Eceap An Alternative School Where Caring Counts

It’s vintage summer fun: a carnival with a cardboard box maze, face-painting, a parachute, water balloons. There was a tug-of-war, with the little kids against the big kids, and the little kids won, landing at least one teenager under a splashing hose.

But this week’s low-budget carnival was actually a big-hearted demonstration of how far the Barker Community Learning Center High School Program has come in its first year.

To understand, come inside. In a cool classroom, one young carnival-goer is receiving comfort after throwing up his lunch on the hot pavement outside. A dark-haired little girl, a shy newcomer to the ECEAP program, is receiving extra hugs from one of the alternative school students, Steffany Kaybrick, 17.

“Do you want to wear my wig, Carol? Would that make you feel better?” Kaybrick asks. She’s wearing a magenta tinsel wig for the carnival, which she and other alternative school students organized.

It’s the last day of school for the ECEAP children. (ECEAP stands for Early Childhood Educational Assistance Program.) Their two teachers are reflecting on the year.

“I wish there were more chances” to connect with the older kids, says Kimberly Mather-Schopen.

“Maybe it will happen in September,” says Michelle Hille, almost wistfully. “We’d love for that to happen.”

That’s in marked contrast to the concern the district has shown about housing the two programs in the same building. After all, one program is for low-income pre-schoolers, and the other is for high school students who haven’t thrived in a regular classroom setting.

“I think caution is the word,” said Jana McKnight, one of the alternative school teachers. “It’s an uncommon blend…. We’ve been very cautious with our students when interviewing (for admission). We have what we call the three R’s: respect, role-modeling and responsibility.” Good behavior around the little ones, in other words.

“I think for my kids, it’s been good to see how much they’re respected, how much they’re admired” by the children, McKnight says.

“Frankly this” - the carnival - “is our payback,” McKnight says, still in clown suit and makeup. “The ECEAP program has welcomed us with open arms.”

The two ECEAP teachers tell of their 3- and 4-year-olds singing Christmas carols to the older kids and other occasions when they ventured down the hall to the high school classrooms. Mather-Schopen says “You could say there’s some rapport, but you couldn’t call it a bond” between the teens and the younger children. In fact, Mather-Schopen says some of the older kids were bashful themselves around the little ones.

Other than little, dark-haired Carol, no one’s being bashful today. Least of all Kaybrick, who, carnival over, walks down the hall toward the ladies room, carrying a change of clothes. She’s the one who got soaked in the tug of war.

“I think we probably had more fun than the kids did,” she says happily.

, DataTimes