. >> reporter: principal ernesto matias runs a tight and disciplined school on chicago's north side.e most all high school, wells has its occasional problems but nothing like what was happening when matias arrived five years ago. >> a lot of conflicts, a lot of violence, there was a student walk out the year before, there were four teachers in remediation who were taken out of this building not to return. and so that's what i stepped into. a lot of distrust, disunity, and a lot of beating up of staff members here. >> suarez: principal matias also inherited a school on academic probation. for 16 years, it had failed to meet basic standards for test scores and more than half its students dropped out. in the community the school's very name became synonymous with failure. >> the acronym was "we educate low life students." and so, we had to do a lot of work to change that and five years later, we don't hear that stated anymore. >> suarez: ernesto matias is a new kind of school principal; one carefully cultivated to meet the complex and challenging needs of a 21st century urban school. he