ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR A NEW EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM EARLY COLLEGE PROVIDES A HEAD START.

Byline: CONNIE LLANOS 

Staff Writer

VALENCIA -- Former math teacher Erum Jones can't hold back her smile when she talks about the last few months.

It's been a whole lot of work but a whole lot of fun.

"It's been like a dream come true," Jones said. "I can't tell you how often I've found myself excited about coming to work."

The dream started for Jones more than a year ago, when she learned she would be the head of the Hart Union High School District's first Early College high school -- a Bill Gates program designed for high school kids to concurrently work for college credits.

Jones has spent months carefully hand-picking her freshman class. Her recruitment efforts got her 85 students who will start in two weeks. All of them fit the program's guidelines of finding students who traditionally do not make it to college.

These can be minority students or students who financially could not attend college. Students whose parents did not attend college also qualify.

"At the end of the day the prime candidates are the students who can benefit the most from the early college model," Jones said.

The inaugural class will start classes Aug. 27 on the College of Canyons Canyon Country campus, when that facility is scheduled to open. The school's first week of classes will be held on the college's Valencia campus.

While the Early College model has restrictions on participants, curriculum and instruction are flexible, something administrators find refreshing.

Jones was able to assign, and purchase, summer reading for her entire freshman class and her staff of three teachers.

"On the first day we will all discuss our assignment, we can all be on the same page," Jones said.

Jones also wrote her own ninth-grade course work, which has been approved by the Hart district.

The Ninth Grade Seminar class will focus on getting the young teens prepared for the rigors of college courses.

SOAR -- Students On Academic Rise -- High School, is the Antelope Valley's early college campus. Michael Dutton, principal of the high school, explained that during his first year, he faced several hurdles including helping 13- and 14-year-olds adapt to a college campus.

"We had one student who was playing Hacky Sack and happened to kick the sack onto the roof of a campus building," Dutton said.

"He decided he would climb up to get his sack. He quickly realized that climbing up a college building involved the police, not a principal, which was a great learning experience for him."

Maturity is one thing these young scholars just gain, having given up a traditional high school experience, Dutton said.

Early college campuses offer perks that regular high schools don't have, such as smaller classrooms and nontraditional lesson plans, but these teens give up high school athletics and other activities. Dutton said the first student he had drop out of the program did so to become a cheerleader at a traditional high school.

"If athletics is a big reason for you to be in high school then this is not the ideal college for you," Dutton said.

Discipline is another issue Dutton does not deal with. About 15 students quit during the school's first year, many of whom wouldn't behave. The program doesn't allow for the time wasted on detentions or suspensions.

Despite the bumps, Dutton said the experience has been so satisfying it has moved him to delay his retirement at least three years to see his first Early College grads receive their diplomas.

"This is the administrative opportunity of a lifetime," Dutton said.

Bill Thayer, a computer analyst from Castaic, is hoping the high school changes his daughter's life.

Neither Thayer nor his wife finished college.

"This is an incentive for them to go on to college," Thayer said. "We only knew about programs that got them in 11th or 12th grade, but that's when kids usually check out. This gets them on the college track as freshmen."

Jones is excited about all the extra perks her students will receive with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, although it covers start-up costs for the first four years.

"Oh, we are blinged out as far as technology goes," Jones said.

Students will have access to 30 wireless laptops that they can check out throughout the day and graphing calculators will be handed out to all students.

"I have interviewed these kids extensively and we will do whatever we need to tap into their strengths," Jones said.

Jones sees her first stint as a principal as an adventure, and she can't wait.

"My 85 students are going to be the best 85 students in this district... period," she said.

"This is not about creating cookie-cutter schools. It's about creating a school that meets the need of these students. We already know what didn't work for them. This is about molding the program until it works."

connie.llanos(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

College of the Canyons President Dianne Van Hook, right, and Erum Jones, principal for the Early College, look over the campus set to open Aug. 27. The Early College high school program will be one of the first to occupy the new campus.

David Crane/Staff Photographer