FAIRHOPE, Ala. — “All of what you’ve been doing is really paying off,” said Corey Fancher, Fairhope High School’s Freshman Academy counselor.

As he talked Thursday with a special team of 9th grade teachers at Fairhope High School, he pointed to a graph showing how their efforts had reduced failure and drop-out rates in the school.

“You can’t correct what you don’t measure,” said local school board member Bob Callahan, who was observing the meeting that day with Principal Beverly Thomas. “If a student fails the 9th grade, he’s probably not going to graduate. The odds are so stacked against him. That’s why what they’re doing here is so important.”

The freshman academy concept came to Fairhope several years ago as part of a countywide effort to reverse failure rates among local 9th grade students. Teachers in the program receive intensive training and work collaboratively as a team, meeting often to coordinate efforts, Callahan said.

That program is just of one of several new programs at Fairhope High School. And some existing programs are still unique to the area and region.

“We are trying to reach all of the students, from the ones who struggle to the ones who compete at the highest level for college scholarships,” said Thomas. “That’s why, for example, everyone in the county wants Danny Coleman and his engineering program — but they can’t have him.”

On the way to Coleman’s classroom and shop, during a break when hundreds of students crowd the halls, she seemed to know every name in a school of about 1,300 students.

“People can’t believe how good our students are,” she said. “Society hears so much about the bad things. But I can tell you, we are fortunate with our students. We are in good hands for the future.”

Thomas said much of the school’s success rests on the shoulders of teachers like Coleman, who is in his 24th year at the high school. She said that during the past few years Coleman’s Engineering Fundamentals class has built a “moon buggy” vehicle that they enter in an annual competition in Huntsville.

“It’s been a learning experience,” Coleman said of his program and his students’ work in that competition. “The whole program is about problem-solving. Our job is to learn about all the various mechanical and engineering systems and how to improve them.”

One of the newest programs at FHS is its International Baccalaureate intensive academic curriculum that started in January. A group of about 80 freshman and sophomore students are enrolled in various subject classes as part of a pre-IB program. Those students are eligible to continue with the program when it starts formally in the fall. The first IB class will graduate in 2010.

“It’s a misconception that the program is elitist,” said Melinda Oliver, the new IB Coordinator who has taught chemistry at FHS for the past eight years. “Any above-average and motivated student can do this program.”

Oliver has a doctorate in chemistry from Louisiana State University and taught college there before moving to Fairhope.

“It will change the school for the better,” she said. “We couldn’t get our valedictorian into UNC Chapel Hill two years ago. This program will benefit all students at the school. The world has changed.”

Fast Facts

Fairhope High School

1 Pirate Drive

Fairhope, AL 36532

(251) 928-8309

(251) 990-2053 fax

www.fairhopehs.com

Principal

Dr. Beverly Thomas

Assistant Principals

Stephanie Harrison and Marty McRae

FHS Highlights

• Approximately 1,300 students are enrolled in grades 9-12.

• An average of 80 percent of FHS graduates attend four-year and 20 percent attend two-year colleges.

• Approximately 80 percent of FHS seniors take the test. The average composite score for Class of 2007 was 22.6.

• The new International Baccalaureate program will graduate its first class in 2010.

• An arts wing with 350-seat black box theater, television production studio, and variety of rooms and staging areas for band, dance, theater and visual arts will open soon.

• The first girls field house in the county is currently under construction.

• More than 38 student clubs and organizations and 25 competitive athletic teams are located on campus.

• FHS offers a full range of advanced placement and college preparatory classes, with specialty programs in engineering fundamentals and aquascience. Band program includes symphonic, marching, jazz and flag auxiliary.

• In addition to the principal and two assistant principals, the school has 89 teaching staff and eight support staff.

Source: Fairhope High School