The Durango Herald 08/08/2011 | Animas High School awarded $375,000 toward college prep
Animas High School awarded $375,000 toward college prep
By Emery Cowan
Animas High School's goal of sending 100 percent of its students to college was given a big boost last week when the charter school received a $375,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Education.
The three-year grant will pay for the high school to hire a college counselor and college adviser and provide free ACT and SAT test-preparation classes for all its students, AHS Head of School Michael Ackerman, said.
Those classes will be especially important for Animas students because of the school's alternative teaching style, Ackerman said.
"We're inherently a school that doesn't teach the test, but we also recognize the importance of how to take the test," he said. Classes will teach students those standardized test-taking strategies.
Ackerman said he also expects the grant money to cover class trips to colleges and college fairs in the region.
The grant coincides with the first year the charter will have an 11th-grade class, and the idea is to offer for free the college-preparatory activities that students would normally do on their own time and money, Ackerman said.
Ramping up its postsecondary-related resources is necessary for the school to fulfill its mission as a college-prep school, he said.
"It is one of our fundamental values to have a rock-solid college counseling department," he said. "If kids are coming here for college, then we better have the best college-prep program to meet that goal."
This year, the department of education gave a total of $5 million to 90 secondary schools through the School Counselor Corps grant program. The goals of the grant are to help more students prepare for and move on to postsecondary education.
ecowan@durangoherald.com
