Scott Habeeb's Comments

Thanks for the opportunity to join this group. I attended your conference in October of 2006 in Charlotte, NC. I am currently the 9 Transition Director of Pine Ridge High School in Deltona, FL which is in Volusia County (Daytona Beach). We started our program five years ago and have seen our first group graduate last year. We had started a little different than your program, but at the time we didn't have a model to follow. We take the most "at risk" students and try to encourage them and follow them through to graduation. It is difficult at times, but very rewarding because most of them DO graduate and have gone on to college, something they never believed they could do.
However, our state has hit hard economic times and we don't know if we will be able to continue in the format we currently use. Our team has already been dropped from four to three and we aren't sure what the new year will hold. Since we service those at risk, we only have about 45 students that remain with us all day and take only one elective away from us. We are proud of the fact that we teach the core subjects (things required for graduation) and our students receive their credits.
Again, thanks for the opportunity to share what we are doing and find out how others are managing in these difficult times.

I think this program sounds wonderful. I created a program for our 5th graders moving into the middle school and I know what a difference that made. I am trying to work with our hight school to create a transition program for our outgoing 8th graders. Thanks for writing.