The Oakland Press
New Pontiac high school to focus heavily on academics
Friday, February 13, 2009 6:08 AM EST
By DIANA DILLABER MURRAYOf The Oakland Press
The Pontiac district’s newly designed high school scheduled to open in the fall on the city’s north side will offer four magnet career academies within one building.
Under the initial concept presented Thursday at a special study session, the school will feature a revamped Ninth Grade Academy; a Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship (BFE) Academy; an Arts and Communications Academy and a Scholars Academy.
The BFE Academy will include the legal program already underway. All academies will give students the opportunity to earn certification in career areas. In addition, the building may be utilized the entire day, providing students the opportunity to do online makeup courses as late as 7 p.m.
The first glimpse at the concept was given by Geralyn Stephens, with whom the Pontiac Board of Education contracted Monday night to create a high school geared to meet students’ curriculum needs and improve academics and career opportunities for youth.
“As we look at the needs of the students, we have to look at things differently,” Stephens said. “We’ve got to look at other ways to do things. It will be creative. It won’t look like it does now and it shouldn’t.”
Most importantly, students, teachers and counselors would be divided into teams and stay with their teams for core and career classes. However, they would also take part in community programs, such as band, outside their team.
Teachers, counselors and social workers address the individual needs of the students on their team. There will also be efforts to help students have intern and work experience.
Under a restructuring plan approved by the board Jan. 26, Central High School will be closed in the fall and Central and Northern high school students will be combined in what will be a new type of school at the Northern building at Perry and Madison.
Stephens, who is a Wayne State University faculty member, stressed that she was presenting only a framework at this point. She said a team of staff, teachers, parents, special education experts and students will be pulled together to work on the plan that must be submitted in early March.
The four career academies were selected based on state required assessments given to ninth through 11th grade students that provided the top interest areas of students. Eighth-graders will be given the same assessments at the end of the school year.
In addition, Stephens’ team did an audit of students’ transcripts to determine where they are in respect to completing high school graduation requirements. They found a need for many students to do some online courses to bring them up to where they should be.
Each teacher will see where their students are and will work with the counselors and social workers to help meet their needs so they can succeed and achieve.
“Yes, it is a lot of work but fundamentally we have to change things,” said Stephens, who said she is convinced parents will want their children in a high school such as the one she is visualizing.
As the lead person in redesigning the high school, she plans to have everything planned, including students’ teachers and schedules in May, so that students and parents will know what they will be doing in the fall and will spread the word.
“Our students will be our ambassadors,” Stephens predicted.
Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 or diana. dillaber@oakpress.com.
2 comments:
Geralyn Stephens is going to make a difference in the Pontiac community.
I would be interested in being part of the various teams efforts in realizing a sense of place.This would be accomplishable through their designing and performing an audit of available and underutilyzed resources.From these understandings and team based exercises they could then execute a plan to recreate a community that works,Together we can redesign this fragmented society into a far more creative existance than the one we've accepted to date.
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