Gail Bailey stands on the hood of her blue pickup welcoming three bus loads of teens to Cedar Hill Ranch, her hilly 87-acre home in Grant County.

        “I'm so happy to have you here,” she says, her southern accent thick as a field of Kentucky bluegrass, “cause I think y'all have done a really great job this whole school year.”

Gail Bailey with her pet parrot Polly (Mike Simons photos) | ZOOM |

        Many of them wouldn't be in school if not for Ms. Bailey. Grant County school district hired her and Scott Shipp early this year to design and run Positive Outcome, a new dropout-prevention program at Grant County High School.

        For Ms. Bailey, a 46-year-old former Air Force sergeant and UPS manager, helping kids is more than a full-time job. It's a lifestyle. She and her 14-year-old son, Ross, share their home with six Kentucky boys ages 11 to 19 who have struggled in school and in life. She's their foster mother. They are her “ranch family.”

        Together they are the hosts this sunny, May day as the ranch celebrates the accomplishments of 52 Positive Outcome students and dozens more special education youths. Some of the teens were on the verge of dropping out, but didn't; some had lost hope, but found it.

        It's a day for eating, fishing, singing karaoke tunes and visiting with the ranch's 300 animals, including rabbits, chickens, llamas, horses, ostriches, goats, peacocks, macaws, cockatoos, pot-belly pigs, a zebra and a camel. But the teens aren't too busy to heap praise on Ms. Bailey.

Bailey and son Ross (right) round up a neighbor's horses with Dan Miguel (left) and Eddie Polly. | ZOOM |

        “She's like a second mom to me,” says 17-year-old Evelyn Livingood of Dry Ridge, standing in the food line at the ranch's picnic shelter.

        “I just didn't want to come to school. I just knew I was gonna fail. Now, I'm graduating (in 2002). (Ms. Bailey) was willing to be there for me and help me 100 percent, stay with me after school, come to my house, tutor me. Everything.”

        When 17-year-old Wade Pyles of Dry Ridge hears that, he chimes in: “She's the best thing that happened to all of us.”

        Jennifer Halfhill, 17, of Crittenden, was failing all her classes when she became one of the first to enter the Positive Outcome program last winter. She is now on track to graduate next year.

        “Gail gave me confidence,” Jennifer says. “She's helped me tremendously.”

VISITORS WELCOME

Gail Bailey's Cedar Hill Ranch is a popular spot for families. The ranch is open to visitors from 1 to 6 p.m. Sundays. There's no cost. If your group has more than five, call ahead before visiting. Bring bread if you wish to feed animals.   The ranch, 1190 Golds Valley Road in Grant County, is about 35 miles south of Interstate 275. Directions: Take I-75 south to the Dry Ridge exit. Turn right off the ramp. Follow Kentucky 22 west for nine miles. You'll cross two bridges and head up a hill; halfway up, take a hard right onto Golds Valley Road. Follow Golds Valley Road 1 mile; soon after the road swings to the left you'll see, on the left, a western arch at the ranch entrance.   Information: (859) 824-6542.

        Jordan Chowning, 17, takes a break from a basketball game to tell about the day at school that Ms. Bailey overheard him talking about dropping out.

        “She ran out there and, I guess, saved me,” Jordan says, chuckling. “She sat me down in a conference room and started talking about this program. It gave me a chance, 'cause if you quit school, you don't really have a chance.”

        Ms. Bailey is all about giving young people chances.

        “With kids, you've got to learn to say, "This is where we're starting today; I don't care where you've been, how you got here or what happened because of it,”' she says.

        She and Mr. Shipp work as a team. Ms. Bailey focuses on the classroom, where she teaches struggling students. Mr. Shipp handles Positive Outcome's administrative matters, and places teens who have left school into a GED program.

        “She took this job,” Mr. Shipp says, “for the love of kids.”

Learning about life

               Ms. Bailey leads a group of seven girls on a mini-tour of the nine-bedroom ranch. They see the room where one of the boys keeps toads, turtles, chameleons and iguanas, then walk into the handsome, rustic living room, and on to the aviary.

        Back outside, Ms. Bailey steps into a fenced-in area where Clyde the camel enjoys nibbling at her hair and blouse.

        “It's like a six-week old puppy,” she says of the 250-pound creature.

        Ms. Bailey has a homespun, easy-going quality about her. But both her students and her ranch family know to expect a disciplined environment, one rooted in her military and business experience.

        After high school, the Lexington native spent three years as an Air Force medic and radiologist. She then embarked on a business career, working for several large companies. In 15 years at UPS, she moved up from truck driver to hub center manager, overseeing up to 150 workers. Along the way, she also started a property-rental business, which she still owns.

        The UPS job often required Ms. Bailey, who has never married, to be on the road. So she left UPS when Ross, her only child, reached grade-school age. She started home-schooling him, and in the process, began building the ranch.

        For a time, there was just the two of them. Then Ross told her he felt they needed more people in their lives. They started inviting boys who were having trouble in school. Ross played with them. Ms. Bailey tutored them.

Something to offer

               Ms. Bailey saw she had something to offer. Life had been good to her. She wanted to give back.

        Three years ago, two boys moved into the ranch full time. Now there are six, all referred to Ms. Bailey by various social-service agencies. Others come just for weekends. All have had problems at school. Most are part of the Positive Outcome program at Grant County High.

        Ms. Bailey's philosophy is that while academics are important, kids need more. “They need to learn about life,” she says.

        She works with local employers to help boys in her ranch family — as well others in the Positive Outcome program — get jobs, which she says helps them relate to other people. She teaches them carpentry skills, which are put to use on the ranch. The ranch also offers ample opportunity to work with animals.

        “There's something we learn from being around animals,” Ms. Bailey says. “You have to forget about who you are and go take care of them.”

Bustling place

               Nowadays the once-quiet ranch bustles. It's like a learning center, day camp and home, all rolled into one. On Sunday afternoons it's open to visitors who want to see the animals or take nature hikes. Some families even hold reunions there.

        Ross, who this year ended his home-schooling to attend classes in Williamstown, no longer has his mother's undivided attention. He doesn't seem to mind.

        “She's making other people's lives better,” he says.

        Indeed, Ms. Bailey says, young people “want to hear about life and how it can be, and what you can do. Everybody needs direction. When I was young I needed it. We don't always get it, but these kids are gettin' it.”

        When federal money became available for a Grant County dropout-prevention program, friends encouraged Ms. Bailey to apply. She didn't need the job. But she knew there were kids who needed her.

        Eighty students — or nearly 9 percent of Grant County High's student population — dropped out in the 1999-2000 school year, says Phyllis Case, director of special instructional services for Grant County schools.

        Ms. Case, who hired Ms. Bailey in January, says she and Mr. Shipp “had an immediate impact. It was phenomenal.” Figures from last February, the most recent available, show that of 39 students who had dropped out this school year, all but three had been pulled back in by Positive Outcome.

        “Gail is tremendous,” Ms. Case says. “She really seems to understand where (at-risk) kids are coming from. But she makes them tow the line. She provides the structure they need, but also gives the support they need.”

        A key to the program's success, Ms. Bailey believes, is that struggling students aren't placed in alternative settings where they might lose school privileges. They remain at Grant County High, where Ms. Bailey tutors them in whatever areas they need help.

Sucess strories

               As the day winds on, Ms. Bailey, cheeks slightly flushed, seems to be everywhere. She's snapping pictures, which she'll enlarge and give to kids. She asks everyone she sees, “You doin' OK?”

        “I want to be known as a mentor, someone who wants to share things they've learned in life,” she says, walking down the gravel road toward the ranch house. “And I want to get the message across in a positive way. You've got to stay positive all the time.”

        At the picnic shelter, 16-year-old Ray McElfresh Jr. is busy grilling hamburgers and hot dogs for ranch guests. He's one of Ms. Bailey's favorite success stories. When she met him seven months ago, he was an "F' student who'd had 14 disciplinary referrals in 17 days. But he's had only once since, and that was early on.

        He'd never been able to participate in sports because of poor grades. But he turned them around and last winter earned the right to play on Grant County High's freshman basketball team. This summer he's working two jobs, one of which will help him become a certified nursing assistant.

        “To think how far he's come is amazing,” Ms. Bailey says. “To think, that life really would have been lost.”

        She pauses a moment, then adds: “If you think there's something you need to do out there in the world, go do it, because there's usually somebody waiting.”
       

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