School Pride (2010) s01e07 Episode Script
Bring Back The Arts!
Tonight on School Pride Our mission to restore pride and achievement to America's schools takes us to a performing arts school with some big problems.
This school was made during the depression.
And it's very depressing.
It's almost like this school was put together with a garage sale of the junk from all the other schools.
We've got just seven days to fix up this schoo but big mistakes threaten to slow us down.
We drilled over 1,000 holes in the wrong place.
That's not good.
And not everyone wants our help.
Guys, guys, guys, we gotta stop the clock.
We have been rejected by the school district.
The l.
A.
U.
S.
D.
Has told us we can't do the work that this school needs.
We gotta make some noise.
Can we win the fight against the district and finish the school in time for the grand performance? Do it, do it! Four individuals from different walks of life have come together to help communities renovate their schools.
Are you ready? Susie castillo, designer and former miss U.
S.
A.
It's a proven fact that when children have a better learning environment, like what we're giving them, test scores skyrocket, and they get better grades.
Jacob soboroff, political journalist determined to find out why so many of our schools are on the brink of collapse.
I think that education in America's broken.
No teacher, or no student should feel like their school is a prison.
Kym whitley, comedian and former teacher.
If you can give a child a great beginning, they can become anything.
And me, Tom stroup, team leader and SWAT commander.
We're basically community organizers.
It's about going into a community, helping the community help themselves.
This week, we're going to the L.
A.
center for enriched studies in Los Angeles, California.
- Hi, I'm Annie.
- And I'm Zack.
And this is our school, Los Angeles center for enriched studies, otherwise known as "laces.
" Laces is supposed to focus on the performing arts, but the performing arts is in shambles.
Everything is disgusting and grimy.
It is so embarrassing to have performances here.
The walls, the paint is falling off.
Nothing works.
These chairs over here, it's ridiculous.
They're breaking.
Like, that's not okay.
So many things we could do here to improve.
Unfortunately, in general, performing arts isn't seen as valued as academics.
So laces, being a performing arts school has very little to no funding.
And everything that we do get is because of fundraising that the students and the parents do.
This is our jazz band, orchestra, beginning band room.
This classroom, the ceiling tiles fall.
This quad was once a place where there'd be jazz band performances, where there'd be events at lunchtime.
And now it's a place where a couple people eat lunch in the mud.
Both of us really want this quad to be back to the way it used to be.
It's time to get this thing cooking! I am truett Griffin.
I teach culinary arts.
These kids need the arts just as much as everything else.
They may be a brainiac with incredible grades and all the basics, but they still have that creative side.
They still need that option to pursue a career in theatre, a career in culinary arts, or dance.
It saddens me that these kids don't have better facilities.
It's sad.
I am so passionate about the arts, and about performing and singing.
And last year, I was going through a lot.
Um, and If it wasn't for the music that we had at this school, I'd probably be running the streets.
We would really like you to come to our school and really help us.
I mean, we have some amazing kids that do amazing things.
But we're still kids, so we can only do so much.
Hopefully this video has shown you how much we need your help.
So please come help our school.
Laces, here we come! We're going to Los Angeles center for enriched studies.
And it's worn out.
It's not inspiring; It's old.
And it needs to be re-energized.
The ironic part is it's a performing arts school and what is suffering the most in this school are the arts.
Having an arts school without a good auditorium is like having a reading class without books.
We are here, and we are ready to get started.
My goal this week is to help this community change itself.
If we work together, we can make things happen.
Oh, here they come! Here they come! - Whoo! - Come on down! This is not a fire.
We are the school pride team.
Where is Zack? Where's Annie? We got your tape, and we are here to help you renovate your school.
Would you like a school where you can learn and express yourself? But we need you guys.
Who can help us out? This is a seven day clock.
It is gonna start at seven, and when it ends on zero, you're gonna have a totally renovated school.
Are you ready? We're gonna count down from five, four, three, two, one! Start that clock! Oh, my God, I'm so excited.
My school's getting redone.
School pride, school pride Oh, my gosh, what an amazing day for laces.
It's the beginning of a whole new era for us.
Yes! Laces! All right, let's get to work! Go! If we can get the drums out.
I'm mark monarch.
I'm the music teacher here at the Los Angeles center for enriched studies.
To me, what makes laces great, from the beginning to the end, are the students.
I'm gonna have to use this music again, but I've been at this school for 22 years, and I've seen no maintenance on my room in 22 years.
So Zack, why was it important for you to send in the tape and for us to be here? It's really important to me that the music students get as much as they can All the resources and the room, and just everything they need to be able to play great music.
'Cause they play really well, and they try really hard, but sometimes you're limited by what you have.
You have Zack, who's a very talented pianist, very passionate about his music.
And he's absolutely being limited in what his potential is.
- you're awesome.
- Thank you.
- Dude, are you serious? - Yeah.
That's crazy.
I can't even imagine the type of music that these kids would be playing if they had the proper environment.
Let's go, let's get all these pots in these boxes.
This is exciting! Getting a new kitchen! Hi, Mr.
Griffin! Oh, my gosh, so great to see you.
Oh, my goodness.
Thank you so much for being here.
This is wonderful.
We're gonna just clear it out.
That's great, but, um Is that cake I smell? - I smell cake.
- Indeed, you do.
You do.
This is Gerald Ann, she is one of our chefs-to-be.
She's great.
She is so talented.
This is one of her creations.
This is a butter cake with a buttercream icing.
Oh, my good What do you need so that these students can keep making these cakes? This kitchen was built, you know, as a home economics kitchen with a whole different idea.
And now we're culinary arts.
It's all about the arts.
And bringing out the wonderful creative chefs-to-be that we have, and sending them to wonderful programs all over the country.
You know, the kitchen can really hold us back just as it is.
Here is an example of something.
It's a large sheet pan.
And we use these a lot in here.
And they fit in the commercial stoves.
Unfortunately, as you can see, they won't fit in the sinks.
So what happens Oh! So you can't wash them! No.
And so what happens, is the kids And they don't mean to but they tilt it, and then I end up with water all over the floor.
You know, it's been said that there are hundreds of pavarottis in this world that will never be discovered.
And I think that that is a very profound statement.
And if through my program I can inspire just one Julia child, that would be everything to me.
We got to renovate! How long you been going to school here? I've been going to school here since sixth grade.
- Sixth grade? - Mm-hmm.
And I make a very long commute.
And if I did not believe in this school and what we have here, you know, I would have stopped a long time ago.
How long does it take you to get here in the morning? - About two hours.
- Two hours? And then two hours to go back.
- No.
- Yep.
I get up at 4:45 just to be here by 7:30.
Amazing.
And you drive two hours - I take the bus.
- You take the bus? Two hours from here to get back home.
You been doing that for six years? That's four hours out of your day.
That is four hours You know, I just feel so comfortable here.
I don't think I'd be able to get this anywhere else.
Well, I'm gonna adopt the auditorium this week.
That's gonna be my project.
And I really wanna do it because I feel like that it's the heartbeat of this school.
And I really connected with Annie, and I think that it's real important to her, so I really want to make this happen.
The emphasis in this school is the arts.
They're gonna need some great spaces to be creative.
The school does not reflect the kids.
For a performing arts school, they should have the best so they can perform.
Arts are very important to children.
We have to have just not math, and reading, and science, we also have to have dance, and music, and singing, and cooking.
All those things.
All right, let's go through the list real quick.
I'm gonna do the auditorium.
Rebuild the stage, and replace the chairs, proper lighting, and a new sound system.
Whitley, you're gonna do the volunteers and culinary art department.
Make it a huge industrial kitchen.
- Service industry.
- That's right.
Okay, susie, overall design and the music center.
- Yes.
- Okay.
I would love to give Mr.
monarch a music department that is just state-of-the-art.
You're also gonna do the quad area which is a gathering area for all the students.
That's gonna be the centerpiece for this school.
Might as well give them something inspirational there.
- Absolutely.
- All right, let's wrap this up.
Let's get to work.
Guys! Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys.
We gotta stop the clock.
We gotta stop the clock.
We gotta stop the clock.
We can't stop the clock, what are you talking about? Stop, stop, stop.
What are you talking about? We have been rejected by the school district.
The l.
A.
U.
S.
D.
Has told us we can't do the work at laces.
I just got a letter from the superintendent of the school district.
"Dear Mr.
soboroff, "I'm writing to thank you for reaching out "to the Los Angeles unified school district "and inviting our participation in school pride.
But I must decline your invitation " Let me see this.
I have heard things like this but I have never been a part of it.
I cannot believe when someone is trying to help you help yourselves that you say no.
Because of some red tape.
Man, we gotta reach out to some people.
We gotta You know what we gotta do? We gotta make some noise.
That's what we have to do.
Let's make some noise.
Tom.
Yeah, go ahead, Jacob.
Listen to this email I just got.
The district has agreed to do the project.
The public pressure built to a level where the school district realized this is something that the school really wants, the teachers really want, the parents and administrators, they really want.
They let us come in.
That's great news.
Start that clock and let's get back to work.
We're back in business, baby.
Clock is started.
Hey, kids.
How you doing? - Good.
- Good.
When Jacob got the call that we could start work again, it was a big relief.
Get the volunteers, let's get the paint out, let's get the plans, let's get the designs.
And let's do it.
Hi! Hi! Hi, how are you? Oh, my gosh.
I'm good, whitley.
Whitley, I'm Mitch.
On behalf of belfor, we're really excited to come here and help you and help the kids.
My room is the culinary arts room.
Okay.
So would you like to come see it? - I'd love to go see that.
- Okay, come on, Mitch.
I'm so glad you're here.
Thank you.
Oh, you're welcome.
The quad is a gathering ground.
So I wanna give these kids a proper place to socialize, to do their homework, to hang out after school.
That's probably good, susie.
- That's good? - Think we got it.
Perfect.
Okay.
I think an improved campus setting for these kids will just boost their morale.
They're gonna be so excited to not just come to school, but to stay here after school.
Kids are gonna be blown away.
Yeah.
- This is great.
- Oh, yeah.
- Dr.
Kim.
- Oh, hi.
How are you? We got the permits.
There was a lot of red tape.
But I wanna talk to the principal and see if she understands why the superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district wouldn't want our help.
What's going on, do you think? Maybe the superintendent was not given the correct information.
Maybe he didn't understand the scope of the project.
The fact that his office is so removed from the school site, I think that's probably why there was this lack of understanding as to how much help this would be for the school.
So how does that make you feel? Frustrated.
But Los Angeles unified school district is the second-largest school district in the U.
S.
- In the whole country.
- In the whole country.
And that's where the problem is.
I think the size is just a tremendous challenge.
Luckily, we have great parents who are supporting in many other ways.
I have noticed.
Walking down the hallways here it says, "art supplies, donated by the parents group.
" "Sports equipment, donated by the parents group.
" The reason for that, we have just basic funding from both state and the district.
It provides the minimum.
And if we wanna do anything enrichment or supplemental, you know, we really have to rely on our parents.
My goal this week is to find out why the L.
A.
school district didn't want us to help make major improvements at laces.
If you're having so many problems with the budget, why not accept the free help for us to come in and do over the school? Oh, here's the paint section over here.
This school has not been painted in, like, 20-something years.
So we need, like, 10 million gallons of paint.
Come on, let's go.
Get in there, lily.
This is for your classrooms, now.
Okay, maybe not that much, but we need a lot of paint.
- Hi.
- Hi, welcome to home depot.
Thank you.
I'm whitley.
I'm from school pride.
- Hi.
- And we picked out some paint.
This I is the paint for their school.
And you guys picked the paint and primer in one? This will save you time and money.
We want 2,400 gallons.
Can y'all do that? Yeah, we gonna try, we gonna try.
Beautiful.
All right.
Unh! - All right.
- Let's get to it.
Come on, y'all.
So what do you think of all the progress? I like it.
I'm super excited.
I mean, when I was here pulling out all the chairs, I, like, was so excited.
To know that things are finally happening is amazing.
I think a lot of us were super excited with what was going on that it almost didn't feel like we were working.
I really love this school.
I mean, this is some people's safe haven.
This stage, this is their freedom of expression.
And I know this is definitely mine.
Can I ask you a favor? Can you spearhead some sort of performance for the very last day that we're here on that brand-new stage? Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, definitely.
With the help of, like, the singers, and the musicians, and the dancers that we have here I'd love to.
I definitely think that the students here can pull this off.
I mean, we've always had the talent.
And now, with the space provided, we are definitely gonna come and kill the performance.
Let's keep going.
We got 179 more to go.
After talking with Dr.
Kim, I wanna talk to the superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district, ramon cortines, to find out why the school district wouldn't take help.
Mr.
superintendent, it's no secret that the l.
A.
U.
S.
D.
'S a big district.
There are some great schools, there are some not so great schools.
There are some fantastic facilities, there are some not so fantastic facilities.
How important are school facilities to academic achievement? They are extremely important.
I don't believe students are motivated to learn, or to explore books, or to sit down at the computer, if it is not an environment that is inviting.
Right now, renovation and modernization is not going on It's on hold until the economy turns around.
And I believe that will be three to four years that money will not be available.
What you're saying is it will be three to four years before this district can even spend any money on renovating or modernizing schools.
- That's right.
- So just to clarify, why did we have such a hard time getting the permits to do this project? I wanna talk to the superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district, ramon cortines, to find out why the school district wouldn't take help.
Mr.
superintendent, why did we have such a hard time getting the permits to do this project? Let's talk very frankly.
You had a hard time helping us.
The skeptics that surround me, for various reasons, did not feel we should go with the project.
I don't think that systems, such as the one I run, have always been wise, have been honest, have been transparent, have had integrity.
People are looking out for their own good instead of for the good of the kids.
Oh, yes.
Then we made the right decision in behalf of our school community.
Now I just wanna ask you one more question.
If we call you again, you wanna work together? - Yes.
- It's a deal.
I have 800 others.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
It's day four.
It's total chaos out there.
Everything's pulled out, very few things are put back.
The time line's crunched, and I keep watching that big clock behind me, and there's a lot of work to be done.
Thanks for going with me, whitley.
- Got it.
- Volunteers are waiting on this paint.
Let's get it to them.
Apparently it locked itself.
What happened? Where are the keys? What the key The door's locked? Tom and I had to go pick up some extra paint.
When we come back, Tom jumps out to get the paint and locks the keys in the car.
You should not don't panic.
I got this.
Watch this.
Okay, all right.
Watch this.
Calling onstar.
No, you're not.
Hi, yes, this is Kim whitley with school pride.
And Tom stroup.
Tom locked the keys in the car.
Okay, thank you.
He's gonna send a signal through the vehicle.
Okay.
- Thank you, I'm on hold, sir.
- Let's see if it'll happen.
I just heard it.
Onstar! You gotta go! There you go, Tom.
Right, keep going.
And that's what the horns will do.
Yeah.
That sounds so cool.
So the horns will just do these punches, right? I hit the wrong chord there.
Mr.
monarch's definitely one of my favorite teachers.
He's just a person full of enthusiasm, and he really cares about all his students.
I feel very fortunate to be able to teach music to kids.
Everybody has music in their life.
Everybody has art in their life.
It's part of what makes us human.
Wait till the kids come and see what the new auditorium looks like.
It's gonna blow their minds.
The music, and the choir, and the singers and dancers I think we're all gonna be floored by it.
The fact that this will be the first performance in our new auditorium, it's kind of high stakes for us.
We do have, certainly, some nervousness.
We want it to be the best it possibly can be.
Hey! Come on, you guys, this is We got still more work to do.
This is gonna be the best room.
This is gonna be the best place in the whole school.
The culinary arts room is coming together marvelously.
This is gonna be a functional kitchen in about25 hours.
Oh, is this the sink? This is a nice big one too.
I can fit in this.
You putting the I'm gonna put you to work.
Hold Hold up, now.
You you went too far.
I'm not a worker.
I'm a lover.
This is my mask.
Okay, I'm gonna put it right there, right? - Right.
- Okay.
There you go.
You got it.
Oh.
I broke the sink! Hold on! It's oh, my God! Drilling those holes, I had a hard time.
Hold it steady.
Oh! Oh, my goodness.
I did a hole for the sink.
Look at this, is that not fantastic? I did the faucet.
I want everybody to know I did the faucet.
Annie takes a bus for four hours a day.
Five days a week, 20 hours a week on the bus for the last six years.
Just to come to this school.
I said, "you know what, I wanna experience that.
" So you say your dad, he's a performer? He's a singer, and he's an amazing songwriter.
My parents split up when I was about two.
Me and my dad didn't have a really good relationship.
We weren't very close.
My dad hasn't been to my performances here at school.
What influences has he had on your abilities? Everybody on my dad's side of the family is musicians.
They all sing, they're all performers.
I think I got my natural talents probably from him.
- I'd like to meet him.
- Yeah? Annie's telling me about her relationship with her father.
It's not a good relationship.
So I'm gonna go visit her father.
Annie's telling me about her relationship with her father.
It's not a good relationship.
So I'm gonna go visit her father.
- How can I help you? - I'm Tom stroup.
Annie's father has never seen her perform at laces.
And that's what I wanna make happen.
You mind if we talk for a minute? - Sure, have a seat.
- Okay, thanks.
I've been talking to your daughter quite a bit this whole week.
And you know, she's really talented.
So I asked her, I said, you know, "where'd you get your influence from?" And I don't know whether you know this or not, but she said that she feels like she got all of her musical influence from you.
That makes me feel really good.
You know, mom and I are not together.
So sometimes I'm just not around.
I've missed birthdays, I've missed anniversaries.
Is there anything that you maybe wanna tell her that she might not know? I just wanna let her know that I'm super proud of her.
You know, she's such a smart gal, you know, so beautiful.
I mean, the fact that she turned out as good as she did, a lot of it had to do with the fact that she was around good people.
Hence, the school.
Hence, the arts.
At the school, you know what she's doing now, right? Annie is orchestrating the first performance on the new stage at the school.
Really? So the performance is coming up, and I'd really like for you to be there.
Can you be there? I think she would love to see you in the front row.
I missed out on all those daddy years, you know.
Like, I didn't change enough diapers or anything like that.
All I can do now is just be there for her as much as I can now, you know? It's like, that's all I can do.
- Susie.
- Yes? What is going on with the music room? We have all kinds of fun stuff going in there.
All state-of-the-art, brand-new stuff.
We have six flat screen tvs, hd DVD camcorders, - brand-new music stands - It sounds a little pricey.
Oh, don't worry.
I got it covered.
Oh, my God.
Mr.
monarch just wanted a clean room.
That's all he wanted.
And not only have we given him that, but Walmart came through in a huge way.
Flat screen televisions, and hd camcorders Those kids are gonna be psyched when they see all this equipment in the music room.
Last one.
When we came to laces, the arts were suffering.
So we needed to make sure we took the music room, the culinary arts room the auditorium These are places where these kids just thrive.
Keep up the good work! Not only are we renovating the school, but the kids are gonna give us a show at the end of the renovation.
So they're rehearsing all week.
Here's your starting note.
hold on, do you know the lyrics? No, I know the lyrics, I just don't know that one note.
But we wanna make sure, once again, that it sounds like we're really sure of exactly what we're doing.
You know, you start off really strong, and then we have that one little glitch there.
So let's fix that.
Rehearsals for our performance have been stressful, and we still have a lot more we need to do.
To know that we're gonna have an auditorium worth performing in, we definitely know we need to step it up.
Two, three.
hold.
What we need to keep as a band is we need to keep focus during the solo section.
Staying focused right here on Annie and Zack.
The reveal is in two days.
And I'm really nervous because we don't have it all together yet.
What are we doing right there? Hold.
What are we doing? It's kinda hard to get an entire piece together in a couple days.
I don't know if we'll pull it together.
You gotta give us that big downbeat, right? Boom.
One more time.
Put her down.
The kids are all rehearsing, so now we are gonna have to show, as the parents, as the community, and the volunteers, that we can pick up the slack.
We need every person that we can get.
And we have to install 603 chairs.
They're not pre-assembled.
They have to be bolted to the floor.
I need a chair expert.
In comes Charles.
He's from grand rapids, Michigan, and he's volunteering his time just to be here.
Doesn't work.
Oh, no.
It's not fitting.
I literally I fell out.
It was a heartbreak that I made a mistake.
What's going on? We laid out and drilled the whole auditorium so that when the chairs arrived, we could just put a bunch of people 2,000 holes.
Okay, I'm with you so far.
The manufacturer sent us a template for a movie theater chair instead of the school chair.
So one of those holes on each foot is incorrect.
We're gonna have to re-drill 1,000 holes.
We drilled over 1,000 holes in the wrong place.
That's not good.
Are you okay? Oh, yeah.
What's the matter? Just Don't like screwing up.
For Charles to get that emotional about it, he must really, really be committed to this work.
And you know what, that's the kind of passion that I was hoping we'd get at this school.
I appreciate the emotion.
It shows your heart's in it.
And you know what, this is probably close to 100 years old.
We're gonna make it good for the next 100 years.
And you can take pride in that.
- You got it.
- All right? That's what it's all about.
Thanks a lot, buddy.
Really appreciate it.
You're doing a great job.
Let's get to work.
If these holes aren't drilled, the seats don't go in and the performance doesn't happen.
I don't know how long it's gonna take, but we have to get it done.
We have no choice.
Vacuum man.
All right.
You alternate sizes so that your sightline Now that person is looking over the crack.
Charles is doing his part, the volunteers are doing their part.
We will be burning the midnight oil tonight, there's no way around it.
This is a big project.
And I'm very concerned that this auditorium is not gonna get done in time.
Way to go, big man.
Charles, we're gonna do it, buddy.
It's day seven.
The auditorium's coming along.
We got an assembly line, everybody's doing their job, and it's gonna happen.
Now this is first-class.
Well, school pride team, we've done it again.
We're down to the last minutes here.
I'm psyched that we got it all done! My favorite moment.
Auditorium.
A lot of glitches, big project, done totally by volunteers.
Whoo! Another successful mission.
Couldn't believe it.
Guys - Ten - Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! This is the culmination of all of the hard work we have put forward up to this point.
Now it's time to turn the school back to the teachers, back to the students, back to the community.
Come on, there you go! The fact that we got to do it ourselves, and help our own school, gives everyone the sense of personal belonging and respect.
Welcome back, laces.
Welcome back.
Seven days ago, we came together and we decided we, the community, could renovate and make over this school.
And you did it.
Yes, yes! Zack and Annie, this journey began with you two.
And I think it's only fitting that you cut the ribbon.
To know that me and Zack started this whole process is unreal.
For us to actually be heard was amazing.
The credit shouldn't just go to us.
It should go to all the students that actually came here and lent a helping hand.
Three, two, one! - Whoa! - Oh, my gosh! Whoa! Welcome to your new music room! Unbelievable! It's a really good feeling to see the look on their faces.
They're just so happy, and they can't believe it.
We walk into the music room, and it's breathtaking.
All the instruments, the mural on the wall.
Oh, my God, it was beautiful.
It looks like a place where music is made.
- I have to tell you - Yeah? Everything you see here we got at Walmart and Walmart.
Com.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
They are responsible for all the televisions Well.
Look at your recording studio.
Check out your recording studio.
There's a recording studio too? Wow! Unbelievable.
This is where we'll do our work! My heart is like it's, like, beating so fast, man.
This is what we can do.
This is it.
My room went from zero to hero.
I'm just blown away by it.
It's just fantastic.
It's become the most wonderful space on campus.
Oh, you wonderful girl.
You wonderful bass player.
Thank you so much.
Oh, for what? All I did was unlock the door, you did everything.
This means so much, 'cause it's, like, he's just such a good teacher.
And all his hard work meant something, you know.
Come on, Ceci, let's see more of this school, right? If you think you're crying now, this is really gonna make you cry.
Wait till we see how wonderful everything else is.
Welcome to the microsoft culinary arts institute.
This is unbel Come and see! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! It is just incredible.
It is so exciting.
The floor is beautiful, the cabinets are beautiful.
It is just so gorgeous.
It's just perfection.
Wow! This is so amazing! It's very exciting for me because I know now that I have the tools and the facility that is going to give me the opportunity to teach these students so much more about the world of culinary arts and hospitality.
Then we go to bing.
Com, and we will find a recipe.
I wanna look up, mm Spaghetti.
Okay.
So what do we have in the spaghetti recipe here? Salt, olive oil, garlic, anchovies in oil, and pimento stuffed olives.
- Wow.
- It's a great room.
It's beautiful, and I'm so appreciative to whitley.
- Aw! - Oh, my gosh.
Guys, take a look at your new quad.
- Oh, my God! - Oh, my gosh! Oh, my God! It's so pretty.
Aw! Oh, my God, it's so nice.
The quad is such a wonderful place, the musicians wanna bring their instruments out there and play.
What a wonderful setting to make music.
I mean, I get to eat lunch right there and say, "look, that's my flower.
"I planted that one.
This is my stream.
This is my school.
" We have been waiting for a long time to finally have an auditorium that we're proud of.
We can't wait to perform in it.
- What is this? - There's a statue.
What? Like, what just happened here? It's amazing.
I know.
Welcome to your brand-new auditorium.
This is insane.
Yes, come on down.
Annie! Come on, welcome to your brand-new auditorium.
This is insane.
It choked me up a little bit to walk in there because I've been in there for so long and I'll still be in there for two more years, and I can't even believe the changes that have happened in there.
Wow.
It's amazing.
Oh, my God.
And they're comfortable.
It's like a real auditorium.
Look at the new stage, new lights, new sound system.
We went from an old, broken-down facility to now a place that everyone will feel like they're a part of something new.
It's for them.
It's for them.
It's their house now.
They will have a goal, to say, "I wanna be on that stage in that room, "and I wanna do the best I can.
"And share my gift of music, and art, and performance with the world.
" Without further ado, I think we need to turn it over to the real stars of tonight, the students from Los Angeles center for enriched studies.
Let's give it up for them.
All right.
It's been a long week.
And now this is the big hoorah.
This is the big congrats to everybody.
And I can't wait to see it.
We wanna perform in honor of our new auditorium, and you know, to thank all the volunteers, the teachers, the parents.
Without them, this all would not have been possible.
I think about their tomorrows.
What they will do with this new school.
One, two, three, four.
I love it, I love it.
Hey! Get down.
- Do it, do it, do it! - Yeah! For me, what I'm walking away with, with this, is a knowledge of how much people actually care.
Just knowing that, if you ask people to help, they'll help you.
Whoo! To me, this whole experience has almost been unreal.
I learned a lot about myself and I would've never thought that coming out to help my school would've ever brought me and my dad closer together.
Aw! And in some way it has.
And I'm really grateful for that.
The message in all of this is that every kid in America has the power to change the school they love and to make it a better environment.
Zack did it.
Annie did it.
And anybody else can do it.
Because of the environment, because it has improved so much, I'm confident that every single student's grade would've risen at least one level.
If they were getting a "b", I'm sure that they're getting an a-plus at this point.
This school was made during the depression.
And it's very depressing.
It's almost like this school was put together with a garage sale of the junk from all the other schools.
We've got just seven days to fix up this schoo but big mistakes threaten to slow us down.
We drilled over 1,000 holes in the wrong place.
That's not good.
And not everyone wants our help.
Guys, guys, guys, we gotta stop the clock.
We have been rejected by the school district.
The l.
A.
U.
S.
D.
Has told us we can't do the work that this school needs.
We gotta make some noise.
Can we win the fight against the district and finish the school in time for the grand performance? Do it, do it! Four individuals from different walks of life have come together to help communities renovate their schools.
Are you ready? Susie castillo, designer and former miss U.
S.
A.
It's a proven fact that when children have a better learning environment, like what we're giving them, test scores skyrocket, and they get better grades.
Jacob soboroff, political journalist determined to find out why so many of our schools are on the brink of collapse.
I think that education in America's broken.
No teacher, or no student should feel like their school is a prison.
Kym whitley, comedian and former teacher.
If you can give a child a great beginning, they can become anything.
And me, Tom stroup, team leader and SWAT commander.
We're basically community organizers.
It's about going into a community, helping the community help themselves.
This week, we're going to the L.
A.
center for enriched studies in Los Angeles, California.
- Hi, I'm Annie.
- And I'm Zack.
And this is our school, Los Angeles center for enriched studies, otherwise known as "laces.
" Laces is supposed to focus on the performing arts, but the performing arts is in shambles.
Everything is disgusting and grimy.
It is so embarrassing to have performances here.
The walls, the paint is falling off.
Nothing works.
These chairs over here, it's ridiculous.
They're breaking.
Like, that's not okay.
So many things we could do here to improve.
Unfortunately, in general, performing arts isn't seen as valued as academics.
So laces, being a performing arts school has very little to no funding.
And everything that we do get is because of fundraising that the students and the parents do.
This is our jazz band, orchestra, beginning band room.
This classroom, the ceiling tiles fall.
This quad was once a place where there'd be jazz band performances, where there'd be events at lunchtime.
And now it's a place where a couple people eat lunch in the mud.
Both of us really want this quad to be back to the way it used to be.
It's time to get this thing cooking! I am truett Griffin.
I teach culinary arts.
These kids need the arts just as much as everything else.
They may be a brainiac with incredible grades and all the basics, but they still have that creative side.
They still need that option to pursue a career in theatre, a career in culinary arts, or dance.
It saddens me that these kids don't have better facilities.
It's sad.
I am so passionate about the arts, and about performing and singing.
And last year, I was going through a lot.
Um, and If it wasn't for the music that we had at this school, I'd probably be running the streets.
We would really like you to come to our school and really help us.
I mean, we have some amazing kids that do amazing things.
But we're still kids, so we can only do so much.
Hopefully this video has shown you how much we need your help.
So please come help our school.
Laces, here we come! We're going to Los Angeles center for enriched studies.
And it's worn out.
It's not inspiring; It's old.
And it needs to be re-energized.
The ironic part is it's a performing arts school and what is suffering the most in this school are the arts.
Having an arts school without a good auditorium is like having a reading class without books.
We are here, and we are ready to get started.
My goal this week is to help this community change itself.
If we work together, we can make things happen.
Oh, here they come! Here they come! - Whoo! - Come on down! This is not a fire.
We are the school pride team.
Where is Zack? Where's Annie? We got your tape, and we are here to help you renovate your school.
Would you like a school where you can learn and express yourself? But we need you guys.
Who can help us out? This is a seven day clock.
It is gonna start at seven, and when it ends on zero, you're gonna have a totally renovated school.
Are you ready? We're gonna count down from five, four, three, two, one! Start that clock! Oh, my God, I'm so excited.
My school's getting redone.
School pride, school pride Oh, my gosh, what an amazing day for laces.
It's the beginning of a whole new era for us.
Yes! Laces! All right, let's get to work! Go! If we can get the drums out.
I'm mark monarch.
I'm the music teacher here at the Los Angeles center for enriched studies.
To me, what makes laces great, from the beginning to the end, are the students.
I'm gonna have to use this music again, but I've been at this school for 22 years, and I've seen no maintenance on my room in 22 years.
So Zack, why was it important for you to send in the tape and for us to be here? It's really important to me that the music students get as much as they can All the resources and the room, and just everything they need to be able to play great music.
'Cause they play really well, and they try really hard, but sometimes you're limited by what you have.
You have Zack, who's a very talented pianist, very passionate about his music.
And he's absolutely being limited in what his potential is.
- you're awesome.
- Thank you.
- Dude, are you serious? - Yeah.
That's crazy.
I can't even imagine the type of music that these kids would be playing if they had the proper environment.
Let's go, let's get all these pots in these boxes.
This is exciting! Getting a new kitchen! Hi, Mr.
Griffin! Oh, my gosh, so great to see you.
Oh, my goodness.
Thank you so much for being here.
This is wonderful.
We're gonna just clear it out.
That's great, but, um Is that cake I smell? - I smell cake.
- Indeed, you do.
You do.
This is Gerald Ann, she is one of our chefs-to-be.
She's great.
She is so talented.
This is one of her creations.
This is a butter cake with a buttercream icing.
Oh, my good What do you need so that these students can keep making these cakes? This kitchen was built, you know, as a home economics kitchen with a whole different idea.
And now we're culinary arts.
It's all about the arts.
And bringing out the wonderful creative chefs-to-be that we have, and sending them to wonderful programs all over the country.
You know, the kitchen can really hold us back just as it is.
Here is an example of something.
It's a large sheet pan.
And we use these a lot in here.
And they fit in the commercial stoves.
Unfortunately, as you can see, they won't fit in the sinks.
So what happens Oh! So you can't wash them! No.
And so what happens, is the kids And they don't mean to but they tilt it, and then I end up with water all over the floor.
You know, it's been said that there are hundreds of pavarottis in this world that will never be discovered.
And I think that that is a very profound statement.
And if through my program I can inspire just one Julia child, that would be everything to me.
We got to renovate! How long you been going to school here? I've been going to school here since sixth grade.
- Sixth grade? - Mm-hmm.
And I make a very long commute.
And if I did not believe in this school and what we have here, you know, I would have stopped a long time ago.
How long does it take you to get here in the morning? - About two hours.
- Two hours? And then two hours to go back.
- No.
- Yep.
I get up at 4:45 just to be here by 7:30.
Amazing.
And you drive two hours - I take the bus.
- You take the bus? Two hours from here to get back home.
You been doing that for six years? That's four hours out of your day.
That is four hours You know, I just feel so comfortable here.
I don't think I'd be able to get this anywhere else.
Well, I'm gonna adopt the auditorium this week.
That's gonna be my project.
And I really wanna do it because I feel like that it's the heartbeat of this school.
And I really connected with Annie, and I think that it's real important to her, so I really want to make this happen.
The emphasis in this school is the arts.
They're gonna need some great spaces to be creative.
The school does not reflect the kids.
For a performing arts school, they should have the best so they can perform.
Arts are very important to children.
We have to have just not math, and reading, and science, we also have to have dance, and music, and singing, and cooking.
All those things.
All right, let's go through the list real quick.
I'm gonna do the auditorium.
Rebuild the stage, and replace the chairs, proper lighting, and a new sound system.
Whitley, you're gonna do the volunteers and culinary art department.
Make it a huge industrial kitchen.
- Service industry.
- That's right.
Okay, susie, overall design and the music center.
- Yes.
- Okay.
I would love to give Mr.
monarch a music department that is just state-of-the-art.
You're also gonna do the quad area which is a gathering area for all the students.
That's gonna be the centerpiece for this school.
Might as well give them something inspirational there.
- Absolutely.
- All right, let's wrap this up.
Let's get to work.
Guys! Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys.
We gotta stop the clock.
We gotta stop the clock.
We gotta stop the clock.
We can't stop the clock, what are you talking about? Stop, stop, stop.
What are you talking about? We have been rejected by the school district.
The l.
A.
U.
S.
D.
Has told us we can't do the work at laces.
I just got a letter from the superintendent of the school district.
"Dear Mr.
soboroff, "I'm writing to thank you for reaching out "to the Los Angeles unified school district "and inviting our participation in school pride.
But I must decline your invitation " Let me see this.
I have heard things like this but I have never been a part of it.
I cannot believe when someone is trying to help you help yourselves that you say no.
Because of some red tape.
Man, we gotta reach out to some people.
We gotta You know what we gotta do? We gotta make some noise.
That's what we have to do.
Let's make some noise.
Tom.
Yeah, go ahead, Jacob.
Listen to this email I just got.
The district has agreed to do the project.
The public pressure built to a level where the school district realized this is something that the school really wants, the teachers really want, the parents and administrators, they really want.
They let us come in.
That's great news.
Start that clock and let's get back to work.
We're back in business, baby.
Clock is started.
Hey, kids.
How you doing? - Good.
- Good.
When Jacob got the call that we could start work again, it was a big relief.
Get the volunteers, let's get the paint out, let's get the plans, let's get the designs.
And let's do it.
Hi! Hi! Hi, how are you? Oh, my gosh.
I'm good, whitley.
Whitley, I'm Mitch.
On behalf of belfor, we're really excited to come here and help you and help the kids.
My room is the culinary arts room.
Okay.
So would you like to come see it? - I'd love to go see that.
- Okay, come on, Mitch.
I'm so glad you're here.
Thank you.
Oh, you're welcome.
The quad is a gathering ground.
So I wanna give these kids a proper place to socialize, to do their homework, to hang out after school.
That's probably good, susie.
- That's good? - Think we got it.
Perfect.
Okay.
I think an improved campus setting for these kids will just boost their morale.
They're gonna be so excited to not just come to school, but to stay here after school.
Kids are gonna be blown away.
Yeah.
- This is great.
- Oh, yeah.
- Dr.
Kim.
- Oh, hi.
How are you? We got the permits.
There was a lot of red tape.
But I wanna talk to the principal and see if she understands why the superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district wouldn't want our help.
What's going on, do you think? Maybe the superintendent was not given the correct information.
Maybe he didn't understand the scope of the project.
The fact that his office is so removed from the school site, I think that's probably why there was this lack of understanding as to how much help this would be for the school.
So how does that make you feel? Frustrated.
But Los Angeles unified school district is the second-largest school district in the U.
S.
- In the whole country.
- In the whole country.
And that's where the problem is.
I think the size is just a tremendous challenge.
Luckily, we have great parents who are supporting in many other ways.
I have noticed.
Walking down the hallways here it says, "art supplies, donated by the parents group.
" "Sports equipment, donated by the parents group.
" The reason for that, we have just basic funding from both state and the district.
It provides the minimum.
And if we wanna do anything enrichment or supplemental, you know, we really have to rely on our parents.
My goal this week is to find out why the L.
A.
school district didn't want us to help make major improvements at laces.
If you're having so many problems with the budget, why not accept the free help for us to come in and do over the school? Oh, here's the paint section over here.
This school has not been painted in, like, 20-something years.
So we need, like, 10 million gallons of paint.
Come on, let's go.
Get in there, lily.
This is for your classrooms, now.
Okay, maybe not that much, but we need a lot of paint.
- Hi.
- Hi, welcome to home depot.
Thank you.
I'm whitley.
I'm from school pride.
- Hi.
- And we picked out some paint.
This I is the paint for their school.
And you guys picked the paint and primer in one? This will save you time and money.
We want 2,400 gallons.
Can y'all do that? Yeah, we gonna try, we gonna try.
Beautiful.
All right.
Unh! - All right.
- Let's get to it.
Come on, y'all.
So what do you think of all the progress? I like it.
I'm super excited.
I mean, when I was here pulling out all the chairs, I, like, was so excited.
To know that things are finally happening is amazing.
I think a lot of us were super excited with what was going on that it almost didn't feel like we were working.
I really love this school.
I mean, this is some people's safe haven.
This stage, this is their freedom of expression.
And I know this is definitely mine.
Can I ask you a favor? Can you spearhead some sort of performance for the very last day that we're here on that brand-new stage? Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, definitely.
With the help of, like, the singers, and the musicians, and the dancers that we have here I'd love to.
I definitely think that the students here can pull this off.
I mean, we've always had the talent.
And now, with the space provided, we are definitely gonna come and kill the performance.
Let's keep going.
We got 179 more to go.
After talking with Dr.
Kim, I wanna talk to the superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district, ramon cortines, to find out why the school district wouldn't take help.
Mr.
superintendent, it's no secret that the l.
A.
U.
S.
D.
'S a big district.
There are some great schools, there are some not so great schools.
There are some fantastic facilities, there are some not so fantastic facilities.
How important are school facilities to academic achievement? They are extremely important.
I don't believe students are motivated to learn, or to explore books, or to sit down at the computer, if it is not an environment that is inviting.
Right now, renovation and modernization is not going on It's on hold until the economy turns around.
And I believe that will be three to four years that money will not be available.
What you're saying is it will be three to four years before this district can even spend any money on renovating or modernizing schools.
- That's right.
- So just to clarify, why did we have such a hard time getting the permits to do this project? I wanna talk to the superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district, ramon cortines, to find out why the school district wouldn't take help.
Mr.
superintendent, why did we have such a hard time getting the permits to do this project? Let's talk very frankly.
You had a hard time helping us.
The skeptics that surround me, for various reasons, did not feel we should go with the project.
I don't think that systems, such as the one I run, have always been wise, have been honest, have been transparent, have had integrity.
People are looking out for their own good instead of for the good of the kids.
Oh, yes.
Then we made the right decision in behalf of our school community.
Now I just wanna ask you one more question.
If we call you again, you wanna work together? - Yes.
- It's a deal.
I have 800 others.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
It's day four.
It's total chaos out there.
Everything's pulled out, very few things are put back.
The time line's crunched, and I keep watching that big clock behind me, and there's a lot of work to be done.
Thanks for going with me, whitley.
- Got it.
- Volunteers are waiting on this paint.
Let's get it to them.
Apparently it locked itself.
What happened? Where are the keys? What the key The door's locked? Tom and I had to go pick up some extra paint.
When we come back, Tom jumps out to get the paint and locks the keys in the car.
You should not don't panic.
I got this.
Watch this.
Okay, all right.
Watch this.
Calling onstar.
No, you're not.
Hi, yes, this is Kim whitley with school pride.
And Tom stroup.
Tom locked the keys in the car.
Okay, thank you.
He's gonna send a signal through the vehicle.
Okay.
- Thank you, I'm on hold, sir.
- Let's see if it'll happen.
I just heard it.
Onstar! You gotta go! There you go, Tom.
Right, keep going.
And that's what the horns will do.
Yeah.
That sounds so cool.
So the horns will just do these punches, right? I hit the wrong chord there.
Mr.
monarch's definitely one of my favorite teachers.
He's just a person full of enthusiasm, and he really cares about all his students.
I feel very fortunate to be able to teach music to kids.
Everybody has music in their life.
Everybody has art in their life.
It's part of what makes us human.
Wait till the kids come and see what the new auditorium looks like.
It's gonna blow their minds.
The music, and the choir, and the singers and dancers I think we're all gonna be floored by it.
The fact that this will be the first performance in our new auditorium, it's kind of high stakes for us.
We do have, certainly, some nervousness.
We want it to be the best it possibly can be.
Hey! Come on, you guys, this is We got still more work to do.
This is gonna be the best room.
This is gonna be the best place in the whole school.
The culinary arts room is coming together marvelously.
This is gonna be a functional kitchen in about25 hours.
Oh, is this the sink? This is a nice big one too.
I can fit in this.
You putting the I'm gonna put you to work.
Hold Hold up, now.
You you went too far.
I'm not a worker.
I'm a lover.
This is my mask.
Okay, I'm gonna put it right there, right? - Right.
- Okay.
There you go.
You got it.
Oh.
I broke the sink! Hold on! It's oh, my God! Drilling those holes, I had a hard time.
Hold it steady.
Oh! Oh, my goodness.
I did a hole for the sink.
Look at this, is that not fantastic? I did the faucet.
I want everybody to know I did the faucet.
Annie takes a bus for four hours a day.
Five days a week, 20 hours a week on the bus for the last six years.
Just to come to this school.
I said, "you know what, I wanna experience that.
" So you say your dad, he's a performer? He's a singer, and he's an amazing songwriter.
My parents split up when I was about two.
Me and my dad didn't have a really good relationship.
We weren't very close.
My dad hasn't been to my performances here at school.
What influences has he had on your abilities? Everybody on my dad's side of the family is musicians.
They all sing, they're all performers.
I think I got my natural talents probably from him.
- I'd like to meet him.
- Yeah? Annie's telling me about her relationship with her father.
It's not a good relationship.
So I'm gonna go visit her father.
Annie's telling me about her relationship with her father.
It's not a good relationship.
So I'm gonna go visit her father.
- How can I help you? - I'm Tom stroup.
Annie's father has never seen her perform at laces.
And that's what I wanna make happen.
You mind if we talk for a minute? - Sure, have a seat.
- Okay, thanks.
I've been talking to your daughter quite a bit this whole week.
And you know, she's really talented.
So I asked her, I said, you know, "where'd you get your influence from?" And I don't know whether you know this or not, but she said that she feels like she got all of her musical influence from you.
That makes me feel really good.
You know, mom and I are not together.
So sometimes I'm just not around.
I've missed birthdays, I've missed anniversaries.
Is there anything that you maybe wanna tell her that she might not know? I just wanna let her know that I'm super proud of her.
You know, she's such a smart gal, you know, so beautiful.
I mean, the fact that she turned out as good as she did, a lot of it had to do with the fact that she was around good people.
Hence, the school.
Hence, the arts.
At the school, you know what she's doing now, right? Annie is orchestrating the first performance on the new stage at the school.
Really? So the performance is coming up, and I'd really like for you to be there.
Can you be there? I think she would love to see you in the front row.
I missed out on all those daddy years, you know.
Like, I didn't change enough diapers or anything like that.
All I can do now is just be there for her as much as I can now, you know? It's like, that's all I can do.
- Susie.
- Yes? What is going on with the music room? We have all kinds of fun stuff going in there.
All state-of-the-art, brand-new stuff.
We have six flat screen tvs, hd DVD camcorders, - brand-new music stands - It sounds a little pricey.
Oh, don't worry.
I got it covered.
Oh, my God.
Mr.
monarch just wanted a clean room.
That's all he wanted.
And not only have we given him that, but Walmart came through in a huge way.
Flat screen televisions, and hd camcorders Those kids are gonna be psyched when they see all this equipment in the music room.
Last one.
When we came to laces, the arts were suffering.
So we needed to make sure we took the music room, the culinary arts room the auditorium These are places where these kids just thrive.
Keep up the good work! Not only are we renovating the school, but the kids are gonna give us a show at the end of the renovation.
So they're rehearsing all week.
Here's your starting note.
hold on, do you know the lyrics? No, I know the lyrics, I just don't know that one note.
But we wanna make sure, once again, that it sounds like we're really sure of exactly what we're doing.
You know, you start off really strong, and then we have that one little glitch there.
So let's fix that.
Rehearsals for our performance have been stressful, and we still have a lot more we need to do.
To know that we're gonna have an auditorium worth performing in, we definitely know we need to step it up.
Two, three.
hold.
What we need to keep as a band is we need to keep focus during the solo section.
Staying focused right here on Annie and Zack.
The reveal is in two days.
And I'm really nervous because we don't have it all together yet.
What are we doing right there? Hold.
What are we doing? It's kinda hard to get an entire piece together in a couple days.
I don't know if we'll pull it together.
You gotta give us that big downbeat, right? Boom.
One more time.
Put her down.
The kids are all rehearsing, so now we are gonna have to show, as the parents, as the community, and the volunteers, that we can pick up the slack.
We need every person that we can get.
And we have to install 603 chairs.
They're not pre-assembled.
They have to be bolted to the floor.
I need a chair expert.
In comes Charles.
He's from grand rapids, Michigan, and he's volunteering his time just to be here.
Doesn't work.
Oh, no.
It's not fitting.
I literally I fell out.
It was a heartbreak that I made a mistake.
What's going on? We laid out and drilled the whole auditorium so that when the chairs arrived, we could just put a bunch of people 2,000 holes.
Okay, I'm with you so far.
The manufacturer sent us a template for a movie theater chair instead of the school chair.
So one of those holes on each foot is incorrect.
We're gonna have to re-drill 1,000 holes.
We drilled over 1,000 holes in the wrong place.
That's not good.
Are you okay? Oh, yeah.
What's the matter? Just Don't like screwing up.
For Charles to get that emotional about it, he must really, really be committed to this work.
And you know what, that's the kind of passion that I was hoping we'd get at this school.
I appreciate the emotion.
It shows your heart's in it.
And you know what, this is probably close to 100 years old.
We're gonna make it good for the next 100 years.
And you can take pride in that.
- You got it.
- All right? That's what it's all about.
Thanks a lot, buddy.
Really appreciate it.
You're doing a great job.
Let's get to work.
If these holes aren't drilled, the seats don't go in and the performance doesn't happen.
I don't know how long it's gonna take, but we have to get it done.
We have no choice.
Vacuum man.
All right.
You alternate sizes so that your sightline Now that person is looking over the crack.
Charles is doing his part, the volunteers are doing their part.
We will be burning the midnight oil tonight, there's no way around it.
This is a big project.
And I'm very concerned that this auditorium is not gonna get done in time.
Way to go, big man.
Charles, we're gonna do it, buddy.
It's day seven.
The auditorium's coming along.
We got an assembly line, everybody's doing their job, and it's gonna happen.
Now this is first-class.
Well, school pride team, we've done it again.
We're down to the last minutes here.
I'm psyched that we got it all done! My favorite moment.
Auditorium.
A lot of glitches, big project, done totally by volunteers.
Whoo! Another successful mission.
Couldn't believe it.
Guys - Ten - Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! This is the culmination of all of the hard work we have put forward up to this point.
Now it's time to turn the school back to the teachers, back to the students, back to the community.
Come on, there you go! The fact that we got to do it ourselves, and help our own school, gives everyone the sense of personal belonging and respect.
Welcome back, laces.
Welcome back.
Seven days ago, we came together and we decided we, the community, could renovate and make over this school.
And you did it.
Yes, yes! Zack and Annie, this journey began with you two.
And I think it's only fitting that you cut the ribbon.
To know that me and Zack started this whole process is unreal.
For us to actually be heard was amazing.
The credit shouldn't just go to us.
It should go to all the students that actually came here and lent a helping hand.
Three, two, one! - Whoa! - Oh, my gosh! Whoa! Welcome to your new music room! Unbelievable! It's a really good feeling to see the look on their faces.
They're just so happy, and they can't believe it.
We walk into the music room, and it's breathtaking.
All the instruments, the mural on the wall.
Oh, my God, it was beautiful.
It looks like a place where music is made.
- I have to tell you - Yeah? Everything you see here we got at Walmart and Walmart.
Com.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
They are responsible for all the televisions Well.
Look at your recording studio.
Check out your recording studio.
There's a recording studio too? Wow! Unbelievable.
This is where we'll do our work! My heart is like it's, like, beating so fast, man.
This is what we can do.
This is it.
My room went from zero to hero.
I'm just blown away by it.
It's just fantastic.
It's become the most wonderful space on campus.
Oh, you wonderful girl.
You wonderful bass player.
Thank you so much.
Oh, for what? All I did was unlock the door, you did everything.
This means so much, 'cause it's, like, he's just such a good teacher.
And all his hard work meant something, you know.
Come on, Ceci, let's see more of this school, right? If you think you're crying now, this is really gonna make you cry.
Wait till we see how wonderful everything else is.
Welcome to the microsoft culinary arts institute.
This is unbel Come and see! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! It is just incredible.
It is so exciting.
The floor is beautiful, the cabinets are beautiful.
It is just so gorgeous.
It's just perfection.
Wow! This is so amazing! It's very exciting for me because I know now that I have the tools and the facility that is going to give me the opportunity to teach these students so much more about the world of culinary arts and hospitality.
Then we go to bing.
Com, and we will find a recipe.
I wanna look up, mm Spaghetti.
Okay.
So what do we have in the spaghetti recipe here? Salt, olive oil, garlic, anchovies in oil, and pimento stuffed olives.
- Wow.
- It's a great room.
It's beautiful, and I'm so appreciative to whitley.
- Aw! - Oh, my gosh.
Guys, take a look at your new quad.
- Oh, my God! - Oh, my gosh! Oh, my God! It's so pretty.
Aw! Oh, my God, it's so nice.
The quad is such a wonderful place, the musicians wanna bring their instruments out there and play.
What a wonderful setting to make music.
I mean, I get to eat lunch right there and say, "look, that's my flower.
"I planted that one.
This is my stream.
This is my school.
" We have been waiting for a long time to finally have an auditorium that we're proud of.
We can't wait to perform in it.
- What is this? - There's a statue.
What? Like, what just happened here? It's amazing.
I know.
Welcome to your brand-new auditorium.
This is insane.
Yes, come on down.
Annie! Come on, welcome to your brand-new auditorium.
This is insane.
It choked me up a little bit to walk in there because I've been in there for so long and I'll still be in there for two more years, and I can't even believe the changes that have happened in there.
Wow.
It's amazing.
Oh, my God.
And they're comfortable.
It's like a real auditorium.
Look at the new stage, new lights, new sound system.
We went from an old, broken-down facility to now a place that everyone will feel like they're a part of something new.
It's for them.
It's for them.
It's their house now.
They will have a goal, to say, "I wanna be on that stage in that room, "and I wanna do the best I can.
"And share my gift of music, and art, and performance with the world.
" Without further ado, I think we need to turn it over to the real stars of tonight, the students from Los Angeles center for enriched studies.
Let's give it up for them.
All right.
It's been a long week.
And now this is the big hoorah.
This is the big congrats to everybody.
And I can't wait to see it.
We wanna perform in honor of our new auditorium, and you know, to thank all the volunteers, the teachers, the parents.
Without them, this all would not have been possible.
I think about their tomorrows.
What they will do with this new school.
One, two, three, four.
I love it, I love it.
Hey! Get down.
- Do it, do it, do it! - Yeah! For me, what I'm walking away with, with this, is a knowledge of how much people actually care.
Just knowing that, if you ask people to help, they'll help you.
Whoo! To me, this whole experience has almost been unreal.
I learned a lot about myself and I would've never thought that coming out to help my school would've ever brought me and my dad closer together.
Aw! And in some way it has.
And I'm really grateful for that.
The message in all of this is that every kid in America has the power to change the school they love and to make it a better environment.
Zack did it.
Annie did it.
And anybody else can do it.
Because of the environment, because it has improved so much, I'm confident that every single student's grade would've risen at least one level.
If they were getting a "b", I'm sure that they're getting an a-plus at this point.