Alternative Program Opens At Freeman

Thu., March 2, 2000

By Marny Lombard marnyl@spokesman.com (509) 927-2166

Freeman High School is opening a new alternative program.

Just five students will start classes this month in the Extension School, says Lance Hahn, principal of the Freeman High School.

The program will offer classes in which each student meets once a week with lead teacher Jackie Babin. On their own, students must then put in an average of 25 hours a week, Hahn said.

The program is patterned after Contract Based Education, a 600-student school in the Spokane Valley that draws students from across the community.

It’s in part to keep students from leaving their home school and transferring to CBE that Freeman is starting the Extension School, say Hahn and Freeman Schools Superintendent Bill Thurston.

Each full-time student at Freeman means $3,500 in state funding.

Although it will operate under a separate name, the program will be housed in the high school. One reason for the name change, Thurston said, is so that students who are behind in credits can still graduate, but under the state graduation requirements of 21 credits. Freeman requires 29 credits. Graduates of the Extension School will receive a state diploma, not a Freeman diploma.

The program will allow students to add a course to their regular school day. It will also accommodate students who want to take one course at a time, without any traditional school. Students will have five weeks to complete each course.

Freeman is also planning to offer college-level courses next fall, through Internet or satellite programs.

That way,“we can have a place for Running Start students on campus,” Hahn said. Freeman has been interested in providing a way for Running Start students to stay at the high school since a Running Start student was injured seriously on icy roads last winter.

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