He is not a trainer who read about school conflict.
He had to keep one running while people were carrying grief, blame, and fear about the future.
[what does a school do when the building is gone?]
Andre Essue spent eight years at a four-site charter organization, working across all four sites and four distinct cultural communities, at sites rather than a district office.
In 2021 a wildfire destroyed one of the schools. More than a hundred students, staff, and family members were displaced. What held the school together that year was not a system. It was whether the adults could still talk to each other.
He is candid about what went wrong: decisions made fast by a small group, people brought in too late, and conflict that arrived afterwards to collect the difference. That is where this practice comes from.
- Certified Family Restorative Conferencing Facilitator
- Youth Initiatives Lead · The Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire
- Returned Peace Corps Volunteer · Lesotho
2021the year the site burned
A wildfire displaced more than a hundred students, staff and family members. What held the school together was whether the adults could still talk to each other.
Interlude · persimmon warns
Decisions made fast by a small group. Conflict arrived later to collect the difference.
[who was brought in too late?]
From the recovery year, told plainly
Case study
Read the case behind the work.
The account of the year the site burned, written for the leaders who now ask Andre how he handled it.
Charter school leadership case study. Seven pages.
Testimony · ochre remembers
These are colleagues who worked alongside him, named, with permission.
Nothing anonymous is counted as evidence.
What Chiefs of Schools and colleagues say
“He connected with both parents and students in a rare way, especially ones who were struggling.”
Charter School Site Administrator. Worked with Andre for five years.
“He enriched our entire school ecosystem with a remarkable combination of innovative thinking, comprehensive support, and trauma-informed healing practices. His work in cultural facilitation and professional growth profoundly uplifted our students and their families.”
Charter School Founder.
“Together, we co-created and successfully delivered conflict resiliency programming that has since been utilized by educators statewide.”
Director of Impact, The Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire.
“I used to think of culture mostly in terms of race or traditions, but I now see it also includes how we live, manage our finances, where we grow up, how we face challenges, and the perspectives we bring to everyday life.”
Instructional Services Coordinator, Child Welfare Training Collaborative, Georgia State University.
The school destroyed by the wildfire is described here and never named. We do not identify individuals from that event, and we publish no student images from any engagement.
Named testimony is observed. Anything we have not verified stays dashed and stays out of the claims.