Businesswoman Chapter 108

John Martin Middle School, named after the first black United States Marine who happened to be a former slave from Delaware called Keto, struggled. Atkinson continued to tackle investments so Loreen and Lisa handled the private school situation.

Principal Marva Gallowsby looked both in their eyes. Her diminutive stature belied her commanding presence.

“Now, our seventh graders are doing better than our eighth graders but they are performing in a satisfactory way. We’ve got all the gadgets and tools and everything but they have not done well. We knew you two would be able to offer some assistance.”

“That we can do,” Loreen smiled.

“We’re going to ensure that you make the courses more vigorous,” Lisa chimed.

“More…they’re barely getting by as it is with pre-algebra….” Marva replied.

“That’s why you have to instruct your teachers to provide better lesson plans to the individual students,” Loreen added. “The more they feel engaged, the more this experiment in affordable private education will pay off soon,” she continued.

“We have had some successes with the classic literature in our classes,” Marva looked at them with a bit of cheeriness at this point. Loreen’s mind shot to the image of the missing sections in the library. She snapped out of it.

“What are the data on those literature numbers?”

“The average student had an A- on their last marking period in that class,” Marva responded, this time a bit of pride colored her voice.

“And the other courses?” Lisa asked.

“They’re fair to middling as well. You’d think privatizing schools would be the ticket. You say the coursework needs to be tougher. I agree now that you say it. I mean we have students taking advanced classes in physics and chemistry and they’re flourishing.”

Loretta smiled. “We can continue all of that today.”