At night, Sheila Esposito would sit in the union office in the heart of Middletown with the lights off, her eyes closed, and wonder if they could press on. "The adversity was so great," she recalled.

It was 2004 and the school board had just hired a permanent superintendent. They had already gone through three interim superintendents and were hoping to put a horrible past behind them.

The former superintendent was in jail, and the high school principal was in the process of being removed from his job. The high school was about to be ripped apart for reconstruction, dropouts were cresting over 25 percent and teacher morale was plummeting. The school district was devoid of trust and leadership. Teachers felt the new superintendent was issuing top-down edicts with little room for input, and many just wanted him gone.

About that time Esposito, a veteran special education teacher and the relatively new president of the Middletown Teachers Association, reached a point of inner reckoning.

No matter what, she decided, she would have to work with Superintendent Ken Eastwood for as long as he was there, whether it was another week or another decade. She began to seek common ground.

NYSUT's repeated message that called for building coalitions and establishing models of collaboration provided inspiration.

It was about then that the superintendent decided if he was going to make significant progress, he would need the collaboration Esposito was seeking.

His defining moment came at his first school board meeting in the summer of 2004. That June, the graduation rate was 58 percent. English language arts and math test scores were deplorable. Special education and English language learner scores were below standard.

The district's poverty index was rising (from 30 percent in 2003 to 71 percent today) as measured by the number of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches.

By 2005-06, Middletown was not meeting standards in 22 of 36 accountability areas and was listed as a District in Need of Improvement (DINI).

To say things have changed in Middletown would be a stunning understatement. In 2008-09 ELA scores rose 24 percent district-wide and nearly doubled (98 percent) for special education students when compared to 2005-06. Math results were up 31 percent across the district and were up 76 percent for students with limited English proficiency.

This year, Middletown is looking at a graduation rate of 78 percent. That comes on the heels of last year's 75 percent rate, a year when the percentages of black, Hispanic and free for reduced-price lunch recipients were more than double the figures in 2005. 

It would be easy to get starry-eyed over the apparent fairy tale turnaround of the Middletown Schools. It would be simple to call it a measured miracle, but there was no glamour here, and no magic bullet.

Hard work, foresight, an overhaul of administration and a sea of change in fiscal and academic approaches helped build a depth of collaboration that rarely had been seen in the district.

Middletown pulled together as a team to find that common ground Esposito so desperately wanted and Eastwood ultimately saw as essential.

Five years ago, the district instituted full-day kindergarten. Now, students as young as 6 are reading and writing by the time they enter first grade.

"They're reading and writing at levels well above what we could have imagined," said Lynann Day, a 28-year veteran of Middletown teaching. Teachers can now focus on more advanced literacy skills, working with literacy coaches assigned to each of the district's seven schools and who are seen as collaborative colleagues.

Literacy coach Nicole Schmitt said the reception has been inspiring. "It makes me feel good the staff wants to learn and bring it back to the students, she said. "The exchange of ideas alone has moved the district forward."

The emphasis on literacy was only one part of Middletown's push past failure. Existing programs were closely analyzed and were redesigned if needed.

Numerous other district initiatives also were implemented:

• Full-day pre-K for English language learners;
• Half-day universal pre-K for more than 200 additional students;
• Uninterrupted 90-minute learning blocks for language arts; 
• 60 minutes for math in all elementary classrooms;
• Extended Day Institutes and Summer Institutes for intervention in math and language arts for K-8 students;
• A significantly expanded ESL and bilingual program, which included the hiring of 14 more teachers;
• Literacy, as an additional core subject, taught daily in grades 6-9; and 
• A district-funded masters degree in literacy through Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh was established for a cohort of 23 teachers after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by both the union president and the superintendent. Teachers commit to remaining in the district for five years following the completion of their graduate degree program.

State Education Commissioner David Steiner and Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch have visited the district to laud its remarkable turnaround.

During a visit to Middletown in mid-April, NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira saw first-hand the value of making practitioners partners in the turnaround process. She noted the role of technology, professional development and leadership among teachers.

"What really makes a difference is how collegial the community really is," she said.

Union leadership was key in working with administrators to put teachers in the driver's seats of the curriculum overhaul.

Eastwood was eager to get the instructional staff working on the same curriculum. The district's scope and sequence was like an engine that was out of tune, he said. "The teachers are very high quality; they just needed to be part of an efficient and effective machine."

A $12 million technology initiative meant the eventual installation of Smart Boards in every classroom, the establishment of a bank of five computers in every classroom, microphone-based amplification systems (that allow teachers to move around classrooms, ensuring uniform volume), and technology hubs in all school media centers.

All of the initiatives are supported by three technology integration coaches and corresponding professional development.

To continue the new success in literacy, the Middletown Teacher Center, under the direction of Elizabeth Hluchan, has now established relationships with several colleges – including Mercy College, a move facilitated by NYSUT's Education & Learning Trust.

The program offers graduate work in bilingual education and teaching English as a second language.

That level of support is backed by a pro-active mentoring program that has been so successful it is expanding to a two-year program for new teachers. Robin Geiger, a veteran Middletown high school English teacher, is the full-time program coordinator who pairs teachers with mentors in one-on-one, content-area/grade-level partnerships.

The new teacher retention rate is impressive and stable. Last year there were 46 pairs with a 98 percent retention rate. This year Geiger is working with 36 mentor/intern pairs.

Middle-level science teacher Stephen Caldwell said teachers, as well as students, may be at risk because of the demands of working in a small-city school district.

A case in point is Lauren Croce, a second-year teacher of sixth-grade science. "Without the mentoring program, I am fairly certain I would not be here." she said. "I had my mentor to show me the way."

Teacher involvement also has led to programmatic changes, including kindergarten teacher Jimmy Moffett's dual-language English-Spanish lessons, a program she designed.

The district veteran opted for an alternative form of teacher evaluation during the previous school year. Its success led her to continue implementing her idea of a dual-language program for kindergarten students this year.

This led to a grant-funded dual-language program slated to formally begin in September. Two programs (one in each primary building) will place a 50-50 mix of English and Spanish students together in each class so students can learn both languages.

Student engagement has become a significant part of the district's success story.

An elementary and middle school strings program, eliminated 36 years ago, was restored and enrolls more than 400 third- through sixth-graders, with plans to expand it to high school students.

The high school, after a ninth period was negotiated by the union, is now able to offer more than 40 electives, including fashion design and apparel production, digital photography and a hands-on, computer-based engineering course for college credit.

Much of this has been achieved by a mindset Eastwood would call "counterintuitive."
When most everyone else would be cutting programs and resources, he added them, and found the financial resources to keep adding, particularly through grants.

Simple things like serving higher quality and more enticing foods (quality cold cuts, paninis, yogurt parfaits and chef salads) in school cafeterias has made for happier students. So did swapping out tables for booths (a la McDonald's) at the high school.

Construction of a state-of-the-art stadium at the high school didn't hurt either.

What is the thinking behind all of the upgrades and improvements? Provide students with the best, show them they are valued, have them become engaged and maintain the belief that all of these factors will make school the place they want to be.

"When the students walk in and say, 'Hey, this is Middletown High School? This looks pretty good,' that all helps us," says Allison Rabsey, high school special education teacher and department chair. She describes the comeback as a phenomenon that relied on many things, from student engagement to professional development to improved physical settings, along with good communication and a strong union that works well with administration.

Another critical piece to this success story involves the APPR and PDP committees that support district initiatives and state mandates. The committees, composed of a teacher majority, administrative representatives and other school personnel, are co-facilitated by the union president and administrator, Richard Del Moro, director of secondary education.

"We've worked hard toward establishing mutual respect and to have all of the stakeholders contribute equally," Esposito said. "When good and great things happen, our students and our teachers know they are not just successful, but they are valued."

Today, the district's successful rise to the challenge is displayed throughout every building where blue-and-white banners proclaiming "MIDDIES BEAT DINI" were hung once word came last summer that the district was off the list.

"We have accomplished a great deal through collaboration, the establishment of mutual respect, and a great deal of hard work," Esposito said. "Our members have proven they are truly dedicated professionals, and they are absolutely deserving of the positive accolades they have worked so hard to attain on behalf of their students."

Barbara Gref is a freelance writer from Middletown.