When a homeless female veteran snags a temporary job as a middle school art teacher, she must overcome her own personal shortcomings to inspire six wildly indifferent students.

SYNOPSIS:

TERRI ROBINS (30s) is as smart and tough as they come. After her art history and teaching degrees, she served two tours of duty in the U.S. Army in the Middle East. Now hampered by P.T.S.D. and homelessness, she uses her gumption to snag a temporary teaching job at a middle school with a month remaining to summer vacation. She basically steals the job she badly needed. It’s a tough world out there, and, as it turns out, even tougher in the classroom.

Only six students remain in the class from the previous domineering teacher now out on maternity leave. The students, none of whom want to be there, include RHONDA JAMES (13), a brilliant African American who would rather hang out with bullies; JAKE STONE (14), a jock looking for an “easy A;” MATT LOWENSTEIN (13), an insecure Jew with a prosthetic leg; Hui “EMMA” CHANG (13), an underachieving student from China; DORRI KHAN (13), a hijab-conscious Muslim-American; and ERNESTO SANTOS (13), a clinically-shy student on the Autism spectrum, whose father, OFFICER RAY (40) is the school’s security cop and Terri’s only initial friend.

Terri’s real nemeses include, PRINCIPAL NORDLIN (60), who wanted to hire another teacher, and MRS. BECKMAN (late-60s), a strict office lady with a hidden heart. Terri’s troubles begin early on as the Principal and Mrs. Beckman learn that Terri may have taken her job under false pretenses. She had threatened the other applicant, and the District Office also finds issues with Terri’s resume (no home address). We learn that Terri suffers from P.T.S.D., sleeps in her car at City Park, and suffers night terrors. When she loses her temporary job for application irregularities (being homeless), depression sets in. Getting her knapsack stolen at City Park gives her seizures that send her to the hospital.

Meanwhile, love is in the springtime air. As the last month of the semester progresses, Rhonda gravitates to Jake across racial lines, Matt becomes smitten with Dorri across religious lines, and Ernesto “falls in like” with Emma across intellectual lines. Even more surprising, the students become better artists, while Officer Ray eases his way into Terri’s impenetrable heart, and vice-versa.

In an inspirational conclusion, Terri’s determination and friendships with Officer Ray and her students come to the rescue. Terri moves in with Officer Ray and Ernesto to establish a permanent address to satisfy the school and District Office. The substitute art teacher quits, and Terri gets her teaching position back just in time to prepare for the students’ final art exhibition. Principal Nordlin and Mrs. Beckman are compelled to make Terri the “Teacher of the Month,” and the six students learn important life-long lessons about changing hearts and minds.

CHANGING ARTS AND MINDS