Katie Duran, Alternative School Instructor for the Plymouth Community School Corporation updated members of the Plymouth School Boards last week on the 2020-2021 school year. Craig Hopple is the second teacher in the Alternative program.
The Alternative High School program began in 1998 and continues with a morning class for 15 students, afternoon class for 15 students and the night school offering is open to any students. The curriculum is all online and focuses on credit recovery for the core classes of science, math, English and social studies.
Speaking about the success of the program Duran said, “Despite the global pandemic we had a 96% graduation rate for last year while the goal this year is to have a 92% graduation rate this year.” She said there was a PHS senior who was able to recover 13 credits while supporting themselves and working full time. There was also a student who graduated a year and a half early. She said they had severe anxiety but was able to start college classes this fall at IUSB in Culinary Arts.
Enrollment in the Alternative School was 59 for the 2019-2020 school year with 7 additional students in night school. This year there are 57; 4 freshmen, 7 sophomores, 18 juniors and 28 seniors.
The annual goals of the Alternative School are focused on graduation and attendance.
Looking at the credits recovered, in 2019-2020 there were 225 credits recovered and last year in 2020-2021 that number was 264. In night school the credit numbers were 21 and 23.
Duran said they are working to grow the program and moving the program to the Lincoln Education Center has been wonderful along with bringing on Mr. Hopple on as a second teacher so the enrollment can be at 60 students.
Duran closed out her comments saying, “Since we have been in school this year we have recovered, between the two programs, not counting credit recovery 110 credits. This time last year we were at 60.” She continued saying having two teachers is an improvement and she would like to have a third support person on the program in the future.
