Counting the Hours, Polar Bears Ready to Welcome POTUS

Final arrangements being made to the stage before President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan speak at North High School.

Ordinarily the Monday after Homecoming at a high school smacks of anticlimax. Steps lack the bounce they had the previous Friday. But that’s not the case this year at North High School. Friday night the Polar Bears played host to Hoover, one of three DMPS high schools named in honor of past presidents. Today the Polar Bears will host the sitting President of the United States!

Far easier said than done!

It’s been known since mid-August that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan would visit North today as one stop on his annual Back to School Bus Tour. Secretary Duncan added North to his itinerary this year due to North’s well earned reputation as a turnaround school.

But in early September the White House put feelers out to North that the President might fly into town for the event. Last Tuesday it was officially announced that President Obama would join Secretary Duncan here at North, and work has been underway non-stop since to make a successful event.

From how the events looks to who is invited to security plans, a growing team of White House advance staff and Secret Service agents have been working with North and DMPS staff over the past week. The exact location and schedule had to be determined. Parking and bus routes had to be relocated. Event access had to be decided. After all, many more people would flock to see the president than North’s auditorium holds so ticketing priority was given to North juniors and seniors, not just because rank has its privileges but more so inasmuch as Mr. Obama is coming to discuss the issue of college access and affordability. Over the weekend the event was opened up to all DMPS juniors and seniors.

In many ways, the principal of a high school is like the captain of a ship, keeping everyone going in the same direction. North principal Mike Vukovich has been the go-to person behind almost every aspect of this event, working with the White House as well as his students and staff. Special thanks to everyone at North who have made the extra effort to make this event a success not only for the Polar Bear Nation but the entire Des Moines community.

Some North students will have the chance to play a “starring role.” For example, the White House requested that a student sing the National Anthem. North’s vocal music teacher Vanessa Brady selected senior Emily Brown for that honor.

Another Polar Bear senior, Russhaun Johnson, was just elected president of the North student body as part of Homecoming Week. Days later he’ll have the distinction of introducing the President of the United States!

Many school district offices have also been involved in supporting the event. The Communications staff has been coordinating media protocols with White House counterparts, providing graphics for the event, and assisting with tickets. Even billboards welcoming President Obama and Secretary Duncan were arranged to appear around town over the weekend including along Fleur Drive, the route their motorcade will take to North after Air Force One lands at the airport.

The Transportation office not only has rerouted bus routes, due to limited access at the school today, but also provided buses to be used to help cordon off areas around the building. The Operations team has assisted with a large number of issues, from helping with technology and security related arrangements to making sure the grounds and building look good.

With just a few hours to go until the event, final details were being completed. Advance staffers are busy taping reservation placards featuring the White House logo on seat backs in the North auditorium. Things are still calm in advance of the approaching storm of attention. Students are in class. For the moment it’s business as usual. But outside satellite antennae are rising from news media vans like periscopes from submarines. Lots of personnel in dark sunglasses mingle in the parking lot. In the auditorium, flags – big ones – backdrop the stage. Someone’s assigned to steam the wrinkles out of them.

Really, the president’s visit to North is almost the logical culmination of a sequence of events that began when the President’s Council on the Arts & the Humanities (PCAH) selected Findley Elementary as one of a group of pilot schools nationwide for its Turnaround Arts initiative in 2012. Turnaround Arts emphasizes integration of the arts throughout school curricula and it was so successful at Findley that the rest of the Northside feeder pattern (Cattell, Madison and Oak Park elementary schools along with Harding Middle School) were added to the cohort last year.

Over that same period of time North has been on a roll, too. The building has been renovated. Test scores and graduation rates are rising. The school has shot up the ranks of the Iowa AP Index. Every student now has an iPad at his or her disposal. Enrollment is on the rise as neighborhood kids who maybe would have open-enrolled elsewhere a few years ago decide to stay closer to home and get in on the mojo.

In that sense, Homecoming has an extra special meaning these days at North. Polar Bears are endangered in the wild but they’re advancing in Des Moines. Even POTUS is coming to town for a closer look.