Second of three parts
Re “Veronica Montes – Just the Tonic for Culver Park High?”
After devoting the bulk of her career to alternative education, the new principal of Culver Park High School was asked what has kept her there, especially since this was not the path she had planned.
There was a thoughtful pause for reflection.
The answer bounced back unadorned without fancy window dressing but rather with a foundation of maternal warmth and understanding.
“What I love is that it gives students alternatives to that traditional educational setting,” said Veronica Montes.
“It just doesn’t work for everybody. It is not about students being kicked out of school. It’s not about, ‘Well, we have to put them somewhere.’
“It’s about giving them a choice, giving them a place where they can be successful. It’s not a holding rank for troubled youths. It’s really creating an opportunity for them – a lot of them for the first time – to be very successful educationally.”
How does Ms. Montes approach continuation school students differently?
“I create a relationship,” she says. “I think that life is about building relationships with other human beings. In an alternative setting, you have more of an opportunity to build a one-on-one relationship with the kids you have.
“Because it’s smaller and because not everything is in that teacher-directed format for the whole time. So you are able to have those one-on-one conversations with students.”
Since Culver Park High School never has been the beneficiary of a klieg-lighted Look-What-We-Have-Here advertising campaign in its 30-year history but has been kept in the shadows and spoken of in whispers, what do continuation students primarily have in common?
“Most have a deficiency in credits,” Ms. Montes said.
“I have found that life ‘happened’ to them at a particular point. Kids don’t just fail one class. Rarely does that happen.
“Generally, some life occurrence happened at a semester or during a particular year, and they get off track.
“That is what is most common among them, they are behind credits. The reasons they are behind are all over the place.”
(To be continued)
