I m not the only one who has been dealt a short straw by Marla Stephenson. I was placed in Macgregor High school in 2006 and graduated in 2009. For those who don t know, Macgregor is where AUSD places it s undesirables for the purpose of protecting the test scores and attendance rate of Albany High school. This is not just my opinion, this was the consensus of several of Macgregor s students. Stephenson herself made it clear to me that my poor attendance was costing the district hundreds of dollars. I grew tired of attending a school with nothing to offer me. The were often left to thier own devices. Alexia Richie is just as bad. Stephenson, Richie, and other administrators were blatantly rude to me and my mother. In my senior year at Macgregor I decided to apply for collage. I was told I would not be accepted because Macgregor didn t offer any of the courses required by most universities. Richie even refused to give me an SAT fee waiver saying that I wouldn t get in anyway. I wish I could get a refund for my education, because I sure didn t get one.
Submitted by student on September 29, 2010
It takes a strong person to want to help the people who are struggling, people who have more things to figure out, people who have problems they need to solve.... When I used to imagine a continuation/alternative school, I just pictured a bad environment, kind of scary, graffiti everywhere..... This school just seems like a really nice, tiny school to me. It really fits the description of "alternative school." It's just, literally, an alternative. Common conception of continuation schools is just where the "bad kids" go.. But I think that the students aren't sent to continuation/alternative schools because they are just "bad," the alternative school is supposed to supply an environment more adaptable to the student to help him/her succeed and actually graduate. In a lot of schools, I haven't seen a lot of those students come out well and succeed like they should. But you really help your students figure out what they need to do to graduate, and help them find other opportunities outside of just coursework (like jobs). That's really great of you to do!