Foothills Charter School to open at MCHS campus in August; evening program to help students get diploma

“Foothills is about trying to remove barriers that prevent kids from graduating in traditional environments to help them get back on track so that they can become productive members of society,” said Madison County High School science teacher Andy Felt, who is serving as co-site coordinator for Foothills’ MCHS campus, along with Renee Padgett, Elbert County High School principal.

The school will open in August in the old main building of the high school. (Go inside the old main MCHS entrance, turn right, then take a left down the first hall).

The new school will have up to 160 students, five classrooms and 17 teachers, including active and retired instructors. Classes will be Monday through Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m. and run through the school year and the summer. The school receives funding based on its FTE (population) count, just like other high schools. Students ages 14 to 20 from anywhere in the state are eligible to attend. Felt said the Danielsville campus will mostly be comprised of students from Madison, Elbert, Oglethorpe and Franklin counties.

“It’s a non-traditional classroom,” said Felt. “Students work at their own pace. It’s a computer-based curriculum called ‘Gradpoint.’ And it delivers instruction to kids. It gives them short quizzes. Once they’ve mastered the quiz, they move on to the next. There is no way for a student to fail. You just keep on trying it until you’re successful, which I think is really good for a lot of kids who have struggled academically in school. Because we encourage them to stay with it until they get there.”

When a student comes to Foothills, they will get a mentor, who will meet with them weekly to check on their progress. The students will get a graduation plan, as well as help developing a post high school plan as well.

Felt said there will generally be one teacher on hand for every five or six students. So those students will get more hands-on instruction than in traditional settings.

Students have no homework.

“We ask them to work hard while they are here,” said Felt.

Likewise, there is no attendance policy once the student turns 16.

“So if they have other obligations with work or family, as a lot of students have, they can come on the nights they’re available and there’s not penalty for missing,” said Felt.

Padgett cited a quote from George Eliot to relate to the function of Foothills: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

“I thought that was so inspiring, because as a high school principal, I’ve been in education 33 years and you see kids give up when they’re so close to obtaining that goal,” said Padgett. “And I think Foothills is going to be that place that is going to have that support in place and the people in place to help kids meet their goals. And when they start falling behind, we’ll be there to encourage them and help them work through it. And it does have a lot more support services than what a regular high school can do for an individual student.”

Felt said his work at MEC has been rewarding. And he believes Foothills will be the same.

“I’ve worked at MEC for the last two years, and I’ve just really seen that it’s a really beneficial program for students who don’t fit into the mold of a typical high school student for a wide variety of reasons,” he said. “I think it really helps kids who have kind of lost their way academically to kind of get back on track. MEC is what we call a second-chance high school. It’s generally not what somebody plans on doing when they begin high school. But if they fall behind on grades or attendance or just need to work to support the family, it really offers them some flexibility that’s beneficial.”

Felt said he can relate to students at the charter school, because he was once in similar shoes.

“I have sort of a personal stake in this as well, because I once was one of those kids,” said Felt. “When I was coming up through school, I was very close to dropping out of high school myself. And what made the difference for me was two things: I had a chance to have a fresh start somewhere else. And I had really good, caring teachers at the school that I transferred to and that made all the difference for me. That’s what I’m hoping Foothills can do for our kids. I think a lot of times people just get off to a bad start and it’s nice if you get a chance to try again in a forgiving environment.”

Felt said discipline problems are not a big issue at MEC and he doesn’t foresee trouble with Foothills either.

“We really have very few discipline problems with this model.,” said Felt. “And I think that’s one of the strengths of it as well. Some kids have had behavior issues in the past. And a lot of the things they would get in trouble for are just not really an issue with us. If someone is having a bad night and they’re just not able to be productive for whatever reason, we tell them to go home and let’s try it again tomorrow. We don’t do in school suspension and detention.”

Felt said he’s hoping the word will spread to all kids who could be helped by Foothills.

“As a school, we believe that all of those kids are worth saving and we want to get the word out and get as many of those students on track with us as we can,” he said.