By Mary Lide Parker
Staff Writer
What started out as a one-room schoolhouse 10 years ago is now a full new building for Phoenix Academy.
On Thursday at 9 a.m., Phoenix Academy, the alternative high school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system, will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony the opening of its new facilities as well as 10 years of success. Valerie Foushee, a county commissioner and a member of the school board that started Phoenix Academy, will be the keynote speaker at the event.
Foushee said Phoenix Academy was one of the best programs implemented during her time on the board.
In 1998, the school board decided to create a facility for kids who were at risk of dropping out of high school due to long-term suspension. Long-term suspension is defined as missing 45 or more school days.
Until this year, Phoenix Academy was housed in three trailers in the parking lot of Lincoln Center at 750 Merritt Mill Rd. Over the summer, a building behind the Lincoln Center was renovated to accommodate the Phoenix students.
There are 41 students currently enrolled at Phoenix. More students will be accepted during the year in October, January and March. Five teachers, a guidance counselor and the principal make up the staff.
Burmadeane George, the principal of Phoenix Academy, says her job is “one of the best kept secrets in town.â€
“People think, ‘Man, this a tough group,’ and yeah, they’re tough — but they’re also sensitive,†she said.
George said what she loves about the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district is the rigor of the curriculum, which also applies to the curriculum at Phoenix.
She said the only differences between Phoenix and the other high schools are the smaller class sizes and a block schedule.
“No one wants to go to a remedial school,†she said. “When kids go back, they’ve met the same standards as everyone else.â€
But not all students return to their former high schools. Montez Edwards is a 17-year-old senior who transferred to Phoenix from Chapel Hill High last year. Edwards said he has struggled academically since middle school, and when he entered high school it only got worse.
“I told my mama, ‘I’m giving up — it’s too hard.’ It was my grandmother that kept pushing me. Mrs. George won’t let me give up either.â€
Edwards will graduate from Phoenix Academy this spring but his diploma will be from Chapel Hill High. All students at Phoenix have school liaisons that provide them with newsletters and schedules of events to keep them connected with their former high schools. Students at Phoenix still have access to the resources at their high schools as well.
George said that many have the false impression that Phoenix is a school for “violent kids.â€
“We don’t take violent students,†she said. “Most kids are here for academic struggling, not for misbehavior.â€
George and the faculty members constantly engage with the students to make sure they are learning and staying on top of their work. George updates parents weekly about their child’s performance at Phoenix.
“It has a real family atmosphere,†said George. “Other principals get to do a lot of paperwork. I get to talk to the kids.â€