Change never comes easy.

When American Paradigm Schools took over John Paul Jones Middle School in 2012 they knew they had their work cut out for them. Administrators and teachers of the newly named Memphis Street Academy Charter School were tasked with taking “Jones Jail” (as the school had been known due to its reputation for violence and disorderly conduct) and morphing it into a functional place of learning.

“The first year was all hands on deck— you just need to survive this year,” Niki Bertotto said. “It was rough. It wasn’t so much the school or the neighborhood, it was just change and change doesn’t come easy. [The administrators] were very upfront with us in the beginning, this was gong to be rough.”

Bertotto is a math teacher at Memphis Street Academy (2950 Memphis St.) and has been there since the charter school opened its doors to the community two years ago. He grew up in the neighborhood, living in both Port Richmond and Fishtown during his early years. Though he always received a Catholic education, Bertotto knew Jones had a reputation as a “last chance” school for troubled youth.

“This school was a threat, even when I was growing up, when my parents were growing up, if you were going to act up at your school you were going to be sent to Jones,” Bertotto said. “And that’s not saying there weren’t good teachers here or good kids, but for whatever reason whatever they were doing wasn’t working. Now they are giving us a chance to try something new out. Hopefully it’s working out, we’ll find out in the next couple of years.”

Well, so far so good. Memphis Street Academy has just finished its second year in operation and the results have been very positive. In addition to painting the walls and instituting a new uniform to help change the students’ image of the school, Memphis Street Academy shared statistics with The Atlantic that show that the number incidents at the school decreased by 90 percent. In the school’s first year alone, serious crimes (i.e. drug sales, weapons, assaults, rapes) dropped from 138 to 15.

A big part of this success it attributed to the school’s Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). AVP is a non-coercive, nonviolent conflict resolution regimen originating from prison settings that has since been adopted by violent schools. When used in am urban school settings, AVP works through student affirmation, respect and community building, cooperation and trust instead of institutional control and constant surveillance. Security guards and metal detectors are ditched in favor of engagement coaches and teachers who instill a “democratic-values” approach to learning that revolves around being inclusive, respecting differences and caring about fellow students to feel intrinsically motivated to do the right thing.

“The kids start to calm down, they stop rebelling and realize that this change is benefiting them,” Bertotto said. “The one question I always get since I’ve started here is, ‘how are the kids?’ And they’re expecting me to say they are like animals, like savages. But that’s not the case— they’re just kids. If you let them come in and do whatever they want, they’re not going to come in and read and do math—they’re going to climb the walls. I would, you would, anybody would.”

Bertotto added, “Now there is a feeling that this is the school that I go to, this is part of who I am. If this is a terrible school then I feel like a terrible person. We did a lot with trying to change to a positive outlook. It’s a big turn around process because the school had just been underachieving, it hadn’t been working and it wasn’t serving the community. ”

In addition to the new paint, uniforms and attitude, Memphis Street Academy also uses sports as a way to build school pride and boost a student’s self confidence. The school offers a mix of boys, girls and co-ed sports including baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball and flag football.  Bertotto says that students are proud to be “Wildcats,” sport the school’s logo and colors and cheer their peers on at games.

“I tell them, look at your shirts— you should be proud that they say Memphis Street Academy on them. Everyone that learns there, teaches there, works there, you just represented them in a positive way,” Bertotto said.

What’s impressive is how quickly these sports teams have become successful. After not having competitive extramural sports at Jones due to school district budget cuts, Memphis Street Academy has sent teams to the playoffs the past two years. This past year alone, every team reached the playoffs with the boys varsity basketball, co-ed football and boys baseball teams going so far as winning the championship game. The Wildcats compete at junior varsity and varsity levels against other charter schools.

According to Bertotto, a coach on the baseball and softball teams, sports gives his kids something tangible to improve on and build upon. For example, while it may be hard for a kid to relate to an improvement in his math skills, being able to hit a fastball or swing a ground ball into a double play is something immediately rewarding. That success then becomes infectious.

“School can make a kid think he’s not good at learning one way. In sports you get to try it several ways to see how it works,” said Bertotto. “I’ve never met someone who was instantly good at sports. Whoever invented the wheel probably went through five different designs before settling on a circle. You learn from failing, picking your self up and trying again. Sports give you a real chance to do that. Nobody hits the ball every time, fields the ball every time, nobody makes every shot. But when they make a mistake, they pick themselves up and try again.”

Playing sports also gives students the ability to build teamwork skills and a sense of pride in their school and themselves.

“It’s fun being on a team and making friends,” Keiry Angeles, a 7th grade volleyball player at Memphis Street Academy, said. “We use teamwork in the games to help each other win and cheer each other on. The teamwork we use in sports is something we can also use to solve problems in class.”

This cross over is exactly what Bertotto wants to see from his students and his athletes.

“This may be a horrible thing to say as a coach but I don’t care if we win or we lose. When you take those lessons—I came, I worked hard, I worked with people—that’s my goal on the field and in the classroom. If you continue to get better, if you continue to improve, you’ll be successful in everything you do. You get to see that in sports,” Bertotto said.