Parents Of ALL Students Plan to Lobby to Save Program

By Amber Lester Kennedy Friday, December 17, 2010

Since learning the Williamsburg-James City County School Board might approve a plan to dismantle the Academy for Life and Learning, parents have been trying to save the program that they say has saved their kids.

A group of parents whose children are enrolled in the alternative education program gathered at the Williamsburg Regional Library on Thursday night to strategize ways to convince the board not to close ALL.

Responding to board concerns that not enough children were being reached, the administration presented a proposal at last week’s meeting that would close the academy and place three “deans” in the division’s middle schools. As explained by Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services Dianna Lindsay, the deans would serve as advocates for students struggling in the classroom. They would work almost as case workers, ensuring that students get the services they need.

At the Dec. 7 board meeting, Acting Superintendent Scott Burckbuchler said the dean plan would serve more children than ALL, which currently has about 46 students enrolled, and would cut costs. ALL’s budget this year was $570,000; as presented, the dean plan would cost $300,000. He also said the plan represents a “paradigm shift” from pulling students out of their home schools for alternative education to serving them more effectively in their regular schools.

The parents of students at ALL agree that the dean plan sounds like a good one, but not at the cost of dismantling the academy. At Thursday’s meeting, they all shared battle stories about trying to get help for their children in the past, their amazement at their children’s achievement at ALL and their fears that their children will slip through the cracks when they return to their home schools.

The Academy for Life and Learning was created four years ago. The school was initially supposed to serve both students with disciplinary problems and students at risk of failing. But after its first year, the program was retooled to serve only the students who were struggling; since then, the school has shown success at helping students pass SOLs and earn A’s and B’s for the first times in their lives.

Parents marvelled at the change in their students in the short time some of them have attended ALL. At the school, led by Principal Anthony Mungin, students wear uniforms and receive one-on-one attention, including home visits and weekly calls to parents. Shelley Easter, whose daughter Brooke is in the 7th grade, said the quality of life in her home has vastly improved since Brooke started at ALL in September.

She shared that when her husband tagged along to an informational meeting before the year started, he walked away amazed, saying, “They already care about Brooke and they haven’t met her yet.”

Mike Jenkins said that at his lowest moments in the past, his son Nathan had asked how old he had to be before he could drop out of school. Now, he says, Nathan is talking about going to college.

With just a few days before the board is expected to vote on the proposal, the group tried to come up with ways to lobby the school board to at least delay a vote until the division’s next superintendent is named later this month. They also discussed advocating that the division test the dean plan for one year and gather data before making a permanent decision. Many of them felt the deans could recruit children for ALL.

Most of the parents never heard of ALL until it was either recommended by their child’s principal or they received a phone call from Mungin over the summer. Easter said she recently told her daughter’s former guidance counselor that Brooke is excelling at ALL and the counselor said she had never heard of the program.

The parents plan to fill the audience at Tuesday’s meeting, but will also send e-mails to school board members and try to recruit other advocates to speak up for the program. They’re already worrying about what will happen without ALL.

“I know my daughter will just disappear back into her shell again,” said Vanessa Johnson. “I’m scared to send her to high school.”

The board will have a work session at 7 p.m. on Dec. 21 in Building F of the county complex.