Yo! Memphis in its heyday attracted national attention for its performing arts productions. Shown here is legendary actor Ossie Davis during a visit!  Dr. Marie Milam (rear) is executive director. The organization now reaches out to youth with its webpage. (Photo by Tyrone P. Easley)

The Broadway-style productions, Show Choir concerts, jazz dance exhibitions, and an American Idol finalist were not enough to save the Yo! Academy of Visual and Performing Arts charter school from getting axed last year.  The foundation is now suing Memphis City Schools for $3 million – $1.5 million for each of the remaining two years on the school’s contract.

Beginning of the end for the youth outreach organization?

Not by a long shot.  Yo! Memphis Foundation moved from its 2140 S. Third St. building to full virtual operation at www.yomemphisonline.com, its new address in cyberspace.

“We were never at a point of closing down the foundation,” said Dr. Marie Milam, executive director of the Yo! Memphis Foundation.

“In 2005, we were named one of the top five youth opportunity sites in America by the Department of Labor. The charter school was just one component of our outreach. The Web site keeps the Yo! Memphis family in touch with the foundation and each other. On July 31, we are set to launch interactive services.”

Dr. Milam said the new services would allow others to become a part of the Yo! Foundation movement. Interactive features will include: instant messaging, file-sharing, a youth blog, postings and videos of visual and performing arts, links to college sites and youth service organizations.

A “Keep the Miracle Alive” fund-raising campaign has drawn three major contributors: Dr. Bill Cosby, the Canadian National Railway, and McKesson Corporation. Local residents have also helped to keep the Yo! Foundation afloat.

“We sponsored the 7th Annual Presentation Ball this year, and rehearsals for an upcoming fall production of “Porgy and Bess” will begin shortly,” said Dr. Milam. “Yo! Memphis has been educating and encouraging at-risk students since 2000.  We will continue to provide services to our youth.”

According to the Web site, the foundation continues to offer such services as: home-schooling assistance, tutoring for high school and college students, standardized test preparation, scholarship assistance for college, and youth employment postings.

‘I remember thatnight so well’

City Schools administrators marked Yo! Academy “high priority” after the 2006-07 year for “failing to meet federal academic standards in math.” Charter regulations allow board discretion in closing a school that has missed the mark for two consecutive years.

“When the school board said our children did not meet the federal performance standards, their calculations were inaccurate,” said Dr. Milam, executive director of the Yo! Memphis.

“We submitted documentation clearly showing that our students did, in fact, meet the guidelines. The board acknowledged its error, but stopped short of reversing the academy’s closing.”

Dr. Milam appealed the closing last year, but a stalemate “has left no other choice than legal recourse.” The Yo! Memphis Foundation filed a Shelby County Circuit Court suit against Memphis City Schools in mid-March.

Hundreds of students, parents, and academy supporters converged on a school board meeting last August when the closing was announced. Nearly 50 students – many of them tearful – begged administrators not to close the school.

“I remember that night so well,” said Deven Rucker, one of the students who addressed the board. “It was just one day before our registration. I was so excited because I was going into my senior year, and we had just been told about the new Broadway shows we would be performing. It was just devastating for me.”

Dr. Milam’s dream became “our dream, too,” said Rucker.

“Every school has problems. A lot of schools didn’t meet the standards they were supposed to. But they only closed down our school. We felt so helpless, so sad, and angry. There was nothing we could do to change their minds.”

The Yo! Memphis suit names three defendants:  the school board, the school system, and interim superintendent Dan Ward.

A year after the closing, Wanda Rucker, Deven’s grandmother and legal guardian, still feels the academy was targeted and she cannot fathom the reason.

 “Whether or not the school met the federal guidelines or not, Yo! Academy should have been given the same opportunity as other city schools (that) have not met the standard for a lot longer than two years,” she said.

See  also ‘Life after Yo! Academy – two stories’