Post in $60M School Referendum Proposal

May 24 21:28 UTC

My son attended Ascension Academy on 17th and Dupont Av. N. for all four of his
high school years. It is a small school. My son's graduating class had 20
students in it. In the years to follow the sizes will be somewhat bigger.

  19 of the 20 students graduated from high school. 15 of these students
graduated in four years. One will need to return next year. Five of those were
on the honor roll. One boy (my son - yeah!) and four girls ( one of them my
son's girlfriend - another yeah! He likes smart ones). All 19 students are
enrolled in post secondary schools. All of them children of color and many on
the free and reduced lunch program.

  I think that is pretty impressive. It was no small feat either. Many of these
students transferred from other schools and were missing credits required to
graduate. Many of them had to take the compulsory tests several times in order
to pass them. But, they did pass. The amazing staff of the school worked
overtime, weekends and summers with these kids to get them where they needed to
be.

  We chose a small charter school for my son because we believed that he would
thrive better in a small learning environment. My son while confident would
hang in the shadow (so-to-speak) if not encouraged. That is harder to do in a
small learning environment. Average class size is 7-10 kids. We felt that he
could fall through the cracks too easily in a larger high school. The
communication between the school staff and the parents is top notch. We had the
e-mail addresses of every teacher and school administrator and they ours. If
there was anything we needed to be aware of they did not hesitate to let us
know so we could be partners in resolving any issues. That was comforting to me
because while my son ended his high school experience on on the honor roll it
wasn't without a large boot in his ......... on occasion. The open
communication also allowed us to provide the school staff with information we
thought was important for them to know about our son. Teen-aged "drama"
 or "hormonal challenges"  (any parent of a teen knows what I mean) does affect
how a kid behaves in school and if the teachers and staff can be aware of any
issues that arise they can often times respond to it and help the student and
parents resolve the issue.

  My son went through an extremely traumatic experience this winter. The
situation put our whole family in misery. 81 days of pure terror. (That's a
story for another time) The staff and administration of this school was so
supportive to him and us. They gave their personal time to help us all through
the situation. It was amazing. Blake was not the only student who had faced
adversity during their high school years. We heard from the Student Council
President about how his Mother was shot and killed by her boyfriend and that if
it hadn't been for his friends and teachers at school he would not have made it
through it. There are kids in the school who live in horrific situations and
some even live on their own yet all but one managed to graduate. And the one
that didn't is going to return next year instead of giving up.

  For us, it's been a fabulous partnership and the happy confident proud look
on my son's face at his graduation ceremony was worth every minute.

  Barb Lickness

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world.  Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead