They Do Graduate

Sometimes all it takes is a little creativity to get kids to finish. Everyone can't work within the rigidity of a public school. What a great program and opportunity. This is what prevention looks like, I can imagine what the lifetime cost savings could be for the community.

Twenty-year-old Danielle McGuire was getting herself ready for her job at McDonald's and scooting her 2-year-old son out the door for preschool when she got the call.

Caseworker Brian Brinkerhoff wanted her to finish high school.

Somehow over the din of her harried life as a young, single mother trying to pay the rent, she heard Brinkerhoff's message about a unique program that offered a flexible schedule, relevant classes and a new career path.

And now McGuire is among 10 graduates of a new Denver high school tailored for students who hate high school.

There's Chris Martinez, who was so bored and disenchanted at West High School that he left to take a job in construction. With his new diploma, he has a paid welding internship at Xcel Energy this summer.

And Destiny Reed, who, with a teenage bipolar diagnosis acted out and eventually left school to work at Blockbuster. Now she's working at a day care, hoping to eventually get certified to run her own.

The graduates have wildly diverse backgrounds — one was enrolled in a Christian high school, and another spent years in foster homes and homeless shelters after his father shot out the boy's kneecaps.

A common thread, as the teachers see it, is the decision to step back into a school building.

"I'd be a manager at McDonald's if it wasn't for this," McGuire said.

The Denver Post