Burke will receive $980,000 for Hallyburton Academy

Merged alternative high school will open this fall

By: Staff reports | Morganton News Herald
Published: June 25, 2010

Drexel --

Burke County Public Schools will receive nearly $981,000 in federal funds to transform its alternative high school program.
The board of education earlier this year directed school administrators to merge East ALPS in Hildebran and College Street Academy in Morganton into a single school at the former Hallyburton Elementary building in Drexel.
Over the coming three years, the federal grant will “strengthen the workforce at the alternative school and increase the resources available to alternative school students in order to maximize their chances of academic success,” the school district announced in a press release.
"I am very pleased that with this grant we will be able to create a good quality educational program with a newly revitalized school — Hallyburton Academy," Superintendent Art Stellar said.
"Hallyburton Academy has the potential to become a model alternative school for others in North Carolina to emulate," he added.
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Congress in 2009 pumped $3.5 billion into the U.S. Department of Education’s budget for improving low-achievement schools. North Carolina’s allotment is $95 million. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction solicited grant applications from eligible schools.
Burke County Public Schools received the full amount it requested for Burke Alternative School-West (College Street Academy).
According to NC DPI, the school’s graduation rate was less than 55 percent in 2008-09 and few students showed grade-level proficiency in math or reading. These primarily are students who did not perform well in a conventional school setting.
However, enrollment has surged at both East ALPS and College Street Academy in the past two years, helped by a proactive outreach effort to bring back some dropouts and to intervene before others drop out of high school.
Hallyburton Academy will use the three-year grant to support additional teaching and counseling positions, including an instructional language arts coach and graduation coach (who will double as grant coordinator) and an end-of-course interventionist. The grant also will pay for a guidance counselor and a school resource officer.
“The instructional language arts coach will provide job-embedded professional development and assist with classroom observations,” according to the schools’ press release. “The end-of-course interventionist will work with teachers and students who will be taking end-of-course tests in order to build student competence focusing upon math.
“Over the three-year period, the grant will also provide $97,950 for teacher bonuses and $30,000 in teacher stipends to reward teachers for teaching performance and effectiveness. Teachers will be rewarded based on their attendance as well as yearly improvement in the four-year cohort graduation rate. Teachers and support staff will also be paid a stipend to work an extra week in the summer (in addition to regular teacher workdays) to set up classrooms, create lesson plans, and work with other teachers.”
The grant will begin on July 1.