New Documentary Features Successful Magnet Program at Central High School
For over 20 years, former prosecutor-turned-high-school-teacher Joe Gutmann has had a front row seat to his students’ aha moments. He never tires of seeing them grasp a concept, as their eyes widen with excitement, voices pitch a little higher, and an exuberant fever spreads through the classroom.
This fall, Overseas Cowboy Films and Kentucky to the World (KTW) welcome the world to share these moments behind classroom doors in A Pathway Forward, a documentary featuring a year in the life of the unique Central High School Law and Government Magnet Program.
In this West Louisville, Kentucky, high school, there is a fierce and ready workforce growing. The student body is predominantly minority and low-income. It’s renowned as Muhammad Ali’s alma mater.
Led by Gutmann, the pathway program prepares them for careers in law and government and to be active citizens. The University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law students teach them the national Street Law course and receive public service hours.
“It’s beneficial for both the high school students and the law students who teach at Central,” said Professor Emerita and former dean Laura Rothstein, who has led the partnership between the two schools. “The law students learn law by teaching and gain insights from the experiences of the Central students.”
From Court to Classroom
In fall 2001, CHS’ Law and Government Magnet Program students began attending moot court competitions and speaker events at the law school. Since then, more than 500 high schoolers and approximately 340 law students have participated in the program.
When Rothstein introduced the idea of the documentary to him, Gutmann was a little skeptical at first. “How disruptive is it going to be with my class?” he said.
“I got on board when Laura explained the importance of what we’re doing, and how we can get others to have an impact,” he said. “And the students are super excited about it.”
A Pathway Forward tells the story and celebrates the success of the program through the eyes of current students and alumni and provides a model for other legal communities to adopt, adapt, and sustain.
The film is directed and produced by award winning documentary producer Jesse Nesser through his production company Overseas Cowboy Films and co-directed and shot by Tommy Johns, who is both a board member of Kentucky to the World and the organization's Director of Strategic Planning and Documentary Film.
The pathway program stands as a “laboratory of democracy”, and A Pathway Forward will be shown at national conferences and shared with law schools and local bar associations.
“Street Law is basic Law 101,” Rothstein said. “Everyone should have this course in high school because it teaches kids how to navigate life, from criminal law to immigration to voting.”
Showing Kentucky to the World
Kentucky to the World has partnered with the producers to serve as the non-profit fiscal sponsor for the documentary, allowing contributions to the project to be 100% tax deductible. KTW’s mission aligns well with the goal of the documentary as they both showcase how extraordinary Kentucky people and programs are game changers beyond Kentucky.
“When I was there at the school watching the students and the program in action - it just gives you total goosebumps,” said Shelly Zegart, President and CEO of KTW.
Since Gutmann has been involved, all graduates have been admitted to college and/or the military, many among the top 10 in their class. Forty-two CHS students have graduated from or are currently enrolled in law schools nationwide.
It’s not just producing attorneys, but active citizens who care about their country and their place in it, who are finding their voice and being encouraged to do so by their own community.
“A Pathway Forward is a testament to how Kentucky both draws people in and sends them out to the world,” Rothstein said.
Like 1993 graduate Demetrius Holloway, who interned as a high school student at Stites & Harbison. He stayed with the firm and is now a partner there. He was honored with the Louisville Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award in 2024.
A Critical Time to Create A Pathway Forward
A Pathway Forward couldn’t come at a better time. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision struck down affirmative action in college admissions nationwide, forcing schools to reshape their admissions practices.
Now, pathways and pipeline programs like CHS’ are even more critical to students’ success nationwide. They have been highlighted as key to ensuring diversity within the legal profession and leadership of our country.
“Our number one goal is to take this model and have other schools partner with university engagement to adapt it to create their own programs,” Rothstein said.
“We’re emphasizing truth and justice, we talk about what is just, what is right; we spend a great deal of time on ethics,” Gutmann said.
Funding for the documentary includes a major leadership contribution from Bowling Green attorney R. Harvey Johnston, III. Additional funding supporters include Alice and Wade Houston, Christy Brown, Gill and Augusta Holland, Mary Gwen Wheeler and David A. Jones, Jr., Laura and Mark Rothstein, the Law School Admission Council, and the Louisville Bar Foundation.
Designed to Inspire Diversity
Johns has been filming the program and its students in the classroom for the documentary throughout the 2023-24 school year.
“This project has been particularly inspiring to capture given the outsized impact of its subject matter,” he said. “Having firsthand exposure to Joe Gutmann’s masterful pedagogy both at the high school and university levels has been an absolute joy.”
While the world will soon see how this program changes lives, Rothstein and Gutmann hope it will serve as a call to action.
“I hope that other schools will take what we’ve done, imitate it, copy it, and improve it,” Gutmann said.
The premiere of A Pathway Forward is slated for fall 2024.
