COUNTYWIDE : 2 Junior Highs Win ‘$500,000 Giveaway’

The County Department of Education announced Wednesday that Kraemer Junior High school in Placentia and Dale Junior High in Anaheim are the winners in what county schools Supt. John F. Dean called a “$500,000 giveaway.”

The two schools will split the money, provided by the Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning, and will use the funds to begin pilot programs for “latchkey” students and others at risk of delinquency or substance abuse.

“If we want the students who don’t have Mom at home waiting with milk and cookies to be as successful (as other students), then we need to do something for them after school,” said Randi Trontz, principal of Kraemer Junior High.

Dale and Kraemer each have about 900 students with large percentages of latchkey children, bilingual students and gang activity in the surrounding communities. At Kraemer, about 200 students have grade point averages of less than 2.0 and many have family members involved in gangs, Trontz said.

“Our seventh- and eighth-graders are seeing things they shouldn’t have to see--shootings and shoot-outs.”

Although Kraemer does not have many problems with drugs, alcohol or cigarettes, some students bring guns and knives to school because they are afraid of violence in the community, Trontz said. Many youngsters get into trouble because they lack adequate supervision, she added.

“If they fall in love with archery or French cooking or whatever we have, then maybe we can save them from being involved in a gang,” Trontz said.

Both schools will expand existing after-school activities and add other programs for students and their parents.

Trontz said she expects some of the new features to begin within the month, with others being phased in over the next year.

Much of the money at both schools will be used to staff the programs. Each will hire a part-time clerk, full-time coordinator and three full-time counseling interns. The counselors will do individual and group counseling with parents and students as well as teach parenting classes.

In Placentia, programs will be conducted on the Kraemer campus, at two community centers and at one of the six elementary schools from which students go on to the junior high, Trontz said.