Saved by the School Bell

Voices carry down the long hallway at St. Michael’s High School in the Mid-City area, where orderly students decked out in white tops and black pants sit in large classrooms, listening to lectures and busily scribbling notes.

As other schools air out their classrooms and prepare for a new year, this program for high school students is already in full swing.

The doors are back open at the Soledad Enrichment Action schools, and for many of the troubled teenagers who fill the system’s seats, it isn’t a moment too soon.

For 25 years, the innovative alternative school program based in East Los Angeles took in students who had nowhere else to go. Expelled from their home high schools and often caught up in the world of gangs, these young people ended up at the nonprofit organization as a last resort.

Almost 900 teenagers--the majority on court-ordered probation--were studying in one of 16 classrooms around Los Angeles County when the program was forced to shut down last fall after violating state administrative regulations.

“It was devastating,” said teacher Eddie Ramirez. “Not just because I didn’t have a job, but you saw a lot of kids just left out. Without this program, there’s really not anyone willing to take them back.”

County education officials said they helped place students back at their home school districts or in other county programs, but acknowledged that some students may not have attended classes.

Many were relieved last week when the enrichment program began reopening classrooms around the county, freshly bolstered with official charter status from the state.

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Eight sites from Hollywood to Compton, serving about 200 students, opened this month. Directors hope to increase the student body to 1,200 in 24 classrooms by the end of this year.

The program lost its contract with the county last September after the state found that the program improperly hired non-county employees and was mistakenly funded as an independent study program, among other violations.

Students and parents caravaned to Sacramento to plead with the state Legislature to support a bill sponsored by Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) that would give the system charter status and reinstate the program. After unanimous support from the Assembly and Senate, Gov. Pete Wilson signed the legislation last month.

At the end of the tumultuous year, the staff greeted this back-to-school season with more than just the typical aplomb.

“Everyone cheered--we were all so delighted,” said Teresa Duran, program director for family services. “It lifted our spirits and brought a joy in our hearts to see the kids back in the classrooms.”

When the schools shut down, it was chaos, said Alfred Monroy, who runs the county Probation Department’s East Los Angeles gang unit.

The program “is the only place for these kids to go,” Monroy said. “We lost a lot of kids, had a lot more violence and drugs. These kids are on a destructive path, and when there’s no schools to go to, they just turn to these things.”

Although some program officials asserted that substantial numbers of children spent months out of school, David Flores, alternative education director of the county office of education, said the number was very small.

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During the year, the county hired some enrichment program teachers and kept about half of the sites open. Other students returned to their home school districts or enrolled in different county programs. Nevertheless, by the end of the hot summer, some students ended up back in youth detention camp and others had been involved in gang-related shootings, program officials said.

Students said they were excited to get back to school, which for many is an escape from the violent aimlessness outside.

“I like it here,” said Cesar Cardona, 17, who said he spent the year hanging around his South Los Angeles neighborhood. He first came to the centers three years ago after being expelled for drinking at his home high school. “I think mostly anyone would. It’s better than just hanging out on the streets, doing nothing. Other kids should be here, getting an education and doing something with their lives.”

Parents and probation officers alike credit the program for giving troubled youths another chance, and praise the focus on individual attention for students and mandated counseling for their parents.

The goal is to help students catch up and return them to their home high schools within a few months. Some stay with the enrichment program until they graduate.

At St. Michael’s, a former private school, and other sites around the county, students work in small groups in curricula designed to meet their needs.

On Thursday, junior Jose Garcia tackled geometry problems in a room full of busy students.

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“I never completed a month of class before this,” said Garcia, who dropped out of his old high school. “I didn’t like it--there was too much pressure. But now I want to get my diploma, maybe go into the Army or Navy.”

The program succeeds primarily because students receive more attention than they can get in traditional high schools, staff members said.

In addition, all parents are required to participate in a 20-week skills course, and students can enroll in job training, drug and alcohol treatment, college placement and after-school programs.

“We emphasize the positive,” said Brother Fred Narberes, the school administrator. “Then the students begin to realize, ‘These people are here for me. This education is really for me.’ ”