It was refreshing to hear a Schenectady school official finally sound open to the idea of a charter school, especially when that official was none other than Superintendent Eric Ely. The superintendent was responding to a proposal announced earlier this month by Northeast Parent and Child Society for a new charter high school in the city that would target at-risk students primarily from the city’s Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods. The proposal is intriguing because it would combine academic instruction and career development, something Northeast already has shown it can do successfully. Despite the intense focus on college prep in high school, not every student wants to, or is ready to go, that route. Pretending otherwise only increases the chances that they will be turned off to school, behave badly in the classroom, drop out. Ways must be found to reach these kids, keep them interested and learning, and prepare them for the working world, college or no college. Ely’s predecessor, John Falco, acknowledged this a few years ago when he turned the old alternative school at Steinmetz into a career academy. Nearly 240 students are enrolled there, in smaller classes, learning culinary arts, media arts, offi ce management and property management and maintenance. According to a district guidance counselor, students are happier, staying with the program and graduating in greater numbers. Northeast has many years of experience teaching kids with educational and behavioral diffciculties. And more recently, it has run YouthBuild, a very successful national program for high school dropouts and at-risk kids ages 16 to 24. YouthBuild combines classroom learning with closely supervised, hands-on training — one week at a time on alternate weeks — in the construction industry that leads to real, well-paying jobs. The training consists of building affordable housing for the community. Northeast plans to use this program as a model and expand on it with paid internships. While not endorsing this particular school, Ely, who attended one meeting with the organizers, said: “We’re not opposed to fair competition. We’re not opposed to options for students,” and “We are . . . willing to go to the table and talk to people if it’s going to help our kids.” Those are the right things to say. The coming months will show if Ely means them.
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