By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer
Columbus County’s three high schools will see major changes during the next two years as several new programs are implemented.
On the heels of West Columbus High School’s Freshman Success Academy, the other two high schools are preparing to do the same with full implementation in the fall of 2008.
Kathy Lewis, the county schools high school curriculum director, told the Columbus County School Board during its June 4 meeting, that East Columbus and South Columbus high schools will spend this coming year in the planning stages, working with Talent Development from Johns Hopkins University to customize a freshman academy for each school.
WCHS just completed is first year of freshman academy, where the freshmen are located in one area of the school with most of their courses in that same area.
Freshmen take a freshman seminar course designed to help them with study habits, note taking skills and the survival skills for high school.
There are also math review courses that lead into Algebra I with the same teacher. A similar path works with reading and writing skills leading up to English I, also using a teacher who stays with students through the process.
Algebra I and English I are considered critical courses. Both must be passed as part of the high school diploma process.
“We are excited about West and their results this year,” Lewis said. “The first year will be a planning year.”
She said that teachers must buy into the program and collaborate and plan for the successful implementation of the academy during the following year.
Three-member teams from ECHS and SCHS will travel to Johns Hopkins for a five-day training session.
Mark Brown, the new principal at WCHS, said that the freshman academy at his school had been successful, citing a decrease in freshman discipline problems, an increase in attendance and more parental involvement.
He said that the percentage of discipline problems among freshmen fell from 40 percent of the class to 20 percent.
His staff is looking to add more teachers to the freshman academy and to increase the amount of “rigor and relevance” in the program, he said.
He plans to have two teachers working with English I and two teachers working with Algebra I.
Brown said that freshmen who score Level I or Level II on their End-of-Grade tests will be enrolled in the freshman seminar class, known as Freshman Life.
He said that freshman orientation day will be Aug. 24.
“That was very successful last year,” said Superintendent Dan Strickland.
Brown said he wants to add workshops for parents and to create an academic boosters club.
“We had a good group of freshmen his year,” Brown said, adding that next year there will be more collaboration among the teachers. They will meet for 45 minutes each week to evaluate what works.
Strickland said that the freshman academies are part of a statewide move toward smaller learning communities and cited the similarities between the academies and the new early college high school at Southeastern Community College, which enjoyed a good start this year.
“Student achievement went up,” Brown said of his freshmen. “We had the highest number on the honor roll in a long time and less than a 10 percent failure rate.”
He said that a lot of that had to do with the increase in attendance.
“Poor attendance drags down grades,” he said.”
ECHS Principal Mark Bridgers explained what his school’s plans are for the freshman academy.
“We have a great number of teachers working on this,” he said.
The freshman academy teachers at ECHS will share a common planning period. The English hall will be transformed into the freshman hall.
Freshmen will gather each morning in the auditorium for a 15-minute opening assembly.
Lunch will be separate from the upperclassmen.
Students will mix with upperclassmen in the one elective they can take each semester.
Bridgers plans to involve JROTC in the academy and to offer freshman seminar.
“We want to push the reading again and to offer basic math for those struggling with it,” he said.
Each freshman will receive a planner to use throughout the year.
On Aug. 17, the parents of freshmen will be required to come to the school to pick up their children’s schedules.
“We want to make sure they understand what their kids need for a high school diploma,” Bridgers said, adding that students with attendance problems will be required to ride a school bus to and from school.
SCHS Principal Maudie Davis said that when her school’s freshman academy begins in 2008, it will host 230 ninth-graders in its shortest hall.
She said that parents had been concerned that the freshmen would be too isolated.
She said that there will be plenty of activities that mix the freshmen with upperclassmen.
“We hope to have higher attendance,” she said.,
This year’s SCHS senior class had 168 to graduate. Three years ago, there were 239 students in that class.
“What happened to my children?” Davis asked. She hopes that the new academy will help decrease the dropout rate. She said that she had some 15- and 16-year-olds in the ninth grade this year.
She said that the freshman academy will also be a good way for students to start their senior projects, which will be required by the state for a diploma.
“We can’t leave anything unturned with ninth graders,” Davis said. “They are intimidated when mixed with upperclassmen.”
‘The dropout rate is high and the graduation rate is low,” Strickland said, “We’ve got to reverse that.”
Alternative Academies
Keith Jefferys, the director of career and technical education, was next on the board’s agenda. He explained the plans for each high school’s “alternative academies.”
Earlier this year, the county schools announced their decision to shut down Nakina Alternative School after a nearly 10-year run as a state mandated alternative program for students with discipline and attendance problems.
Nakina, like other alternative schools in the state, had produced a mixed bag of results.
Despite the best efforts of the staff and faculty through the years, most students sent to Nakina dropped out before they returned to their original schools or dropped out soon after their return.
Jefferys said the Nakina staff is being dispersed to the three high schools where alternative academies are being set up.
“All of the high schools have identified facilities that are separate from the rest of the students,” Jefferys said. “All have active alterative communities.”
The alternative academies will begin at 9:30 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. so there is no interaction between students during their arrival at and departure from school.
Each academy will accommodate high school students as well as sixth through eighth graders from each middle school that feeds that particular high school.
All students will be bused to and from school and an alternative school staff member will act as a bus monitor during pickups and deliveries.
Jefferys said that by having the alternative schools on the high school campuses, more coordinated and intensified services can be offered to students.
Students will have access to the Internet and computer labs, many of which will come from the existing systems in place at Nakina.
Students referred to the alternative academies must be approved by the superintendent.
Jeffreys said that the goal is to “rehabilitate” these students and that each school had its own set of plans to deal with them.
At ECHS and SCHS, the 100 Hall will be designated for the alternative academies, away from the regular student body.
The students will eat separately and will use the bathroom under escort by the staff and resource officers.
The library will be accessible to the students after all regular students have left the campus in the afternoons.
“Alternative academy students will not be associated with any other students whatsoever,” Strickland said. “They will be dropped off at their classrooms and have lunch in the classrooms.”
Brown said that at WCHS, the alternative academy will be situated in the classrooms below the gym.
‘The bus will drop them off 10 feet from the door,” he said. “They will have breakfast and lunch in that classroom.”
Brown said that regular teachers will be able to travel to those classrooms and teach. The alternative teachers will have the chance to go to the regular school and teach.
Alternative teachers won’t have to teach alternative students all day.
A bus will be assigned to each high school for the alternative students. It took only three buses to pick up the students for Nakina.
Alternative students will have much shorter bus rides with the new system.
Assistant Superintendent Alan Faulk said that if the alternative academies had been in place at the end of the year, SCHS’s alternative academy would have had three high school and eight middle school students; ECHS would have had two high school and two middle school students; and WCHS would have had two high school and 15 middle school students.
For the past several years, Chadbourn Middle School and WCHS have sent the most students to Nakina.
Faulk said that average stay at Nakina for middle school students had been 6 weeks unless thay had been charged with a felony.
“We don’t want them to like it,” he said. “High school students stay a minimum of one semester.”
Strickland said that overall, the number of students involved in the alternative program had dropped.
Bridgers said that at ECHS, one of the assistant principals will come in 90 minutes later and leave 90 minutes later to tend to the alternative academy.
“We don’t want to make it so comfortable for students that they want to stay in it,” Bridgers said.
Bridgers said his alternative students, some of which include 16-year-old middle school students, will wear school uniforms. All three schools will have a uniform policy for alternative academy students.
Davis said that at SCHS the alternative students “will never be a part of the regular 800-student population on campus.”
She said no alternative students would be allowed to attend or participate in any regular school activity or function and that they can use the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“They will not be able to mix or mingle,” she said.
Davis is glad the board had decided to keep the alternative academy hours during the day.
“I think it will be a wonderful experience,” she said. “I feel better handling the discipline during the day.”
Strickland said the teachers at Nakina had already boxed up their materials and supplies and are ready to be relocated.
N. C. Virtual
Public School
Perhaps no other aspect of the new high school design will have more impact on the general student bodies of each county high school than the implementation of the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) – an intensive series of on-line courses that meet all state requirements for graduation credits.
Strickland said that the online high school courses will be offered during the summer and throughout the school year.
He said it’s a “win-win” situation.
Lewis said NCVPS is a kindergarten through 12th grade initiative but will start with the high schools and this fall’s eighth graders.
She said that while the courses begin this summer, none will be available at first that require the North Carolina End-of-Course tests.
There is no cost to the students and the courses are directed by certified teachers.
She said that NCVPS will help with understaffed schools and with schools that don’t offer many Advanced Placement and honors courses.
She called NCVPS an online community school where kids can participate daily. They have access to the program at home or at school.
The high schools will be able to offer computer access before or after school. Students wishing to stay after school to access the computers will have the option of riding the alternative academy buses home.
Students accessing NCVPS will have 10 days to drop the course without penalty. After that, the grade they earn will be the grade that is added permanently to their transcripts.
“The score is final,” Lewis said. “We have no control over that.”
Davis said she already has students excited about NCVPS.
“We have had 30-40 kids in after school,” she said. “They have been very successful.”
She mentioned a student who she thought wasn’t going to pass and ended up with a 91 average in English IV.
“You would be amazed at how many kids go to the lab at 7:40 a.m.,” she said.
Strickland said that middle school students will eventually be able to take high school courses on NCVPS.
Lewis said that the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has begun iSchool.
“Up to two years of college courses for credit can be earned for free,” Lewis said. “It’s limitless, the possibilities. There’s so much going on. Something for every kid.”
Bridgers said that 36 students are signed up for iSchool at ECHS. Davis said 54 are signed up at SCHS.
Brown said that WCHS is gearing up for the program.
iSchool will allow students to catch up on courses so they can graduate on time.
“High school reform – this is what you have tonight,” Strickland said. “There is a lot of excitement in this room.”
“It will be like a university,” Davis said. “I am so excited. I love change.”
Strickland finished the discussion by saying that there was much more to come as the high schools go through unprecedented reform.”