One afternoon in May, 12-year-old Derrick Walker appeared outside R. Iola Brown's office, looking concerned.
Classes had ended for the day less than an hour earlier at Collingwood Park Seventh-Day Adventist School in Tinton Falls, but a few pupils, parents and Brown, who serves as both the school's principal and one of its two teachers, remained in the building. "I didn't see you in the whole school," Derrick said, a bit breathlessly. "I was looking for you."
After pointing out that all along she had been sitting right there in her office, Brown watched Derrick depart and shook her head. "One problem I have is that these children love me too much. Oh, my goodness," Brown said with a smile. "These children, I tell them, "You have to be weaned off of me.' " As problems go, that's not such a bad one for an educator to have.
With just 30 pupils split between two multigrade classrooms, Collingwood Park, one of the smallest schools in the state, functions much like a large family in which the children are all being home-schooled. The head of this family is the woman everyone calls "Dr. Brown." ~~Adz:Right~~
A native of Nevis, of the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, located between Jamaica and Trinidad, Brown came to the United States after graduating from the University of Trinidad in 1964. She earned a master's degree in education from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and earned her doctorate in education from Columbia University in New York City.
Following the example of her mother, who was instrumental in starting the first private school in Nevis, Brown founded four Adventist schools in Brooklyn and worked as a principal at another Adventist school there before accepting a position as principal-teacher at Collingwood Park in 1999. It was a daunting undertaking: At the time, the school, which was founded in 1956, had been closed for two years because of declining enrollment.
"When I came here there were no students, no teachers. There was nobody even to show me around," she recalled.
Brown reopened the school that first year with 12 pupils. "We just started growing," she said, "and I tried to do my best."
The private school, which shares space with the Collingwood Park Seventh-Day Adventist Church off Shark River Road, is one of eight Adventist schools in New Jersey and the only one in the Monmouth-Ocean counties area. It is accredited by the Middle States Association and has a reputation for high academic achievement. This year, pupils in grades six through eight scored in the 90th percentile nationwide on the Iowa standardized test of basic skills, Brown said.
In addition to the standard subjects, pupils study the Bible every day and are required to learn to play at least one musical instrument. Tuition is $2,700 per year. On top of her principal duties, Brown teaches grades five through eight. The school's other teacher, Esther Grey, teaches prekindergarten through fourth grade, and can't speak highly enough of the job Brown has done.
"She's just the best principal to work with, and I've worked with principals for many years," said Grey, who has been teaching for 30 years. Another veteran educator, Edna Hunter, who has a doctorate in education and extensive experience in the public schools, said she was initially skeptical about the quality of the academic program at Collingwood Park.
"But when I came in here and met Dr. Brown and saw what was happening, I realized this was no ordinary school," said Hunter, of Asbury Park, who now serves on the Collingwood Park school board. "It had something divine behind it."
Needless to say, then, that when Brown let it be known that she intended to retire after the 2005-06 school year, the news was not well received. At graduation, Mimose Simon, whose son, Gregor, was advancing to the seventh grade, pleaded with Brown to stay until Gregor graduated as an eighth-grader. Brown relented, and Simon couldn't be more pleased.
"I'm so happy she'll be with Gregor," said Simon, of the Forked River section of Lacey. That means the coming school year will be Brown's swan song — she'll be 70 next year — but she said there is still much more work for her to do.
For starters, the school is expanding this year, adding grades nine through 12. Brown will work with Judith Watiti, the new high school coordinator, to get the program up and running.
In addition, Collingwood Park is one-fifth of the way toward its goal of raising $100,000 for an addition to the building. One idea is to build a new sanctuary and convert the present one into a gymnasium. "My biggest dream for this school is to get a larger building," said Brown, who lives in a house on the church property.
At graduation June 2, Brown's affection for her pupils was obvious. She spoke about each child in the school, and praised the three eighth-grade graduates, including Simon's daughter, Sara, who was in the first grade during Brown's initial year at Collingwood Park.
Despite the small size of the graduating class, the ceremony lasted for more than two hours, ending after 10:30 p.m.
"I know you are tired," Brown, proudly surveying the children, said as it came to a close, "but I am very happy."
