Texas A & M University: Mitchell Center a "Success Story"
By Anita Miller - San Marcos Daily Record, News Editor

One of the components of a public-private, faith-based San Marcos initiative devoted to "creating positive opportunities for children and the community" has been selected as the "Success Story of the Month" for January by the Texas Engineering Experimental Station (TEES) of Texas A&M University.
"It's great news," said Kyev Tatum, president of the Mitchell Center. "We're humbled that an institution the size and depth of A&M University would see our program as a success story."

The Mitchell Center Before Renovation

The Mitchell Center began in 1993 with a vision. Where other people saw abandoned army barracks, the old wing of the "colored school" of San Marcos, in the middle of an impoverished neighborhood, Kyev Tatum dreamed of a vibrant community center with after-school programs including character-building and performing arts classes.

The Center began its mission in 1995 as a summer reading and writing program. Today the concept has grown into the San Marcos Preparatory System, which also includes the San Marcos Preparatory School (SMPS) -- which is the city's first and only charter school -- Toddlertown Preschool, World of Wisdom Seasoned Citizen Ministry, the San Marcos Prep Cadets Leadership Academy and the San Marcos Boys & Girls Club.

Tatum also serves as president of the SMPS and the Texas Hill Country Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and through its development the system has had the sponsorship both of the NAACP and the Christian Fellowship Union of San Marcos.

In short, it hasn't been an easy road. "We've developed the Mitchell Center on the layaway plan," Tatum explained. "We had to put it together piece by piece

It has received some funding from the San Marcos CISD, the city of San Marcos and the United Way, though those amounts have been reduced. Grants have also played a crucial role.. We never had proper funding -- we have been fighting for validation.

Tatum said the distinction came as a surprise, though TAMU has had an interest in the initiative for about eight years. "We didn't apply for it and we were not nominated," he said, adding that officials from that university visited SMPS shortly after it opened its doors in the fall of 2001. TAMU also assisted the initiative in security a Meadows Foundation grant in 1994.

He said the distinction "just says there are others outside (the community) that see what we're doing as very crucial to creating positive opportunities" for children and the larger milieu in which they live and develop as human beings.
Though the concept has come a long way since its inception, Tatum has his eyes on the future and predicts 2003 "being the year for the Mitchell Center and our programs."

"I will be spending a lot of time in Austin and (Washington) D.C. this year trying to get some of our elected officials to understand" the needs of local children, he said. On a more local level, he hopes that "city leaders, Southwest Texas State University, the San Marcos CISD and county officials will come out and be supportive of our program. It's a new, out-of-the-box program and there's not another one like it in the state of Texas."

The Mitchell Center After Renovation

High on his wish list is the possibility of building a state-of-the-art youth facility on the five acres the project owns adjacent to the Mitchell Center in the Dunbar neighborhood. "I want to turn that into a positive safe haven for kids and for community development."

Tatum has built quite a reputation in San Marcos, both for his involvement in the San Marcos Preparatory System.
"We need to focus on respecting the neighborhood. We need a Boys & Girls club for those kids who are out on the street," he said.

To those who accuse him of having a hidden agenda, Tatum said nothing could be further from the truth. "Dunbar is grossly underserved and is losing its heritage. There's no school in that neighborhood so subsequently my goal is to pull resources into that neighborhood, to make it be a vital community resource.

"Fair treatment and equal protection under the law -- for me that's a moral issue so subsequently we've devoted ourselves to drawing attention to this area. It doesn't have anything to do with color and it really doesn't have anything to do with stage in life, either economically or family-oriented. It has everything to do with loving and caring and sharing with people who are missing that in their lives."

He continued, "there are some who would want to make this a racial issue but it's not about race, it's about humanity. If it's racial it's about the human race -- to help the least of those in our community which in San Marcos is our children."

He pointed out that the charter school, which was chartered by the State Board of Education to serve up to 635 students in grades K-8 in Hays, Caldwell, Comal and Blanco counties, is now the fifth largest education institution in San Marcos, behind SWT, SMCISD, Gary Job Corps and the San Marcos Baptist Academy.
"It makes no sense for the city, county and school district not being in 100 percent collaboration."

For more information on the San Marcos Preparatory System contact the Mitchell Center at 512.805.3000.

Related story: http://ppri.tamu.edu/ccs/success_story/mitchell/mitchell.htm and for more information about the Mitchell Center click here .

Note!: Brother Kyev Tatum and the Mitchell Center will be featured at the Community Empowerment Summit, to be held in Detriot (8 -10, May 2003). Click here
to take advantage of an early registration discount!