LAST STOP FOR EDUCATION

VINTON - The metal detector beeps, echoing down the empty hallway of
the World-War I-era brick elementary school.

In its past life, the hallways and classrooms of R.E. Cook were
filled with young students. Photos of them, neatly dressed, sitting
primly at wooden desks, hang in the front office.

Today the school is ghostly quiet, home to about 20 students from
Roanoke and Bedford counties expelled from their home schools or
sent by a superintendent. Repeated behavioral problems, drugs,
assault and battery or weapons often pave the way to Cook, as
do problems at home, poor grades and negative labels that have
chipped away at their self-esteem.

For these students, Cook is the last stop in the school system.

"Usually we are the last hope. If a student gets kicked out of here
then they are gone and they have to find their own education," said
Gail Hagerty, R.E. Cook principal. "Alternative school is a privilege."

The uniformed students face random drug testing and potential metal
detector wands and shoe checks along with the occasional
drug-sniffing police dog.

Parents face mandatory involvement - without their signature on the
contracts, children cannot enroll.

Roanoke County Schools make the Tuesday night parenting classes
mandatory and Bedford County Schools encourage all parents to
attend. Some teachers have daily contact with parents.

Hagerty said the classes show parents that they are not alone and
help them realize that their children are not bad people.

Cameras record everything.

Waiting inside Cook are one principal, one teacher's aide, three
teachers, a handful of tutors, a part-time nurse, a secretary, a
part-time janitor, a student assistance program coordinator (sap)
and a guidance counselor.

There is no student resource officer, but police, judges and social
workers filter in and out frequently.

Standing in the doorway of Room 205 a few steps away from the
principal's office, Gale Moore watches his ninth and twelfth grade
students out of the corner of his eye and talks about the difference
between a school where he used to teach - William Fleming High
School, average population, 1,300 - and Cook, average population, 20.

"It's totally different; it doesn't compare. Teaching at Fleming was
tougher than being here," Moore said. Everyone who sees the school
is surprised, he said, as students quietly work on their assignments.

The typical class at Cook has between six and 15 students. The
school can accommodate 40 students. Most students spend a portion of
their day in remediation rooms working one-on-one with tutors. This
month, most students are male, but Hagerty said typically half or
a third of the student body is female.

Directly across the hall from Moore, Tracy Hopkins teaches math and
history to tenth and eleventh graders. When class is over in a few
hours, she and Moore will pack up their carts and roll to the next
classroom to teach the same subjects to different grade levels.

Students stay put.

"Most of your fights and disagreements happen in the hallways," Moore said.

At lunch, Moore and all of the other staff members sit next to the
students in the plastic-knife-free cafeteria for lunch. Afterward,
teachers escort students to the restroom, standing guard in the doorway.

"Everything here has a safety motivation behind it," Hagerty said.

Unlike students enrolled in a traditional alternative school, where
they might be required to stay for a semester, those enrolled in
Cook are usually required stay for a full year. After that, once
their grades and behaviors have improved, they become eligible to
return to their home school.

Once they return to the home school, Cook's staff checks in on them
to make sure the transition is a smooth one.

Moore has been teaching for 18 years at high schools and at the
Natural Bridge Juvenile Correctional Facility.

Unlike other science and physical education teachers, Moore doesn't
get to do science experiments - scalpels are not allowed - and he
doesn't get to show students how to use free weights - they are
potential weapons. The weight room has only universal weights.

But there are field trips, small assemblies, manners lessons at
restaurants, contests and visits from judges and police. Each year
students in grades six through 12 get to visit the Botetourt
Correctional facility, where they meet inmates.

He estimated that probably half of the students at Cook this month
are there because of behavioral problems, but after about four weeks
at Cook, most bad behaviors go into hibernation.

When Hagerty said, "we feel very safe here," she isn't just
referring to the safety measures the school takes, but also to
students' behaviors.

"Just because they had a problem at another school does not mean
that they have a problem here," Hopkins said as she stepped out of
her classroom and into the hallway with Moore.

Upon arrival, students and their parents must sign up to three
separate school contracts, outlining the rules - addressing
everything from distracting hairstyles to hand gestures - and
disciplinary actions that accompany each infraction.

Students learn up front that there are consequences for every broken
rule, Moore said. For example one unexcused absence equals two,
two-hour detentions.

"If we didn't do that we'd lose control, especially in the
classroom," he said.

But the goal is to teach, not punish, said Hagerty.

Cook has the same motivation as every other school. "We are SOL
driven," Hagerty said.

Last year the school had a 60 percent pass rate. Each student's home
school reports their scores to the state for accreditation and
Adequate Yearly Progress determination and the fact that Cooks
scores affect other schools is not lost on Hagerty.

Last year's passing rate is no small feat for a school where
students come and go throughout the year.

"That is a real struggle for us," Hagerty said, noting that many
things are going on for Cook kids like court dates, court services
workers, and specialists, all of which take students out of class.

"A lot of these kids haven't done well in the past because of their
behaviors," Hagerty said. By the time they arrive many have earned
straight F's on their report cards.

Tonja Cofer said one of the main reasons her son Zack's grades have
climbed while attending Cook is the extra help he gets from teachers
and tutors.

"He did a lot better here," Cofer said, as Zack slumped in a chair
in the office waiting to be taken to a doctor's appointment. "He
gets a lot of one-on-one here which I think he needs." Had Zack not
gotten into Cook, Cofer said she probably would have had to find a
way to home school him.

"We get their grades up big time," Hagerty said, adding that as
their grades improve, so does their self-esteem.

Kelly Jones is proof.

"I like it here, it's helping me read. We get lots of tutors here
and I've learned how to do math problems and stuff," said Jones, one
of the school's young Bedford County students.

"Their old schools may have labeled them, the other kids may have
labeled them, even their parents may have labeled them," Hagerty
said. "But when they arrive at Cook they get a clean slate."The
effort to not label the students means that unless their behavior
might threaten the safety of others, Hagerty does not tell teachers
why the students are there.

Over time, most students do tell teachers about the event that led
to their arrival. Most, Moore said, tell him that they were just in
the wrong place at the wrong time.

"It's not that they are horrible kids, it's that they've made some
bad choices," Hagerty said, before pointing to the hallway paintings
done by a Bedford County student.

"We've got some talented kids if we can just get them going in the
right direction."