ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL OFFERS WAY FOR STUDENTS TO GET AN EDUCATION

Instructor Joyce Barylski, left, worked with Kathy Hannah and Chris Robbins as they wrote letters to the editor of the Southeast Missourian.

Georgia Rodgers has to deal with more than high school homework. The 19-year-old is married and has a 16-month-old daughter and two stepsons, ages 5 and 8. She also holds down a part-time job with a Jackson day-care center and is a breast-feeding educator for the Women, Infants and Children program.

She dropped out of Jackson High School in the fall of 1993. She was hospitalized for severe depression. She later was released from the hospital. Her doctor didn't want her to return to school, but Rodgers wanted to go back to get her diploma.

Then she got pregnant and finishing high school seemed out of the question. Today, however, she is working toward her high school diploma as one of 22 students enrolled in Cape Girardeau's Alternative Education Center.

Rodgers was the first student to be enrolled in the alternative school. She will graduate next year and has her sights set on going to college.

The alternative school operates out of three crowded classrooms in the Salvation Army building at 701 Good Hope. It's a no-frills place. There are no lockers, school mascot, music or art classes. The focus is on basics: English, science, social studies and math.

The classes run from 8:30 to noon, which allows students like Rodgers to hold down a job. Students get credit for working.

Rodgers and her husband live on their own. "I don't have extra money," she said. "I have bills to pay just like everybody else.

Rodgers is one of three teen mothers at the school. Another student is pregnant. The student body includes a former gang member. Many of the students were kicked out or dropped out of high school because they couldn't conform to high school rules, such as dress codes. Many were viewed as discipline problems.

"I got put on permanent suspension last November for having my hair died purple," said Jamie Plouffe, a ninth-grade student who now attends the alternative school.

Six freshmen, six sophomores, eight juniors and two seniors attend classes at the center.

While the students had problems in traditional school settings, they aren't dumb. "They are bright," said Randy Barnhouse, one of the education center's three teachers.

The school opened its doors Nov. 13 with a $48,000 grant from Missouri's Division of Youth Services. The program is run by the Cape Girardeau public schools but is open to students in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties of the 32nd Judicial Circuit. So far, most of the students are from the Cape Girardeau school system.

No one is forced to attend. "They have to want to be here," said Sheldon Tyler, the center's director. The students call him "Mr. T."

A former substitute teacher, Tyler started the detention program for the Cape Girardeau public schools.

"Fifty percent of these kids I had in sixth grade," he said, and "another 25 percent I had in detention school."

There is no dress code. Doyle Winston, who used to be late to class and write gang graffiti at Cape Central High School, regularly keeps his hooded blue coat on in the Alternative Education Center's classrooms. Students can bring food and drink into the classrooms, but if they act up, privileges are taken away.

Joyce Barylski teaches English, literature, creative writing and earth science at the center. She first had to gain the trust of her students.

"Kids just automatically don't trust their teachers to begin with," she said.

Today, she and the students have a good relationship. Acceptance and trust are vital to a good learning environment, she said.

With many students dropping out of high school -- more than 100 drop out of the Cape Girardeau public schools each year -- Missourians are increasingly turning to alternative schools.

An alternative school called DREAMERS recently opened in Kennett. DREAMERS stands for Developing Responsible Employees through Alternative Methods of Education for at-Risk Students. Housed in a former Baptist church, the school serves 21 students from Kennett and six other school districts in the Bootheel.

Janet Carter, the school's coordinator, said the program is designed to serve 40 students at a time. She said the program was established because of concern over the high dropout rate in the area. The program targets students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out, and teen-age parents and those who are pregnant.

"We felt the needs of these students weren't being met in the traditional classroom and we wanted to try to provide an alternative for them," she said.

Gov. Mel Carnahan wants the state to spend $10 million to help establish more alternative schools.

No one is cheering for alternative school students more than the teachers at the Cape Girardeau center.

"It's their ticket to something better," Barnhouse said.