Last summer it looked like Lexie Vick wouldn’t graduate on time from Tahoma High School.

Then she looked into alternative education programs offered at Tahoma High that melded the work of teacher Chris Feist in his Student Support Center, the concepts used at Maple Valley High School which closed at the end of last year, and some new approaches developed for those students who are now at Tahoma High.

Vick was in trouble six months ago at the start of her senior year.

“Like a lot of teenagers I didn’t care for school and my grades went downhill,” she said. “I didn’t realize the repercussions on me.”

Ninth grade English tripped her up while still at Tahoma Junior High and math also presented some struggles.

“During the summer my dad was kind of upset I was behind in credits,” Vick said. “He said, ‘All I want you to do next year is make me proud.’”

Making up the English credit required a mountain of reading and hours of writing essays but the more she worked at it, the better Vick got, and now she can whip out an essay in no time when it used to take hours.

Vick has found that her work making up lost credits has also helped her in the rest of her classes.

She credits Abbey Durrett, who is also her English teacher in the mainstream part of her day, for pushing her through.

“The first semester I had a 3.0 which is really different for me,” Vick said. “I was the girl who sat in the back of the classroom, barely did my homework. I connect with my teachers now, especially Mrs. Durrett. She really motivated me this year.”

Durrett, who taught at Maple Valley High, said that a big similarity between the old and the new is the small classroom environment, “where you can work on building relationships and making the learning relevant to real life.”

And it helps, Durrett added, that she also teaches outside of the alternative education program because there is a crossover they didn’t have at Maple Valley High.

“That piece is very healthy, as well,” Durrett said. “We get linked in and we get to know so many other kids.”

Feist, who is in his sixth year working with at-risk students, is the director of the program in which kids spend one period a day to work on credit retrieval using an online program provided by Apex Learning (www.apexlearning.com), which offers courses for students who need to make up classes, are attending alternative schools, among other services.

“We’re offering educational growth and development classes at the junior high,” Feist said. “We’re working with 10th and 11th graders here in series two.

Those students focus on work habits, study skills. There’s a credit retrieval piece of that, as well.”

Durrett said the first 30 minutes of class is dedicated to helping students work on social and personal responsibility through goal setting, problem solving, effective communication and collaborative work.

Another crucial lesson is teaching the students to be advocates for themselves.

“Regardless of where you’ve been and what you’ve been through, you need to be proactive rather than reactive,” Durrett said. “What happens over time is the kids learn to trust that the teachers are there for them.”

There are four teachers, three instructional assistants as well as a counselor involved in the program, too, who provide support for the teens.

At this point Feist estimates there are more than 300 students in ninth through 12 grade.

Another portion of the program involves providing technical training to students who are interested in pursuing those kinds of hands-on learning opportunities such as automotive mechanics, culinary arts and more, at Puget Sound Skills Center in SeaTac.

“With our New Visions class they come in first and fourth periods,” Feist said. “These are our older students who are coming in trying to finish those last couple credits for their diploma. After those classes we bust them out to Puget Sound Skills Center. They’ll receive high school credits while receiving technical training in their fields.”

“Through the process of doing that throughout the year they put it into a portfolio which culminates into an exit presentation at the end of senior year,” Feist said. “We’re looking for smooth transitions for both our junior high kids coming in and as they head out into the work world.”

Feist said the hope is that the students connect with what they want to do to be part of the PSSC and that this particular project is not for every because “you have to be self-motivated.”

So far, Feist is pleased with the new approach to alternative education at every level.

“It’s been challenging and rewarding, as well,” he said. “It’s awesome to see these at-risk kids find their niche and really take off.”

Buy in is key to the success, Durrett said, to the concept of “the three R’s: rigor, relevance and relationship.”

“At the end of the day, the student needs to want to be successful,” Durrett said.

Junior Cody Kelson wasn’t so sure he was going to want that after staff at Tahoma recommended he get into the credit retrieval program.

“I’ve actually turned out to really like the class,” Kelson said. “It’s at the end of the day. It’s a small class. You can focus on the school work you’ve gotten all day.”

Kelson, who aspires to be a mechanic someday, said he likes leaving the campus at the end of the day with his homework squared away.

Like Vick, his English teacher also teaches in the educational growth class, “so if I have any problems I can talk to her.”

Though he’s not sure if he’s going to graduate on time, Kelson said, he does know that it will be much easier and he will finish much sooner thanks to the extra help he’s gotten.

Durrett said all the extra help kids who normally get frustrated easily has made a difference.

“If we can come in and support them right away then they can be successful,” Durrett said. “Then they become addicted to success.”

Vick has definitely become a student who loves to do well and now she is now planning for life after high school which she wasn’t doing a year ago.

“I plan on going to Renton Technical College to do a professional baking and cake decorating program,” Vick said. “I just got into it. At first I sucked at baking.”

Then she decided to bake a multi-tiered cake for her senior project because she’d never done more than dump out the contents of a Betty Crocker box into a bowl and followed the directions. Turns out that she has found her calling.

Vick believes she wouldn’t have had the motivation to finish much less go on to college next year if she hadn’t gotten into this program.

“If you’re behind, this is the class to take,” Vick said. “You just have to be motivated enough. In the end I am very satisfied.”