IMetro

A+ For Glazer

Detroit school emerges a scholastic
success story that bridges Jewish
and African American communities.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

B

ecause of low enrollment and
budget cutbacks, 49 Detroit
schools closed at the end of the
semester, including such well-known high
schools as Mackenzie, Murray-Wright,
Northern and Redford as well as Miller
Middle School. Several suburban schools
also closed
But Glazer Elementary School, called a
"hidden treasure" on Detroit's west side,
survived the most sweeping school-do-
sure crisis in Detroit's history. The school
will gain about 90 students in the fall.
Its pupils' hard work netted high corn-
petitive test scores — proudly posted in
the school's hallway — and a Skillman
Foundation grant of $100,000, the highest
award a Detroit elementary school can get
for improvement and level of performance.
What happened at Glazer is a scholastic
success story and a remarkable study in
Jewish and African American relations.
In 1967, the school was named in honor
of the late Rabbi B. Benedict Glazer, the
beloved and highly respected spiritual
leader of Temple Beth El, then located in

Detroit, for 11 years. He died of a cerebral
hemorrhage at age 49 in 1952. During
his tenure, Temple Beth El grew from 900
to 1,600 families, and Rabbi Glazer left
his mark in the community by helping
to improve relationships between Jews
and African Americans. He organized a
civil rights committee, pushed for fairer
employment and housing practices for
African Americans, and served on numer-
ous boards and committees.
The Glazer family and now Bloomfield
Township-based Temple Beth El have
perpetuated his memory through the
Glazer school, a clean, reddish brick and
aluminum building with brightly deco-
rated classrooms on Detroit's LaBelle
Street between Rosa Parks Boulevard and
14th Street in a neighborhood of narrow,
tree-lined streets and old, modest but
well-kept homes.
An open-enrollment K-5 school, Glazer
opened in '67 with about 800 pupils and
27 teachers.
Because of changing demographics and
Detroit school system cutbacks, there are
now 310 students — all but one African
American — and 18 teachers, including
Jewish teachers Michelle Swarin of West

Stephanie Glazer Ettelson of Highland Park, III., with her sister-in-law Mania and
brother Mark Glazer of Bloomfield Township.

16

July 5 . 2007

Elisha Turner, 8, of Detroit awaits the assembly.

Bloomfield and Stacey Tessler of Ann Arbor.
In the neighborhood, 93 percent of the
families qualify for free or reduced-price
lunches because their incomes are below
the poverty level. But Glazer enrollment
is thriving and will jump to 400 in the
fall, picking up pupils from nearby closed
schools.

Time To Cerebrate

To celebrate the Skillman grant, the 40th
anniversary of the school, fifth-grade
graduation and the retirement of Florene
McMurtry, the school's principal for 20
years, Glazer held a Class Award Day
convocation and reception with a packed
house and dignitaries from the mayor's
office and school board, legislative and
Focus HOPE representatives as well as
church leaders.
"The story of Glazer school is the story
of tradition, heritage and the future of
its students and teachers:' said Stephanie
Glazer Ettelson of Highland Park, Ill.,
Rabbi Glazer's daughter, who was 10 years
old when her father died. She attended the
event with her son, Bruce, and his wife,
Missy, of Chicago.
"Helping to take care of this school has
been a labor of love for the Glazer family
and Temple Beth El — something that's
been very important to all of us:' added
her brother, Mark Glazer of Bloomfield

Township, who was only 2 when his
father died.
"Detroit burned 40 years ago in the 1967
riots, but Glazer school rose like a phoenix
and still stands and is going strong',' the
Rev. Kenneth J. Flowers, pastor of Greater
New Mount Moriah Baptist Church, told the
enthusiastic gathering.
"Glazer is a gem of a school: added
Joyce Hayes-Giles, vice president of the
Detroit school board.
McMurtry described how Glazer stu-
dents beat both the state and district aver-
ages in reading, writing and language arts
and topped the district in math. Glazer's
math scores had slipped in 2003 and
2004, "but we never admitted we were a
failing school;' she said. "We knew we had
smart kids here, and we were determined
to do it:'
The aggressive McMurtry, battling
budget problems over the years, got UAW
employees from Chrysler "job banks" in
Trenton and Warren to do fix-up work
every year, including repairing toilets and
painting the gym. (Job banks consist of
temporarily laid-off auto workers who
do community service.) Ford and the
City of Dearborn donated landscaping
work, including creating a park next to
the school, performed by employee vol-
unteers.
"The Skillman grant is specifically ear-