I am my brother's keeper: living and learning in North Tulsa

By Elise McGouran

My visitors' pass

“They say North Tulsa’s a great place to be from,” said Dr. John Lepine, the principal for Crossover Preparatory Academy, “But we want North Tulsa to be a great place to be.”  

The school is just one branch of Crossover Community Impact, an organization dedicated to the revival of the Hawthorne neighborhood in North Tulsa.

       

Crossover also has a housing development company, a health services center, after-school programs, a football team, and a church, all located in the neighborhood of 36th Street North and Peoria Ave.

       

During our interview, Dr. Lepine stated that Crossover’s aim is to take a “holistic approach to breaking the cycle of poverty in North Tulsa.”

“We could say, ‘oh, fixing education will fix all our problems’” Lepine said, “Or, ‘what we need is better access to healthy food’ or ‘if we could get better jobs’, but one of those things isn’t the issue. All of them are. Crossover recognized that.”

Dr. Lepine's 'office'

The school doesn’t have its own building yet, though the facility they’re in has rooms for the kid’s classes, lunch, chapel, and recreation activities.

“This is my real office,” he laughed, pointing to the cart he wheeled out of the small room he shares with the other administrative staff.

Aside from being the principal, Dr. Lepine is also the Latin teacher. “I’m a man of many hats.” He said.

I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Lepine’s Latin class for the day. It was all Greek to me, but I was impressed by how well the boys grasped the concepts he was teaching them. 

One boy translated a whole sentence, flawlessly, by himself. The whole room broke out in surprised joy, while the boy waved his arms around in celebration. “I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Lepine told him. 

However, class isn't all fun and games, and after the period ends and the lunch hour begins, Lepine stays behind with a few boys who were in need of correction. He pulls each of them aside and speaks to them, quiet but firm, about their behavior. He asks for their side of the story, gives them choices, and then calmly explains the consequences to them. 

"It's not just about the academics," Lepine said later, "it's about what kind of man they're going to be."

"Dr. Lepine, I need some help!"

Lepine spends the whole lunch period in meetings and prepping for whatever's next on the agenda, so one of his students brings Lepine's lunch to the classroom.

Mrs. Stocksen, the science teacher said, “I don’t know how he does it all! I just teach in the morning, but he’s here all day, every day, doing so much.” 

She sighed enviously, “He has so much energy.” 

During lunch, I was able to sit with a group of the students. “Latin is our hardest class - definitely,” said one of the boys, who wants to be a heart surgeon, as we ate our tacos, “But it’s really cool to - you know - learn another language and stuff. Even if it’s dead.” 

The school is just now finishing up its first semester, and Dr. Lepine is adamant about his plans for staying in North Tulsa. Saying, "I would love to send my son to the school one day.”

Dr. Lepine, his wife Katie, and their two children, Jack and June, live in the Hawthorne neighborhood. Their church is just 3 minutes away. They walk the trail going through the neighborhood every day. Lepine bikes to school, which is only 8 minutes away, and many of Lepine’s students live in the very same neighborhood. 

“You know,” he said, as our interview came to a close, “We didn’t create this school for black kids. We created it for North Tulsa kids. We created it for our kids.” Lepine smiled.

“My son is a North Tulsa kid, so this is where I want him to be."

Follow this link to watch my full interview with Dr. Lepine, where we discuss his decision to move to North Tulsa, the most challenging and encouraging aspects of starting a new school, and his dreams for the future:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mlxBhm2Igo&list=PLfpOy0hhxircE3S3rmPbMSHrIA20ZUWmV&index=1

Follow this link to watch Crossover Preparatory Academy's video about the school: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3ohhqbjowxz7mzp/CrossoverPrepAcademy.mov?dl=0

           Follow this link if you want to know more about the work Crossover is doing in North Tulsa:
http://crossoverimpact.org/