- A Decatur County alternative school is working to help students graduate or return to their home school.
- Right now attendance is between 150 to 200 students a year, and the center graduated 47 seniors this year.
- Watch the story to hear from students who have earned a way back to their home schools next school year.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"It's to give those students a second chance.. So they can earn their way back to their home school,” said principal for New Beginnings Learning Center, Stephaine Green.
I'm taking a deeper look behind a school that aims to give students a non-traditional option to succeed.
"I like to write short little stories about ideals that I have in my head,” said student Savannah Edenfield.
Edenfield is 13-years-old and tells me she enjoys writing.
She told me since attending New Beginnings Learning Center she's had time to reflect on the actions that brought her to the alternative school.
" I learned to not do the things that I used to do because that can get me in more trouble than I'm already in,” said Edenfield.
New Beginnings offers non-traditional education options for Decatur County students who have broken school rules, failed to meet attendance standards or are living with intellectual disabilities.
Programs are offered to grades 6th through 12th.
"Just the need to see students succeed. We've had kids go into the military or go on to college,” said Green.
Despite the many school programs geared to help students either graduate or head back to their home schools some students like Emmaleigh Gibson said she soon realized how much she missed the programs offered at Bainbridge Middle School, like band and Future Farmers of America.
"Be grateful that I have more opportunities there than I do here,” said Gibson.
Gibson's mother Jessica Cook said these past months for her and her child have been tough but needed.
""When it all went down it was overwhelming for everybody. But there's been a change in her because of it,” according to Cook.
Green told me right now attendance is between 150 to 200 students a year and the center graduated 47 seniors this year.
