Education

Home at last: New building transforms longtime Mat-Su alternative school

PALMER -- Students at Valley Pathways alternative school spent the last 14 years in portable classrooms moored in a wind-blasted parking lot near Palmer.

They clustered into four different portables to eat lunch. There were no hot meals. No gym, except for the basketball hoop outside. Limited computer access. No assemblies -- no auditorium.

The close quarters and unorthodox learning environment forged a bond among students at this school established to serve so-called "at risk" youth in danger of failing or dropping out.

But now, the portables are gone. Valley Pathways is housed in a glossy, new $22.5-million building with 15 instructional spaces, a media center and state-of-the-art equipment.

Just under 200 seventh- to 12th-graders -- a new middle school also started this year -- attend classes in rooms outfitted with high-tech everything, including what officials call a "Fort Knox" of a security system. They work out in a gym with a regulation-size basketball court and gather in a modern, airy commons area that doubles as cafeteria and auditorium.

There are labs filled with computers, natural light throughout, hot lunches -- and finally some rooms to talk privately at this school that leans hard on communication.

"Our kids deserve a building. After 14 years, they truly deserve it," said high school mathematics teacher Rob Hassen. "There is more school pride, there's something tangible. You can see it, you can touch it, you can walk on it."

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Alternate path

Valley Pathways is one of several alternative schools in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District that cater to students who struggle in traditional middle or high school settings for a range of reasons. Among them are homelessness, teen parenting, substance use and abuse, medical problems or untreated mental health issues.

Gabe LoRusso, a senior at Pathways, left Palmer High School after feeling like "there were eyes on me and they didn't want me there" and the mounting distractions left him falling behind academically.

Now he's hoping to make up enough credits to graduate on time.

"I can. I know I can, so I'm determined to," LoRusso said.

There are at least 16 of what the state calls "alternative schools" serving high-risk students in Alaska, from Juneau to the North Slope Borough. (The Anchorage School District uses a broader definition for "alternative schools," including under that classification schools with elective programs that use educational philosophies such as Montessori, International Baccalaureate and open optional.) More than half the students at 13 of those schools qualify for free or reduced lunch; hundreds are pregnant or parenting teens and hundreds more are homeless, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

Students at Valley Pathways say they needed the personal attention and flexibility the school provides. Pathways operates on a trimester system, so it's possible to earn more credits in the year, a major benefit for some students who had been lagging behind at their other schools.

They say the school's attentive teachers, computer-based learning options, and generally smaller class sizes -- as low as 10 to 15 students per class, sometimes 15 to 20, though occasionally more -- works for them in a way their old high schools didn't.

Ethan Secoy started at Pathways as a junior last year. He failed almost every one of his classes at Palmer, he said.

He graduated from the Alaska Military Youth Academy a few weeks ago with a GED, and he expects to graduate from Pathways in November.

His father, Red Secoy, said his son wouldn't have gone on to get his diploma without Pathways.

"Very proud of him," he wrote in a message.

Adviser difference

The school's principal, Jim Wanser, started at Pathways after working at longstanding Wasilla alternative Burchell High School, and brought with him the adviser emphasis that he says sets Valley Pathways apart.

Wanser says he works to hire teachers with an ability to connect with students and a passion for education. They bring different personalities to the job: Some are enthusiastic cheerleaders, some enforcers, some nurturing types. Each student is assigned an adviser from the staff, based on their needs and the recommendation of school counselors.

Advisers serve as graduation counselors, making sure students have the right mix of coursework and credits. But they also serve as the first line of communication when a student has a personal problem or an emotional blowout in class. The teacher sends them to their adviser. The adviser, who generally has a tight bond with the student, tries to talk them down before they lose their cool or disrupt the class further.

Hollie Titus, a junior, says her adviser is one of her best friends. She likes the fact that he, along with other staff, treat her with maturity and high expectations.

"I can talk with him about anything," Titus said.

A new middle

This year marks the first time Valley Pathways is offering a middle school.

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About 30 seventh and eighth graders attend the program this year, with room for about 10 more. Assistant principal Joanne Heinz says she is convinced there'll be a waitlist by year's end. Students are referred by guidance counselors after spending a year at a traditional middle school.

"Some kids just really need something smaller," Heinz said.

Wanser said school officials hope the addition of the middle school will help stabilize the transiency of the overall school population. Between spring graduation and summertime student movement, Pathways loses half its population from one school year to the next.

He also hopes the middle school, where some students are taking high school classes with high school credit, will boost the school's early graduation rate. It's currently at about 10 percent of graduates, though historically almost all students enrolled at the high school come in short on credits.

It's possible that middle school students will have earned four to five high school credits by the time they enroll as ninth-graders, Wanser said.

Moving past portables

The new school marks a big change for a student population that forged its identity on small size and unconventional ways.

Pathways staff and students rallied around the portables. They called it "camping," and packing into those make-do classrooms was like a daily team-building exercise that became part of the intimate, family atmosphere Valley Pathways tries to provide.

Some students say they hope Valley Pathways never loses the closeness and sense of identity forged through those tough but rewarding years without a "real" school.

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Junior Hannah Manasco, who's attended Pathways for two years since leaving Palmer with just a half-credit earned her freshman year, now plans to be a marine biologist.

Manasco said the old set-up was small, easy to figure out, comforting.

"I absolutely loved the portables ... I guess that's the first place I went, so I was more attached to that," she said. "It seemed more friendly."

Wanser says he tried to reassure students as plans crystallized for the new building.

"There was a lot of anxiety that we were going to become the big institutions that they left. They didn't want us to become Colony or Palmer or Wasilla or Houston," he said.

But, he noted, enrollment at those schools ranges from 800 to 1,200, a "far cry" from the 240 students that marks Pathways' capacity. And within a few years, any of the students who remember portables will have moved on.

"The building is where we do business," Wanser said. "It's the people in the building that make us what we are."

Contact Zaz Hollander at zhollander@alaskadispatch.com.

Zaz Hollander

Zaz Hollander is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su and is currently an ADN local news editor and reporter. She covers breaking news, the Mat-Su region, aviation and general assignments. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com.

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