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ALL Closes With Bittersweet CeremonyBy Amber Lester Kennedy Saturday, June 18, 2011 The final completion ceremony from the Academy for Life and Learning was short on pomp and circumstance, but full of joy and love. Forty-eight students completed seventh and eighth grade at the school Thursday with a one-hour ceremony marked by jubilant performances, heartfelt speeches and group hugs. It was a bittersweet celebration for the faculty and students because after four years, the alternative education program is coming to an end. The Williamsburg-James City County School Board approved the elimination of funding for the program in March, instead planning to hire student advancement coaches for the division’s three middle schools. The coaches will be tasked with identifying and supporting struggling students, developing improvement plans and tracking students’ progress. Board members said that the coaches should be able to reach more at-risk children than the 48 enrolled at ALL. The budget for the coaches is also lower; ALL’s budget for this school year was $570,000 and the coaches, plus program changes, were budgeted for $300,000. ALL opened in 2007 under the leadership of Principal Anthony Mungin. Its students attended school in four trailers on land rented from Eastern State Mental Hospital until this past fall, when the program moved to the annex of James Blair Middle School. A staff of four teachers worked one-on-one with students on their core subjects, while an additional behavior specialist taught the students about respect and responsibility. Most students who attended the school had previously failed classes and/or their Standards of Learning tests. This year, ALL’s students achieved the school’s best scores on the reading SOL tests, and two students had perfect scores on their math SOLs. Administrators said earlier this year that they wanted to find a way to help students improve in their “home schools,” rather than be sent off-site to a different program. They also said that students who integrated back into their schools after leaving ALL were struggling to keep up their newfound academic success. Two students who graduated from ALL in 2010, Jessica Norwood and Andrea Millhouse, confirmed that they did struggle this year when they attended Lafayette High School and Jamestown High School, respectively. “Academically, I was passing, but socially it didn’t go so well,” Millhouse said after the ALL graduation ceremony. “I missed my friends from ALL and my teachers who could help me.” Norwood said that during her time at ALL she passed her math SOL for the first time, and while her grades slipped this year, she still managed to pass her SOLs. She thought part of why ALL worked was that it removed her from peer pressure and conflicts at her school. “At ALL, everyone has been through something like you’re going through,” she said. At Thursday’s ceremony, graduating students delivered speeches about the students they used to be, the students they have become and the students they will be. Rising ninth-grader Amber Anderson said her teachers at Toano Middle School let her slack off, and she had a bad habit of judging people. “I couldn’t stand Toano, so I made a decision for me and I came to ALL,” she said. “The student I am now is the student I never thought I’d be.” She went on to say that the program works because the students “have to pick each other up,” and added, “I’m sad no one else will have this experience.” Dakota Holland, who will start ninth grade next fall, shared how her ALL family supported her when her father was sent back to prison earlier this year. She said that as a student, she lacked focus, but her teachers challenged her. “They pushed me so far I thought I’d fall, but I didn’t,” she said. “I found my balance and scored a perfect 600 on the math SOL.” Parents also said the ALL experience engaged them in their children’s education. “They taught us that we brought these children into the world and that it was time to step up and be the support system they needed,” said Veronica Colon, who was recognized for her volunteer work and advocacy for the program. After the ceremony, teachers Alissa Brown and Kristin Dwyer said their time at the school will change the way they teach at Berkeley and Hornsby middle schools next year. Dwyer said that when she focused on helping the students believe in themselves, academic success followed. Brown said she will try to give individualized attention. “[The experience] has helped us to narrow in on what the kids need,” she said. In his final speech as principal, Mungin choked back tears as he told the audience his own success story. He was given up by his teenage mother when he was three years old, and spent his elementary and middle school years in special education classes. When he was an eighth grader at James Blair, his special ed teacher told him college isn’t for everybody, but his ninth grade English teacher, Susan Miller, thought he was capable of more. She told WYDaily in 2009 that he was sharp, articulate and motivated. “Nothing about him matched a profile of someone you would have labeled as remedial,” she said. He went on to take advanced classes, attend college and become an educator. On Thursday, he told the audience, “I believe there are a lot of Anthony Mungins in WJCC.” His final message was one of self-reliance. “There will be people who will not support you, who will not believe in you,” he said. “That’s why you have to believe in you.” |
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Comments
"It Takes a Whole Village to Raise a Child" which means the responsibility of raising a child does not lie in the parents alone, but also with the extended family and in some cases the whole community, the Academy for Life and Learning (ALL) somehow fit that ole’ proverb saying. You had parents that were engaged in their children’s education, teachers and a principle Mr. Mungins, which was caring and dedicated to each student’s education and life success. Children today need an atmosphere created for them to succeed, and ALL gave them, those students, that someone and something to help them into the next step of life. This environment offered them a challenge that pushed, encouraged and understood the need for them to becoming productive citizens. If many of us would have received this type of specialized attention during our early school years, imagine how much further in life we would have been.
No man, woman, or family is an island, and ALL offered a community that supported the parents as well as the students. We’d like to think we live in a place where people care about others -- where people pitch in to help when things get rough -- where our children are receiving the education and attention they need to succeed, but we all know this isn't always what we experience. Instead of our public schools system, where the children may have felt and /or/ found themselves alienated looking for someone to pay or give them close attention, ALL provided them that hope for a better education and way of life. One year ago I was asked to be a guest speaker at the school, and it gave me a great snap shot of the ALL program. During that encounter with the students at ALL, I became very impressive with what the teachers were accomplishing, and developing within these students. What our kids need today, ALL provided, which is one-on-one attention, focused educational needs, the right thing, in the right place, at the right time. It’s truly unfortunate that this program will not be around to benefit more future students.
r/ Walk
GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU!
If the closing of all is indicative of other decisions being made by our board and administration, then our schools are suffering from a crippling lack of leadership.
In WJCC is not at all about the students, it is all about the EGO of those who are sitting FAT and happy in the James Blair Administrative Building. I would love to run that office! Everyone would be paid on performance, and would actually have to do research and become immersed in the process of the quality improvement process school wide. And I would be looking for those at the top of the heap to be involved at every level. That would then separate Hands On Walkers, from the Bobble Head Talkers!
For example, Mr. Mungin and his staff are Walking the Walk. And what I have personally witnessed is outstanding results. Unlike Admin who is Talking the Talk and all I hear is BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
You sound like a school board member or Dr. Lindsay. First of all, everyone knows Dr. Mathews help create The Academy for Life and Learning and made sure it was in the superintendents budget before he left. He was a big supporter of Mr. Mungin and saw the value of the school.
Second, Mrs. Jones excelled in a program that was created to help her. IT IS DIFFICULT FOR ME TO REACH STUDENTS WHO ARE WOEFULLY LOW WHEN I HAVE 21 STUDENTS IN mY CLASS AND I'M RESPONSIBLE FOR TEACHING INFORMATION THREE GRADE LEVELS HIGHER THEN THEY ARE.
I saw a lot of students who were behavior problems go to All and it made it easier for me to teach and for the students in class to learn. It was a win-win situation for everyone. To those who think that, "my child will never go to that school so it doesn't matter to me" you are very neive! Your child will be in school and class with disruptions and behavioral issues. You earned this for Sara and Jonny because you didn't get involved.
As for the coached instead of All, we should have been talking about having both. Board members never had a child who would benefit from all so they only know what they know, not much. As soon as we see this board make decisions for all kids, then we will start having a school system that we should have in this affluent town of ours.
When you have something that is working, you talk about how you can expand it. Our board and administration, present included, never did this!
Dr. MATTHEWS ACTUALLY SUPPORTED THE ALL ACADEMY !!!