Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott seniors being "paid to party"

Prescott's School Board was told how seniors can "get paid to party" this graduation.

Denise Haynes, sponsor of Project Graduation 2004, said 25-30 people have attended meetings for this, but more are needed.

The concept for Project Graduation is to ensure a safe environment for celebrating graduation night. Seniors are required to sign up to attend and will be "locked in" after commencement ceremonies until 6 a.m. the next day.

During the night they will play games and have chances to win money and prizes. There will be live music, according to Haynes, games, drawings and dancing, along with plenty of refreshments. She and others have been working to get prizes donated.

According to a pamphlet for the event, each senior participating will receive up to $100 just for attending.

Under the rules for Project Graduation, the graduates will be allowed to invite one guest to attend the festivities until 1 a.m. The guest will be required to sign up in advance as well.

Funding for this goes on all year and is dependent upon parental, faculty, student and community involvement.

Haynes said those helping need not be senior parents. In fact, most senior parents are busy with senior activities throughout the year.

"We need others in the community to get involved," she said.

Teri Vandiver updated the board on what's been going on with the ALE program for Prescott High School.

The ALE program, she said, is not punitive, but designed to help seniors who may not be able to function in a structured setting be able to graduate on time. "The public has the concept these are bad kids, but they're not. These are students who need extra attention and extra credit in order to finish up so they can graduate."

In addition, Vandiver said, there are students who work and earn their General Equivalency Degrees (GED) through the ALE program.

For the first time, she said, the majority of the seniors in ALE made the honor roll for the first nine weeks of the school year. In some instances, this was the first time some of these students had ever made the honor roll.

"They did it themselves," she said. "This is a conscientious group and I'm proud of them."

The ALE program began in 1996, she said, and since then there have been 47 students who formally graduated from high school with another 27 having earned their GED's. In fact, Vandiver added, two students have already earned GED's this year.

At this point, she said, there are 12 ALE students on schedule to graduate academically next May. Those students working to graduate academically need a total of 102 credits. "It's not impossible.

"It's a success story," she said. "They're doing things they couldn't do in regular school. Two are on schedule to graduate in December."

Students in ALE must meet the same requirements as students in mainstream schools. ALE offers different classes, including computer courses. The PLATO program is used as an instructional program for English for grades 9-12, Algebra A&B, Geometry and other courses, she said. However, students aren't allowed to do all their work on the computer. They must also do regular book work as well.

The thing to remember about ALE, she said, is it allows the students to learn and progress at their own pace.

Along with the academics, ALE students are taught practical living skills.

All classes correspond with PHS curriculum and the district's mission statement. Students in the ALE program also do community service projects. One of these projects includes the photo display of Prescott through the past 100 years. This display, Vandiver said, is at the old Prescott Hardware building and will remain up as long as possible. Once it's taken down, the photos will be donated to the Depot Museum.

The program obtained a grant and is working to compile histories of the older residents of Prescott and Nevada County. The grant is from the Arkansas Humanities Council.

"The students have been doing oral histories of older residents in the area," she said. "They tape and video their subjects and transpose all of this onto the computer. Next December we'll compile a book on the oral histories of Nevada County residents."

Vandiver said the students usually invited the subjects to the ALE classroom at the Ila Upchurch building. But, students will be going to the two retirement homes in Prescott along with paying visits to the Hamilton-Blakely Senior Adult Center later on. At this time, she added, the students have conducted 25-30 interviews.

"This is making the students feel a connection to the community," she said. "They're having a good time and it's been interesting."

According to Vandiver, not just any student can get in the ALE program. First, the student has to want to be in it, and must be approved by a committee. The student's parent/guardian must also approve the move from mainstream education to the ALE program.

Pearl Bailey told about the activities of the Prescott District Education Association (PDEA).

In October, she said Earnestene Johnson represented the PDEA at the National Education Association regional conference in Atlanta, Ga.

In November, she said, members attended an Arkansas Education Association professional development workshop in Little Rock.

They joined other AEA members in attending workshops, which included information on the No Child Left Behind program, Act 603, classroom management, peace talk, students at risk and ESL.

Willie Wilson, dean of students, said the survey results from the recent parent-teacher conference showed the parents think the district is doing a good job of education children in Prescott.

There were six questions for parents to answer, and the responses were overwhelmingly positive.