Mahan also argued that "The schools indeed are improving. They are not failing." However, advanced mathematics courses such as calculus were not offered at Beaumont due to lack of student readiness, the drama club was cancelled, and the computer-aided reading program had no computers. By the 1995–1996 school year, some of the problems had been rectified: the mathematics curriculum was upgraded and computer courses were implemented. However, Beaumont lacked both an orchestra and a drama program, and only after inquiries from local media was a band director hired to replace one who had quit three months earlier. Dropout rates remained particularly high through the 1990s; education expert and Harvard professor Gary Orfield noted, "I've never seen a graduation rate as low as I've seen in the central city of St. Louis." By the late 1990s, security problems at the school had decreased, and both students and faculty noted that the school atmosphere was "calmer". The efforts of Floyd Crues to improve discipline succeeded via a student safety task force, in which students were encouraged to report potential acts of violence. By 1998, Beaumont was regarded as a "turnaround" due to the efforts of Crues, who further instituted zero tolerance policies on gang activity at the school. Progress also was made during the late 1990s in academic performance. In 1996–1997 school year, more students gained induction into the National Honor Society than had in the previous five years; 10 students met the requirements of a 3.3 grade point average for three consecutive semesters. Some part of the academic progress was credited to the principal, Floyd Crues, who created a school-within-a-school at Beaumont to teach students about banking and finance. The school's finance academy was lauded as one of only two such academies in the state. In January 1999, Monica Washington, a Beaumont senior, presented research at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The next year, the Open Society Institute began funding the Urban Debate League, an association of St. Louis high school debate programs; Beaumont thus began its speech and debate program. In the early 2000s, the finance and jobs program at Beaumont began to show results; students at the school began job shadowing programs throughout the region, while students at the Beaumont Academy of Finance finished third in a national stock-picking contest sponsored by CNBC. After the departure of Floyd Crues, new principal Travis L. Brown continued to attempt to improve academics; in 2001, Brown began to focus efforts on scores on the state achievement tests.