At the last Board, meeting a young black male and his mother spoke on him being kicked out of Mervo and sent to Success Academy @ North Ave. He talked of how dysfunctional Success Academy was and that he wanted to return to his former school to complete his senior year. True to form, neither the Board nor the CEO addressed this young black male's concern.

Before we start giving pats on the back, somebody needs to look at what these young black males are coming back to.

Under the current funding scheme, each butt in a seat is money for that school. There have been rumors of schools keeping students on the role because of the financial impact of un-enrolling them.

Hope or Hype... inquiring minds would like to know.

OH, no, the Success Academy is not working? How upsetting! Seriously, the majority of teachers who are in these alternative placements have no more training to deal with problematic youths than the rest of us do. All they do have is a smaller class population and maybe newer facilities. Current funding is based on enrollment but, right now, several schools are losing money and teachers because these alternative schools are enrolling students at an every increasing rate. I am not saying that the alternative schools don't work but they don't offer sports or some of the other things that our students like to have. You can't have it both ways. Either make alternative schools a REAL alternative or give home schools the resources to help these students. I feel sorry for the young man referred to by OTT. He will not have some of the experiences that are what people remember about high school and still may not graduate on time.

@Over the top, We need some real reporting to debunk the lies that have been pushed about the drop out rate.There are a many more kids kept than you can imagine. Schools are not permitted to drop students without an unreasonable level of documentation.

Success Academy is a joke and was a gift to a friend when they opened it. The school has the kids working for half a day and then sends them to the Y. Go in there during the day it's empty and they get a boatload of funding.