“I come to work every day to do what I would probably do for free,” says Darold Hayes, Master Dean at Mastery Charter Schools in Camden. “I make the work of supporting children my business.”

Hayes speaks from experience, both negative and positive. Growing up first in the Bronx and then moving to Newark at age seven, he has always been surrounded by young people: through his church where he worked with the Youth Ministry teaching Bible stories, through his weekly visits with his nieces and nephews, through his career trajectory. “I spent a lot of time on the PATH train, ” he  said during an interview with New Jersey Education Report, “and a critical piece of my transition into adulthood was taking care of children.”

He is also critically aware of the importance of Black male educators. “Growing up,” he recounts, “I had two very pivotal Black male teachers who were role models for me. They instilled in me the understanding that part of success is not forgetting how you got here, not forgetting where you came from.” He adds,” no amount of money, no experience, could outweigh someone having so much invested in me. And I want to be sure any children I work with have just or good – or even better — an experience as I did.”

The best placement to achieve these goals, Hayes believes, is in a public charter school that shares his pedagogical approach.

But it took a while to get there. Hayes, after graduating Rutgers University with a degree in African Studies, first worked at the Bank of America in Newark where he took advantage of opportunities to volunteer with community organizations, enrolling in Youth Advocacy Leadership Trainings through the Children’s Defense Fund and volunteering as a coach in both Newark and New York City.

Then he took a job in Harlem working as a student support staffer at a public charter school network, coaching basketball, and participating in an alternative route training program. Yet he felt dissatisfied, particularly with the school’s approach to disciplining young boys of color, given the fact that almost all the teachers there were white women. “If a student had too many demerits, they’d be sent to me in a room that was cell-like, with little air, little light. As a young person excited to work with young people, my lens changed. I started understanding that our disciplinary practices were inequitable, that inequity was, in fact, built into the culture.” 

With his father ill, Hayes said, “it was time to move on, although I wasn’t sure about going to another education job.”

Yet an opportunity arose at Mastery Charter School in Camden, a high-performing hybrid district/charter network, to work as a Master Dean. After exploring the school’s disciplinary philosophy he realized Mastery “has a handle on restorative justice practices.” Hayes explains the network-wide system of family planning meetings, mandatory parent conferences, and community meetings, “the building blocks of a positive culture. All of a sudden the other Deans and I had the chance to really meet student needs instead of just quelling classroom disruption” and “really being advocates for students as well as teachers.” (From Mastery’s website: “ Our goal is to establish clear boundaries for behavior while building students’ personal effectiveness and reinforcing the value of relationships and the school community.”) 

Mastery accomplishes its goals through a flexible staffing model that, according to Hayes,  is often not employed at traditional public schools. In the 800-student Mastery high school where Hayes works, there are five Deans, with one assigned to school culture and another to multilingual learners. “Imagine the value you get from people who know their students really well,” he says. In Mastery’s Rebound Program, for example, created for students who have been exposed to violence and trauma, some with their own offenses, Deans provide social-emotional support and evidence-based interventions.

“As a Dean,” he explains, “I have a certain level of resources you wouldn’t find at other schools: a social worker to limit worst-case scenarios, someone trained to respond to trauma, security staff at the front door and during lunch. Our top priority is always safety, then outcomes, infused into our school culture.” (Students at Mastery’s Camden schools have  higher academic achievement rates than district schools.)  Deans, he says, “are mediating all the time. If students have home issues– maybe someone didn’t have enough money for electricity or clean clothing— we step in. We have a pulse on what is going on and an ability to create effective responses, which move and change depending on what our students need.”

Why is a public charter more suited to these wraparound solutions? “Charter schools have figured out that this at-risk population has so many needs. And at Mastery I have the authority to step in and make the call, not just send a student back to a class they just got kicked out of. Traditional schools could benefit from this approach.” 

When Hayes attended the Convening hosted by the Center for Black Education Development, courtesy of the Camden Education Fund, he found himself surrounded by like-minded colleagues who are passionate about the importance of Black male teachers. “The Black men in this space are unified in goals that are intrinsically embedded in me,” he says. “I know what a difference we can make.”