Last spring, Kennebunk High School founded its Alternative Education program with Ed Sharood and Ted Kryzak, who previously ran an alternative school and wanted to get back into the classroom. These students do school work until nine o’clock, and then take a bus up to Acton, Maine, where they work with farm animals and build structures. Currently, they’re working on a shed for KES. They’ve also done service for the community, the students remarked that their favorite project thus far was at the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, where they cleared trails for public use. Although the students can earn a small incentive ($5 a day), deductions are taken for foul language, tardiness, and other bad behavior. If the students want, they can put half their week’s earning towards Drivers’ Education, and quite a few of the eleven students have already done so.

To learn more about the program, I talked to the students themselves. A lot of the guys said that they joined the program because regular school wasn’t working for them, and it’s clear that they have benefitted from the program. Joe Cerrone, senior, felt that he “didn’t get the significance” of traditional education, and feels that his real world experience in alternative education is more beneficial to him.

Last spring, they earned their scuba diving licenses after taking a basic course at the YMCA and took a test in the ocean. A few kids are considering a career as an underwater welder due to this experience, though it would take advanced scuba diving training and a good foundation in science. Still other students have considered careers as auto mechanics or as part of the army, and it is clear that the teachers have been instrumental in providing direction.

All involved hope to expand the program in later years, but there do seem to be limitations. The alternative education students are cognizant of the added expense of the program on the district, remarking that the program, though helpful, is constrained by the budget. Kryzak, also, believes that keeping the program at 12 is optimal. The students seemed to agree, remarking that “it is an even number” and “easy to split up into groups.” It also allows a greater emphasis to be put on community, something important to Kryzak’s plan. Students who do not follow the rules are not only reprimanded by their teachers, but also by their peers. It’s clear from meeting with the students that they have already formed a tight community with only half a year together.

The program seems to be a great benefit to the school. If the program ended, all the students agreed that they would likely stop going to school, making them ineligible to graduate. The program as it stands now encourages them to continue with school and teaches them valuable skills in a way more beneficial to them than traditional education. The only downside seems to be that the program as it currently stands does not allow for girls to join. The understanding of Kryzak’s opinion is making the program coed would cause more harm than good, requiring the school to develop their own program for girls. However, one student in alternative education stated that girls could join, though “they’d have to learn to work. If they didn’t, then it wouldn’t work.”

Ms. Cressey says that the alternative education currently in place “fell into their lap,” with a foundation laid and a teacher ready to teach, but there was no such luck for a girls program. A lot of female students have approached Ms Cressey about putting together an equivalent alternative program, but they are only in the preliminary stages. Currently, there is no alternative for female students at KHS, possibly leaving some Kennebunk girls without the benefits currently seen in the boys program.