YOUNGSTOWN New site gives more students a second chance

About 300 students have graduated from the LifeSkills Center.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Toikesha Lake would have graduated from Wilson High School in 2001, but she dropped out of school in the 12th grade after having two children. Lake, now 20, said the choice came down to finding a job to support her children or going to school, and money turned out to be the immediate concern.
Marcus Thomas, now 18, said he would often fall asleep in his ninth-grade classes. He would lose interest in the subject matter and said the rules and daily regimen of the public school system were too much. He dropped out after his freshman year.
But both Lake and Thomas are slated to receive high school diplomas in December. They are students at the LifeSkills Center on Market Street, where students who have left traditional high schools can still earn a high school diploma.
New location
The center was once inside the Oakhill Renaissance Building on Oakhill Avenue. LifeSkills, a private program, moved to its Market Street location, inside a former CVS drugstore building, to make room for the growing number of students in the program.
Jeff Belanger, program administrator, said the move was made strictly to accommodate more students. He said the new building will probably reach its capacity within a year.
"There are a lot of kids without high school diplomas in the Youngstown area and we wanted to get more of those kids in," he said. "We needed more space and we just didn't have that available space at the old building."
According to Belanger, the old location could accommodate 240 students, while the new building can accommodate about 600 students. He said the program's mission will remain the same, regardless of a new location and growing student body.
Belanger said night classes may eventually be added at the Market Street facility to accommodate even more students.
Complete facility
The former store has been converted into a total educational facility complete with four classwork labs, a tutorial lab, a proficiency test preparedness center and a family advocate.
Each classroom has three teachers and two assistants. According to Warren Glen, LifeSkills regional manager, a lower teacher-to-student ratio is maintained with each teacher being responsible for 15 students at any given time.
Students at the center attend class in one of four different sessions depending on which session fits the student's schedule outside of class.
Glen said students complete courses on one of 33 computers in each classroom. The computers, he said, are equipped with one of two programs used by the center depending on the students' learning level and speed of learning. Students are also given textbook work.
According to Glen, the center has graduated about 300 students since it started in Youngstown. He said LifeSkills personnel believe in the students and have hired several graduates as employees.
As for Lake, she feels the program will continue to be beneficial in career choices even after her December graduation date.
"I have my counselors here doing the best that they can to help me out. They won't let me walk out that door with my diploma and do nothing with the rest of my life," she said.
jgoodwin@vindy.com