"It'll be all right," she reassures the inconsolable 8-month-old daughter of a student.

Greiwe keeps telling herself the same thing. It'll be all right. We will get through this. It will get better.

Teacher Stace Millburg, right, works with students during a school yard team building activity at the Arlington Heights Academy. (Enquirer photo/CRAIG RUTTLE)

Over the summer, the Lockland City School District dusted off the old Arlington Heights school building. It reopened this fall for high school students who don't thrive in traditional schools. Problems at home, mental health issues, teen pregnancies and school phobia all can block the path to a diploma.

Arlington Heights Academy is a bold and risky initiative, because the 700-student district might not have enough money to open next fall. That could bring consolidation with a neighboring district, but Lockland hopes the academy would survive.

The Lockland board gave the green light for the school mid-May. In just three months, the building was transformed, opening Aug. 30 with 43 students from Lockland, Princeton and Reading. With the district's new open enrollment policy, any district in the state can send students to the academy, which can enroll up to 51 high school students.

Arlington Heights Academy represents a hopeful new beginning for these youths. Students can work on computers at their own pace, and try to learn to get along with one another - without detention, suspensions or expulsions, except for serious offenses involving violence, weapons or sale of drugs.

"If detentions, suspensions and expulsions worked for these kids, I wouldn't have these kids, because they've had a million of them," Greiwe says. "We're willing to work through a problem rather than get rid of a problem."

Students are given three chances to turn their behavior around. Teachers routinely ask: "How's your focus? Can you fix it?"

After the fourth infraction, students are sent to the focus room, where they reflect on their actions and meet with Greiwe and a social worker, who remind the student to keep focused on the goal - a high school diploma.

"Instead of suspending you, they sit you down and talk about it. I find that a lot more reasonable," said Rikki Clem, 14, a Lockland student who spent two years in the district's alternative program, then on the main campus. "The one thing I really like about this program is they really help you with problems. It teaches you how to deal with your problems in such a good way."

But troubles and attitudes are not easily parked at the door. Students test the limits.

In the first week, Greiwe issues an emotional plea, reminding them of the sacrifices that were made for them.

Did they have any idea how many adults and youths devoted hundreds of hours to haul trash, fix, clean and paint the 67-year-old building?

Shamar Munday gets the message.

"We were trying to take advantage, but when the principal explained what they went through to get the building ready, it really touched us and made us realize what we needed to do," the 16-year-old Princeton student said. "We need to get down to business."

Building social skills

Outside on the parking lot, students engage in team building and communication exercises that resemble playground games. Some are blindfolded and must rely on other team members to find their way. A game of tag follows.

The teens laugh and giggle, even though they think the games are childish. But then they realize they are learning to communicate and work together. It's all part of the school's first six weeks, when academics are sparse.

During that time, the academy uses the Discovery program, a student-centered, skill-based curriculum. The school operates on six P's: Prompt, Prepared, Polite, Participate, Produce and Positive mental attitude.

Students learn social skills, such as solving conflicts, anger management and assertiveness training.

"The goal is to set up our whole culture and our expectations for their behavior and our own behavior," Greiwe said.

Students earn a health and physical education credit for their six weeks of self-discovery.

Part of the Discovery program is writing an autobiography. Language arts teacher Donnie Becker needs to know how well the students can write, so he asks them to write about their summer vacation.

"In order for you to rock your world, you have to have voice," he tells them. "If you want to get your message across to people, who you are in the world and why you're important and why they should think you're important, you have to be able to write, speak and read."

He doesn't mind playing the radio while they write and asks them what station they want to hear.

"I'm not going to hear songs on there that say 'Kill your teacher,' am I? That's my only requirement," Becker says as he adjusts the dial.

As the students write, Becker stands at the back of the room and talks about this new venture.

"There's a very exciting sense of hope that things are going to be different for them than they've ever been before," Becker said. "They've been living with labels: troubled kids, at-risk kids, punks, unemployable. We took the labels away. All things are possible at this school."

Academically, students can get more credits in a year, Greiwe said, and that is probably the key reason many enroll.

"We don't do a lot of lecturing. Most of them hate lecturing. We're more project-based and use individually computerized programs for their academics," Greiwe said.

As part of their school day, students work at businesses, work inside the building or on service learning projects, all while earning credits.

Going to school isn't a chore anymore for Munday, the Princeton student. He didn't fit the traditional school mold, he says.

"I was still kind of childish. I need to be focused and figure out what I want to do," Munday says. "To me, they seem like they care more here. They want us to do well. They're actually here for us. They try to make it more interesting than just sitting in a class."

Not bad, just misguided

Michelle M. Wenker, the law director for Arlington Heights, immediately embraced the school, largely due to her work in Hamilton County Juvenile Court.

"We see a lot of kids in juvenile court that are not bad kids," she says. "They need someone to show them the way."

But not everyone, including some Arlington Heights city officials, thought opening an alternative school was a good idea.

"I think a lot of the community of Arlington Heights believed that this school was for troubled teens," Wenker said. "I don't think the school district did a very good job, at first, explaining that it wasn't for troubled teens."

But, she says, after the district made some extensive presentations, people began to understand that these were just kids who needed a helping hand.

Despite the obstacles these kids face, Superintendent Donna Hubbard knows they have potential.

"They're the types of kids who don't learn the traditional pencil-and-paper way," Hubbard said. "Many have high intelligence and will be their own bosses. The key is to get them to graduate."

Epilogue

Almost two months into the school year, a few students have dropped out. One left to earn a GED. One chose to attend another alternative program. One was sent to his home district because of severe behavior. One went to jail.

"I think some of the kids that we received have such severe emotional or behavior problems, that it may be beyond our scope," Greiwe said.

The school also gained a few students, so its enrollment stands at 44 students, ages 14-20.

Meanwhile, Greiwe is teaching the 28 students who failed the Discovery program or enrolled late.

For three to four weeks, students were in the stormy phase with yelling, screaming and cussing, but now they seem to be settling down. "It's been harder than I ever imagined it would be," Greiwe says.

Part of the stress stemmed from lack of resources - having no secretary, only her personal cell for a phone, and no computers for weeks. It was no one's fault, she said. It just didn't happen.

At times, she's had to pump up her four teachers - all four of them with limited experience teaching and working with at-risk kids. All four are first-year teachers.

"We all have so much to learn, but yet I feel very strongly that I have the right people here," Greiwe says. "For them to just be hanging in here is a remarkable thing."

About the academy

• Lockland passed a 15-mill levy in August 2003, but when the district collected money in January, its expected revenue had taken a dive because of changes in the business climate.

• The district is paying for the Arlington Heights Academy through a combination of grants, state foundation aid, tuition and $45,000 rental revenue from the building's last tenant. Lockland receives the $5,000 state foundation aid for each of its students from other districts, plus those districts pay $2,000 tuition per student. Princeton pays that tuition for its 22 students with money from an Alternative Education Challenge Grant, while Reading pays for its four students out of its general fund.

• The school operates a day-care center on site, which generates revenue and enables teen parents to stay in school. Arlington Heights Academy is licensed for 46 children, ages 6 weeks to 4 years. Students, school district staff and the Arlington Heights and Lockland communities get priority.

• Much of the labor to clean up the building was done by volunteers, and the school got the entire building furnished for about $1,300, thanks to New Lebanon Schools that sold its used furniture for a bargain price.

• Children's Home provides a mental health component for the alternative school. Elementary-age students who qualify for the partial hospitalization program spend three hours in treatment at the school and also complete their academics there. Five students are enrolled in grades 4-8. The program capacity is eight. It's the first time Children's Home has moved its more intensive partial hospitalization program into a school setting.

Children's Home also provides the school's high school students with mental health services on site. Research shows children benefit from these programs when they're available in a natural setting, said Mike Hill, Children's Home partial hospitalization clinical manager.

E-mail ckranz@enquirer.com