Program to help dropouts hired at Lake Roosevelt H.S.

A program will soon be underway to encourage high school dropouts to continue their educations through a new online program approved by the school board at its last meeting,

The board authorized the hiring of American Academy, a national group, to seek out students who have dropped out of school for one reason or another and encourage them to get back on track.

American Academy will hire mentors for the students to stay with them as they work online on specific subjects that will earn them high school credits and lead to graduation at Lake Roosevelt High School if they stay with the program.

Superintendent Dennis Carlson said that he and LRHS Principal Brad Wilson will meet with an American Academy representative next week and go over the program.

“Students would be encouraged to work on one class until they are finished with it and then move on to another,” Carlson stated. Students can move forward as fast as they want and could easily earn more than three credits a semester.

Mentors will monitor the progress of students and encourage them, Carlson explained.

Five students who have dropped out this year will be contacted as others from previous years and given a chance to get back into a learning situation.

Carlson explained to the board that American Academy will be paid the amount that the district gets for a student’s funding.

Carlson met with company officials over a year ago at a conference and then advised the board last spring that he was thinking about the merits of the program.