A lasting, living legacy

Ten years ago today, the murder of Russell Byers shocked the city and many of his hard-boiled colleagues at the Daily News. Since then, Russell’s wife, Laurada, has turned the life-shattering event to a life-affirming purpose.

It would have been understandable and easy for Laurada to become angry and depressed over such a senseless loss. Instead, she opened a charter school that gives mostly poor and minority kids in Philadelphia a fighting chance.

Starting and running anything in Philadelphia - let alone a school - is a herculean commitment. The bureaucracy, politics, and funding issues can exhaust even the most idealistic person. Laurada was well-off and could have found a much easier way to memorialize her slain husband.

But none of the alternatives would have so perfectly paid tribute to Russell. He frequently wrote about the sorry state of Philadelphia's public schools, and he argued that charter schools could provide needed competition and choice.

Russell, who was born into an affluent family and graduated from Yale, believed a good education was the key to breaking the cycle of poverty for kids in the inner city.

The Russell Byers Charter School opened less than two years after Russell’s murder, on the day of the Sept. 11 attacks. It incorporates his core values of honesty, integrity, responsibility, diversity of opinion, and critical thinking.

While Russell is the school's guiding spirit, Laurada's grace, poise, sunny disposition, and indefatigable drive are its lifeblood. Her goal is to deliver a high-quality education that can compete with that of any private or public school in the city or suburbs.

Indeed, the Russell Byers Charter School has become a real jewel. It has 420 students in prekindergarten through sixth grade, 70 percent of them living below the poverty line. Third graders' test scores show 74 percent are reading at or above grade level, compared with 54 percent in the Philadelphia School District. In math, 85 percent scored at or above grade level, compared with 60 percent in the district.

For many of them, the school is a beacon. It offers music, art, ballroom dancing, and a choir. There are trips to museums and college campuses. Classes in Mandarin Chinese are offered on Saturdays. One graduate is ranked 10th in the country in chess.

The school's walls are covered with bright pictures and artwork. Everyone has books. Junk food isn't allowed. There are no metal detectors. Students wear uniforms and are polite and courteous. Above all, the kids say they feel safe, and they appear happy and eager to learn.

Two hundred kids have graduated from the school, with the oldest of them now in 10th grade. Almost all of the graduates have gone on to the area's best high schools. Laurada stays in contact with them and has provided many with scholarships. She is now working on ways to ensure they have the support to get through college.

"All alumni are ours for life," she said. "It doesn't do anyone any good to nurture a child through sixth grade and then cut them loose."

Russell and Laurada lived by the mantra that parents must give their kids "roots and wings." That philosophy permeates the school.

There is a heavy emphasis on verbal communication, including talking out conflicts and problems. "This way they will know how to get what they want without resorting to violent behavior," Laurada said.

Two weeks before he was stabbed by a punk trying to rob him outside a Wawa, Russell and Laurada had discussed starting a charter school. Russell warned his wife against the undertaking, telling her, "You'll never have a life." After his killing, she recalls thinking, "I don't have a life right now." She added, "So this seemed like the right thing to do."

Ten years later, Laurada says Russell was right: Running a charter school is "hard as hell." But, she added, "It's worth getting up for in the morning."

Through it all, Laurada has maintained her grace and energy, and, if anything, she is even more passionate today about her decision to launch a charter school in the wake of Russell's murder.

"I guess I'm enough of an optimist to say there has to be a purpose in what happened," she said.