Officials eye ways to reshape New Beginnings

Hoover school officials say they’re taking steps to improve the New Beginnings program for students with special challenges who need smaller, more-focused learning environments.

This past school year, the program was changed when it moved back to Hoover and Spain Park high schools after the Crossroads alternative school on the former Berry High School campus was sold to the Vestavia Hills school board.

Instead of having live teachers for core classes, the vast majority of instruction for New Beginnings students moved online, with students watching videos and taking multiple-choice tests.

Some students reported they liked being on the regular high school campus because it gave them a chance to participate in things they otherwise could not, such as electives and advanced classes.

But other students said they needed a real teacher teaching the lessons, like they had before. The online instruction was not effective, and it was too easy for students to cheat, they said.

Plus, some students complained that being back on their base campus defeated the purpose for them being in New Beginnings in the first place — that they needed a smaller learning environment away from the main campus.

Anna Whitney, who was principal of the Crossroads School and still oversees both the Second Chance disciplinary program and optional New Beginnings program, and Simmons Middle School Principal Brian Cain, who formerly was principal at the Crossroads School, told the Hoover school board recently that some students face barriers that make it hard to function in regular school environments.

They may suffer from separation anxiety after losing a parent or face mental, emotional or physical disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, self-harm or drug addictions.

Getting an education while facing those issues can be difficult, and such students may need extra help and redirection temporarily to get back on track, Cain said.

Up to 20 percent of children in the U.S. show signs of a mental disorder, and nearly 80 percent won’t get the help they need, Whitney said.

“Having a mental illness and not being emotionally safe at a given time in their life — it’s not a choice that people make, and it’s not a moral failing,” Whitney said. “It’s just something that happens, and it happens to kids.”

Superintendent Kathy Murphy said some changes made with New Beginnings this past year worked well, and some didn’t. She asked a committee headed by Whitney and Cain to recommend improvements.

The committee recommended — and Murphy agreed — they should, for the immediate future, leave the New Beginnings program at the base schools and add more academic support, counseling and intervention services.

Whitney said students need a sense of belonging they may not get with their digital curriculum. We need to put “more humans in there to help these kids,” she said.

“Every student needs that one adult who believes in them, that cares if they come to school, that cares how they’re doing,” Whitney said. “We think that is so important for our at-risk kids.”

Murphy said instead of having one uncertified teacher’s aide supervise the New Beginnings students at each school, the district will put one certified teacher, who also has a counseling degree, in the room with them.

School officials also will try to find ways to get more teachers in the core academic subjects to spend time with New Beginnings students as needed and seek ways to blend online learning with live teaching, Murphy said. A team of counselors also is evaluating what more can be done to support students emotionally, she said.

For the long term, the committee recommended school officials study the feasibility of creating and sustaining an off-campus location where they “take the best parts of what’s working now and the best parts of what’s worked in the past and make it work for the kids in the future,” Cain said.

Murphy said school officials eyed the former Winn-Dixie shopping center near the intersection of Interstate 459 and John Hawkins Parkway as a site for the Crossroads programs, a career tech academy or fine arts academy. However, they were not able to agree on a price, she said. They’ll continue looking, she said.

Emma Joines, a New Beginnings student who graduated from Spain Park High School in May, said she hopes both the short-term and long-term changes are made.

The New Beginnings program is life-changing, but she feels like some people have devalued it and cast the students aside, she said. “These kids deserve more than that,” she said.

Murphy said school officials will continue to have conversations about improving the program. “We want to get this right.”