The Alternative Learning Center has a space near the language hallway. The place they use has its pros and cons, but recently they got the approval to move to a place where there are only pros; the ALC will mobilize to the former Oak Park Elementary School by the next school year.

ALC Principal Mary Ticiu said that right now the place is used as a community building, and that they will have a great new space for their students to learn.

Any student may unique learning needs, and that is the reason why the ALC was created. Students may have external problems that affect daily life and responsibilities such as work, and school, it comes with stress too. The ALC helps these students, and helps them learn many lessons, and not only for school.

“They’ve had to jump over barriers that others haven’t had to have in their life,” Ticiu said about the struggles of some students.

The ALC students will lose some things they currently have access to the Pony Activity Center, the wood shop, classes that need a big group to exist, such as choir and band. This change will be hard for some students and that is the reason that the ALC is letting the students decide if they want to stay or go.

“We [ALC students] do have a lot more access to everything that all students in the high school have,” graduating student Liliana Emery said.

The ALC counts approximately 90 students that are in need of educational help. They designed their own unique schedule and teaching methods. The ALC uses a teaching method called bundling, in which students get more than one credit for an assignment, and every single student learns at their own pace.

“Say you write a report for social studies, you might get an English credit for that,” Administrative Assistant Angela Krogh said.

The ALC teachers are also a big support for the students as each student learns at their own pace and has their own personalized things to study. The teachers always need to update each and every student’s personal continuous improvement plan to what they are learning, and that is one of the many reasons that they are also moving with the ALC.

“I do love all of our teachers. I love the fact that they get to know us individually… They get to know us like if we’re a family together in that little area. That we get to call a little home,” Emery said.

. To enter the ALC a student will need some specific things to apply, but it all starts with the counselor, as they will talk more with the student and see if they want to apply for the ALC, and do it quickly, or you might do it at Oak Park.

“The ALC is a second chance,” Krogh said.

If interested in the ALC, check out their  Facebook and the school page.