the animals get to stay. catherine ferguson academy is still a school for girls who have kids. and, yes, they celebrated today at catherine ferguson, the planned noon protest turning into kind of a party. catherine ferguson will still exist, at least for now. it will be run as a charter school. and that s the important fine print here. charter schools sometimes work, sometimes don t. sometimes they give teachers more freedom and better pay. sometimes they pay less. and do less. teachers with detroit public schools are union. teachers with the new company that will be running catherine ferguson academy will not be union. the fate of the catherine ferguson academy is in this private company s hands no