Christina plans school for struggling

Students would dress up, work at jobs

By EDWARD L. KENNEY / The News Journal | 03/05/2005

WILMINGTON -- Students on the verge of dropping out of school often lose hope because they have stumbled and fallen far behind. To turn things around, some of them need a fresh start and a new approach.

Students in the Christina School District soon could get that chance.

The district has proposed what it is calling the Sarah Pyle School for Academic Intensity, or a school for potential dropouts. Pending school board approval, the program could begin in August.

"What it's intended for is to help youngsters graduate from high school, to help them get back on target," said Maurice Pritchett, the district's director of family and community engagement. "We don't want them to be involved in crimes and not be able to make a living."

There are about 400 students in the school district age 16 or older who have earned less than five credits toward the 22 credits they need to get their diploma. These are the students who would be academy candidates, said Jeff Edmison, the district's chief operating officer.

Other school districts offer alternative programs for children at risk, he said, but the difference at Sarah Pyle would be that the academy is not mandatory. The students must want to make a change and attend the school, and their parents would have to agree to it.

The district recognizes that not everyone who qualifies will want to go to the new academy, which would be at the old Sarah Webb Pyle Elementary School at Fifth and Lombard streets in Wilmington. Some students might not like the rules.

The academy would offer core subjects only, no extracurricular activities or elective classes. The school year would be extended into July to expedite the program and make it possible to get a diploma in about two years. It would require boys to wear slacks and ties and girls to wear skirts and blouses to help reduce peer pressure and raise self-esteem. And it would stipulate that students spend part of the day at a job or internship, and they each would be assigned a job coach.

Dressing up and working a job also gives students the opportunity to prepare for success, to get ready for life after high school, Edmison said.

He estimates that about 200 students or about half the students who are at risk in the district would volunteer to attend the academy if it were open today. Plans call for the school population to be capped at about 300 to keep the classes small and allow more attention for each of the students.

Parent Penny Dryden of Newark has heard about the academy proposal, and she said it might be just the thing for her son, Lance, 16, a junior at Christiana High School and a likely academy candidate.

"It will remove him out of the mainstream," she said. "Sometimes these schools have too many kids in them. If he is moved into a school that is smaller and more focused, I think my son and some of the other kids would do quite well. He said he's willing to try it because he wants to graduate."

The old elementary school building that would become the academy has been empty about a year. Most of the students there were sent to Bayard Elementary School as part of the district's ongoing transformation plan. Minor renovations would be required and new furnishings added before the Sarah Pyle Academy could open, Edmison said. About 100 computers also would be brought in to help give the students a technological leg up.

The start-up cost for the plan would be about $1.9 million above what the district currently needs to educate the students, said Thresa Giles, the district's chief financial officer. But after the first year, the cost would revert to about the same as it is now, or about $2.8 million annually.

She said a resident in the school district whose house has been assessed at a value of about $60,000 would pay about $30 more in school taxes that first year. State law does not require a referendum.

"Basically, you're investing in their future," Edmison said of the cost. "For many of these students, this might be their last opportunity for success."

During the first year of the academy, students who graduate would receive a diploma from their high school of origin - Newark, Christiana or Glasgow. But there are plans to ask the Department of Education to allow the diploma to be issued by Sarah Pyle Academy.

Contact Edward L. Kenney at 324-2891 or ekenney@delawareonline.com.

© 2005 delawareonline.com/The News Journal