Continuation: a credit to education

Some students just don’t fit into a conventional high school mode

Lacey Rees - lrees@sierrastar.com

 

Say continuation school or alternative high school, and the average person will most likely conjure up a negative connotation.

Isn’t that where “bad” kids are sent to keep them off the streets after they are kicked out of high school? Isn’t that a school where kids, being forced into class, frequently get in fights and refuse to do their work?

The answer is a definite, “No!” — and especially where Ahwahnee High School is concerned.

Yes, Ahwahnee High School, just a short distance west of Yosemite High School, is for students who have been asked to leave YHS for any of a myriad of reasons. Yes, it is also for students who don’t fit into the traditional high school environment. But at Ahwahnee, many of the students are there voluntarily. It is an alternative to high school education. Some, sent there as freshmen, opt to stay until they finish as seniors.

(Granite High School in Raymond and Foothill High School in Yosemite Lakes Park are “necessary small schools” that perform the same function as Ahwahnee. Also, Mountain Oaks High School in North Fork, once a continuation school, and now a fully-accredited high school, performs the same function as an alternative high school.)

Ahwahnee High School, with 21 students this year, consists of one class, a mixture of mostly juniors and seniors. It is taught by three instructors. Brenna Neely, the principal, has been at Ahwahnee for five years. She is assisted by instructional aids Carolyn Campbell, an Ahwahnee veteran of eight years, and Lawnna Porter, now in her third year.

 About half the student body no longer has to attend the school, but finds the warm, caring atmosphere preferable to the constant changing of classes, teachers and classmates at YHS.

Every student is treated as an individual. The class is small, so each student is known personally by the teachers.

“We know them, their parents, we know their pet’s names, what kind of car they drive,” says Ms. Neely. “We are a family.”

 

Each has a goal

Each student is working on a different goal. Each has his own set of textbooks for work needed to pass. They can go at their own speed. The only requirement is that they earn two credits a week. Credits, not grades, is the thrust of the class.

If a child misses several days of class in traditional high school and gets behind, they could fail. At Ahwahnee, they don’t have to finish the semester, just finish the work, because it is credit driven. Of course, they do have to pass a test at the end of each chapter to get the credits.

“The credit angle is extremely important to them,” says Mrs. Campbell. They don’t lose the credit, ever. 

Ms. Neely sends a credit report home each week. Some students, about 10 percent, are transient, and make a few credits on their way through the Mountain Area. About 30 percent go back to Yosemite to graduate, but there are more and more who want to stay.

No part of the class is working on the same thing. Instruction is one-on-one. “We tell them to get to work or go home,” says Ms. Neely. The teachers expect more from a senior, of course, than a freshman.

“If I had a nickel for every time I heard, ‘You just can’t lay off, can you,’” says Mrs. Campbell. “We never lay off until they graduate.”

She cites the example of one student who could not focus on more than one subject at a time. She did all her history in five weeks and went on to her physical science.

“It’s OK to do it that way,” says Mrs. Campbell. “They get their two credits a week. It’s their education.”

Crystal Collier, a junior, just plain didn’t want to be in school, and was encouraged to give Ahwahnee High School a try. “It is homey,” she says. “If you are comfortable, you can accomplish things. Now I’ll stay.” She is a transfer student from Mountain View High School, a local continuation school mainly set up for freshmen and sophomores. Working at a faster speed than is required, she has caught up almost one-half of a grade. “That was the biggest deal for me — actually coming,” she says, noting that her attitude toward school has changed. Now she looks forward to CNA [Certified Nursing Assistant] training after high school.

Another girl has completed all her credits but lacks her senior project, so she comes in one day a week to do independent study. She will graduate in June.

 

Non-traditional learning

“There is a comfort and a security that they feel,” observes Ms. Neely. “We are accepting. Everyone is so unique and different.”

Any ideas the students have, they feel comfortable expressing them. No put-downs or name-calling is allowed. “We have all learned to deal with diversity,” say the teachers. “You have the right not to like someone, but you don’t have the right to disrespect them.” A bad attitude in this class influences the whole class.

Any anger problems are dealt with immediately through anger-management and peer communication. “When you get a student who is very defensive and angry, we get them to realize they can state an opinion without fighting,” says Ms. Neely.

Some of the students have full-time jobs and some have responsibilities to their families that prevent them from adhering to a traditional high school curriculum.

The teachers help the students find employment and encourage learning life skills. “We deal with the whole person that is striving to succeed with something in their life,” says Mrs. Campbell. “It goes hand in hand with academics.”

They get art lessons through video at YHS and the class has videographic equipment and a computer.

The school does service projects such as at Putney Ranch, has a Mock Trial team and takes field trip to the opera, a cotton gin or snowboarding. It competed in a volleyball tournament with other alternative schools. “We didn’t bring home a trophy, but we brought home our dignity.” says Mrs. Campbell.

Last June, of the eight graduates, four went on to college, one is working full time and one is starting a family. Usually about half go on to further education, either college, vocational school or the military.

In fact, Ms. Neely hears from former students who are in college that the self-motivation they learned at Ahwahnee, how to get information out of text books themselves, is invaluable in college work.

Comments Ms. Neely has heard through the years from grateful students are, “I’d be dead” … “I would be going nowhere” … “I’d be home doing nothing” … “I’d have a dead-end job.”

One girl came back to show off her family and report that she was working with computers. “She was a whole different kid,” says Ms. Neely.

“We really have neat kids … [who] have made up for poor choices.”