Jay Martini, the founder of Rosa Parks Charter High School, formerly Rochester Off-Campus, says he will retire at the end of the year.
His departure represents an end of era for the school, its students and alumni. Since its founding in 1993-94, becoming Rochester's first charter school, Martini has served as the only administrator the school ever has known.
The school would become a school of last resort for many of its students, the last chance for graduation and a pathway to a better life. When the school opened 24 years ago, it served primarily gangbangers.
When asked what he will miss about the school, Martini paused for several seconds, visibly choked up, saying simply, "Everything."
Martini's position at the school was all encompassing. By founding a school, Martini, a social worker by trade, took on a job that rolled into one job the roles of a building principal, superintendent and social worker.
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Martini, 62, said the transition was long in planning, and his retirement date never was etched in stone. It was more about when the time was right, when the school's 14 teaching staff were prepared to take the reigns.
"As long as I'm there at school, my hand is still on the back of the seat," Martini said, comparing the transition to running alongside a bike and letting go for the first time. "When my hand is on the back of the seat, they're not really riding the bike."
Through the years, the mix of students would change, including students who were bullied, stoners, skaters and rednecks, the chemically dependent and the psychologically fragile. But the common denominator among them were students who had struggled in a traditional school environment or who had been rejected by their schools.
Martini's special skill has been in dealing with students and diagnosing their needs at that particular time. He often referred to his students as "numbnuts and punkins," and they called him "Jaymar." The school, Martini said, always was a joint enterprise and never would have succeeded without buy-in from students.
But Martini said another key to its endurance and success was understanding that charter schools need to be run like a business. That's something that not all charter school founders realize. And they pay the price. Rosa Parks was a $1.2 million business.
"If you don't understand that, it will die," Martini said. "That's why charter schools croak, because they go in with all this Hare Krishna, incense-burning (attitude). Dude, you're running a business. And you have to do all this other (stuff), too."
Martini's departure coincides with a time of transition for the school. A symptom of that change was its name change last year. Enrollment also has declined with time, going from a peak of 125 students to 70 students this year, as some students choose Rochester Public School's relatively new Alternative Learning Center. Rosa Parks also is looking for a new site, its current one being unaffordable, one official said.
Knowing charter schools often take on the personality of their founders and often struggle following their departure, Martini said the school put together a three-year plan to replace him. Instead of hiring of a Martini clone to replace him, the decision was made to parcel out his duties instead.
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Staff member Tracy Olson now is the social worker. A Twin Cities accounting firm will keep the books. And the entire 14-member staff will take on the principal duties under a new teacher-powered model that stresses collaboration among staff, with Laurie King serving as the program lead, Martini said.
Asked if he was anxious about how the school would fare without his guidance, Martini said he wasn't worried about the school's future.
"I don't worry about their part of it," Martini said. "What I want to come through clearly. And honest to goodness, I would not leave if I didn't think they had the skill to do it. If it works or doesn't work, that's up to them. But I'm leaving, going, 'They got this.'"
The school generally has suffered from low test scores. Several years ago, the state put the then-ROC on a kind of probationary status because of a graduation rate that fell short of state standards. A team was brought in to evaluate and determine whether new leadership was needed. But in the end, the school's work was vindicated with the evaluators concluding it was a "model that should be replicated" elsewhere, Martini said.
Many of its graduates would go on to become teachers and nurses, musicians and artists, carpenters and plumbers. When it first opened, it was housed in a converted small engine repair shop, once known as Alexander Auto Electric, where the current Nupa restaurant at the corner of Civic Center Drive and 11th Avenue Northwest is located. It later moved to its box-shaped locale at 2364 Valleyhigh Drive NW, Rochester.
Martini acknowledged he will be undergoing a transition himself. For years, Martini commuted the hour-and-half drive from the Twin Cities to Rochester — two hours on busy roads — leaving home at 4:30 a.m and returning home at 7 p.m. There was hardly a time during his tenure where he wasn't thinking about or working on school-related issues. That's why the decision to divide his duties among staff made so much sense.
"I have worried about that damn place for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year," he said. "You can put another person in my chair — and I'm not patting myself on the back — they're not going to care for it as much as me. But 14 people will."
