“It’s the Albany City School District, may I please speak with Chuck Miller?”

My cell phone rang.  Normally, I can tell who’s calling by the use of specific ring tones – for example, if it’s my daughter Cassaundra, my phone will play the intro from the Motown-esque Annie Golden hit “Hang Up the Phone” (although I have threatened to replace that with the intro to “Like a G6” just to get on Cassaundra’s nerves).  If it’s my Street Academy trivia teammate Dennis Truax, my phone will play the intro to “I Believe in Miracles” by Hi-Rise.  If the call isn’t someone I recognize, my phone will just have a generic ring ring ring to it.

I looked at the caller ID.  It’s an Albany phone number, but I didn’t recognize it from any prior calls.  It could be one of my doctors, it could be a store telling me something I ordered has finally arrived.

“Hello?”

“May I speak with Chuck Miller, please?”

“This is he.”

“Mr. Miller, my name is Fiona Thompson, I’m calling from the Albany City School District…”

Now those of you who have read my past blog entries, you know that the Albany City School District and I get along about as well as Charlie Sheen and CBS.   The School District shut down my high school in the summer of 2010; I think the words I used at that time involved suggesting that the School District officially had no soul.

But a couple of months ago, I was perusing the School District website and I came across this page.  The School District is looking for community volunteers.  They’re looking for tutors and mentors, study aides and inspirations.

And the words on the website “inspire students” caught my attention and wouldn’t let go.

And I thought – how callous of me for chastising the School District for its actions, while myself not stepping to the plate and doing something about the situation.  Street Academy / Harriet Gibbons High School may be closed forever, but that doesn’t mean that the message the school taught – knowledge, freedom, brotherhood – had to end with the school’s shuttering.  It can’t just be the name of a trivia team.  It has to stand for more than that.

With that in mind, I sent an e-mail to Fiona Thompson, the volunteer coordinator, and offered to volunteer as a speaker to troubled students and students in need, letting them know that they don’t have to give up their dreams and live an adult life in despair – that the future is still available and strong.  If I could get through to adulthood with all the trauma and trouble I survived, then so can they.  There is no barrier, no wall, no fortress that cannot be breached.  Success is on the other side of that wall.  There are a dozen ways to get there.  Find a way through.

And Ms. Thompson was calling me back right now.

Geez, I’m doing that expository thing again, maybe I should talk to her instead of blogging about all this.

We talked.  I explained what I went through and how my high school and the teachers and classmates helped me survive.  And now I want to share those survival skills with students who need some help.

Ms. Thompson suggested that I speak with the principals of the Abrookin Vo-Tec Center, Ms. Sophia Newell, and the principal of the Adult Learning Center, Mr. Anthony Clement.

Anthony Clement?  The last principal of Harriet Gibbons High School? Fantastic!!  I’ve got an ally in this project!

Next up would be a face-to-face meeting with each principal.

On Friday, March 4, I drove over to 27 Western Avenue, site of the Albany City School District’s Adult Learning Center.   The building looked worn and dilapidated, empty and forlorn.  I looked around.  Some workers from National Grid were inspecting the building.  They later informed me that although this WAS the location for the Adult Learning Center, the new location for the school was down the street, in the old Albany High building on the corner of Western and South Lake.

Grr.  I remembered that for about two years, this building was the home of my old high school after the School District moved Street Academy / Harriet Gibbons High School out of 165 Clinton Avenue in Arbor Hill, and before the school was relocated to the old Our Lady of Angels building on Sheridan Avenue.

Eventually I made it to the current location of the Adult Learning Center.  As I entered the building, I saw some school employees with hand-held metal detectors, checking each student as if each kid was going to board an airplane.  I filled out a visitor’s badge and went down the hall to Principal Anthony Clement’s office.

In the office, I met once again with Principal Clement’s assistant, Ms. Sue (she and the principal assisted on the “rescue raids”).  I told her that all the material we saved is now at the Albany Institute of History and Art, where it will be preserved forever.  She was happy to hear that.  I then spoke with Principal Clement.  We discussed the situation these kids were in, and how best I could help.

I know that it currently sounds like a hollow comment, but I need to give something back to the alternative education program that gave to me.  It’s an obligation.  It’s a duty.  It’s a responsibility.

And in the next few weeks, I hope it’s an obligation I can totally honor.