Columbus Dispatch

11/19/2006

Simone Sebastian

By her junior year of high school, Alyssa Diersing was looking for the easy way out. She left Westerville South High School to enroll at Life Skills Center of Columbus-North, a charter school that offers potential dropouts a four-hour school day and a fast track to a diploma.

A year later, the 17-year-old is back in the Westerville schools. Diersing is one of dozens of former charter-school students who have enrolled at Educational Options for Success, an alternative program run from two trailers on the Westerville North High School campus. The program offers the same short school day and personalized lessons offered at the Life Skills Center.

“It’s like a miracle for me,” she said. “We don’t have classrooms to switch. You cannot be tardy. You work at your own pace.”

Like other Franklin County school districts, Westerville had been losing a growing number of students to charters until recently. More than 300 students who live in the Westerville district chose charters in 2004-05, a 25 percent jump from the previous school year. Charters’ growth has financial consequences as well: When students leave district schools, state funding goes with them. That has cost Westerville more than $2 million a year since 2004-05.

But the Educational Options for Success program, created seven years ago for students who had been expelled or were at risk of dropping out, has helped the district stem the tide.

Now, the number of students leaving the district has stabilized and even looks like it will decline this school year, according to a district financial report. The financial toll is slightly higher this year than in 2004-05, because the state provides schools with more funding for some students, such as those in special education, than others.

High-school students often left for charters with flexible school hours and individualized lessons taught via computer, administrators said.

The Westerville school board decided in 2005 to lure back those students. Every Westerville student enrolled in a charter school received a letter from the district that explained the Educational Options for Success program.

By many accounts, the plan has worked.

Since the beginning of last school year, more than 25 students have left their charter school to enroll in Educational Options for Success, which allows students to take lessons through a computer program at their own speed.

“Our program works for that target group of kids that are seeking an alternative to the traditional schools,” said Marcia Childs, a counselor at the Westerville program. “They want to get out of (school), and we tap into that.”

The number of students at the Life Skills School has slightly decreased this year, but officials are not concerned, said spokesman Bob Tenenbaum.

“There’s a lot of kids who need a school like this and they’re not all being reached by a long shot,” he said. “There’s no battle going on between charter schools and traditional public schools. We have the same goal of educating students.” He said the Life Skills Center still has several students from Westerville.

“It’s really a trend now in public-school systems that are opening up these programs similar to the Life Skills model,” he said, noting similar new programs in Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton. “From the Life Skills standpoint, it’s kind of flattering.”

Still, some former charter students say they prefer the Westerville program. “I was trying to graduate and I wasn’t getting it there,” said Reggie Randle, 17, who transferred back from the Life Skills School. “I’ve only been here a month, and I have three credits already. Someone in college will look at me faster now.”

ssebastian@dispatch.com

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