New alternative ed program to come to Scotts Valley High School

Scotts Valley Unified School District will be rolling out an alternative education program for Scotts Valley High juniors and seniors next school year called K Street Academy.
 According to school officials, one of the key objectives of the new program is keeping those students on campus who are struggling with the college prep curriculum rather than losing them to truancy and other alternative education programs.      
“We’re basically giving our students an option,” said Christie Danner, School Counselor and part of the Alt Ed Team that put the K Street Academy program together.
Danner and Scotts Valley High School Assistant Principal Mike Hanson gave a presentation on the K Street Academy to the Scotts Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees at their regular meeting Tuesday.
“Make no mistake, this program will be rigorous and leave students feeling like they worked hard and earned a Scotts Valley High School diploma like everybody else when they finish the program,” Danner told the board.
Graduates from the K Street Academy will not meet all of the requirements for acceptance directly into four year universities but “will absolutely prepare students for success at community college or vocational schools,” Danner said.
According to Danner and Hanson, the K Street Academy will be a specially designed, alternative education program embedded on the campus with the same class schedule and with access to all the usual high school activities, but will “look and feel different,” Danner said.
She said that the relatively small class will stay in the same room most of the day and teachers will rotate in and out.  This will create a more project-based, collaborative curriculum, according to Danner and Hanson.  
“This program will also give teachers an alternative,” Hanson said at the school board meeting. “For those students who you as a teacher are just not able to access in a regular classroom setting.”
Hanson said much research was done on the successful features of other alternative ed programs for the design of the K Street Academy, and one feature that stood out was keeping almost all the academic work in the classroom, with minimal, if any, homework. 
“The K Street Academy was designed to provide a support system for those kids who might otherwise fall through the cracks,” said Michele Stewart, Director of Curriculum for the SVUSD.   “Different alternative high schools may better meet their needs, and we want to keep them here in Scotts Valley.” According to Stewart they want to keep the teachers but don’t want to pigeon-hole kids who learn differently, and we want to give them something of a say in the way they learn.
“I’m all in,” said Michael Shulman, president of the school board. “Diversity in educational styles to reach more kids is great, and making Scotts Valley High School a more welcoming place for kids who are struggling is a good thing to do. I’m very excited about it.”