Academy offers no-frills education

By JEFF GILL
The Times
August 21, 2006

Every student has to walk the blue line at the Gainesville Learning Academy.

Students at the Gainesville City Schools' alternative school enter the building through a coat room, but they can't enter the main hallway until they've been cleared by a security wand.

And then it's walk in a straight line on the hallway's blue tiles, without talking, until they reach their classrooms.

Thirteen newly installed video cameras inside the building and one outside capture every movement.

"We want (the students) to have a great academic experience, but they need something socially rigorous," said Bill Harner, who oversees the school as the district's director of secondary programs.

The school, which serves students who are struggling with behavior, academics or both, has undergone vast changes in just the brief summer between school years.

In addition to a new staff, the school has new furniture, new rules, new curriculum and a new coat of white paint in each classroom.

Also, classrooms don't have bright decorations. "I took everything that could be a distraction out of the classroom," Harner said.

Basically, it's all business for the students, many of whom have failed the state's basic-skills tests as well as core academic classes.

"They all know they haven't different gates here," said Harner, referring to points at which they can return to Gainesville Middle or Gainesville High schools.

"By mid-year, most are (finished) here. Our goal is to get them back into the mainstream."

Currently, 23 students attend the school, which is behind Fair Street Elementary School in a building that also houses the system's International Center.

The school has three major goals, academic achievement, behavior modification and community service, that are displayed in a bulletin board in front of the main office.

Students must complete 20 hours per month of community service, a feature that also is new to the school.

They could end up working with the Humane Society of Hall County or the district's maintenance department.

Fair Street principal Merrianne Dyer plans to come to the school to interview students in an effort to find one who can work in her school for a couple hours per day, Harner said.

"We want to help them understand about having a job," he added.

Unlike the typical alternative school, Gainesville Learning Academy also allows parents to enroll their child by choice.

The school has small class sizes and individual learning plans driven by computer-based instruction.

The school uses a computer program, Compass Learning, that helps staff keep track of students' academic progress and assign work based on their level of learning.

"We have times when we have five or six kids who are on the same page (academically) and we can teach them concepts," said first-year teacher Brant Glover, a Gainesville High graduate. "... The computer is great, but it doesn't replace a human."

Linda Hutchens, a longtime educator who retired in 2001, began this school year working two hours a day teaching reading and language arts to the students.

"I love the challenge. I love seeing young people accomplish and achieve goals," she said. "If you can be successful with these students, you can be successful with any student."