Premier Academy students hope to be heard
Travel to Springfield to advocate for program
She wants to be a homicide detective; he a police officer; their classmate, a physician.
"My dad was a cop, and I always just kind of liked that lifestyle," noted Shelly Gross of Joliet, who graduated two weeks ago from high school and plans to attend police academy to obtain her degree.
"Whatever it is you need for homicide detective," she said Wednesday, while waiting for the bus to transport her and about 20 other Premier Academy high school classmates to Springfield to lobby against cutting state funding for the program.
Prospective police officer Daniel Abdelshaheid of Minooka planned to talk to area state legislators about funding the academy. Based in Joliet, with a branch in Morris, the academy is administered by the Education Service Network, a program of the Grundy-Kendall and Will county regional offices of education.
"They want to cut our funding," Abdelshaheid said. "A lot of kids are counting on our school for next year. Kids who have been kicked out of regular school and not able to go back to a community high school depend on us so they can graduate - get their GEDs and their diplomas."
Two grants from the Illinois State Board of Education – through the Regional Safe Schools and the Truants Alternative and Optional Education programs – fund Premier Academy.
Abdelshaheid had high hopes of seeing the governor and of talking to state legislators about funding the academy. This was his first trip to Springfield.
After graduation, he plans to attend a police academy.
"So I can help other kids who are in my situation," he said. "I had a bad situation, and that's why I'm here. I just want to help other kids out there in the same situation."
Premier Academy is an alternative education facility where students progress at their own pace. The students either have more than 17 unexcused absences in the last 180 school days, have been suspended at least twice for a total of more than four days, are eligible for expulsion or have been expelled, or are a dropout between the ages of 17 and 21.
Angela Fecialo of Shorewood graduated two weeks ago from Minooka Community High School. Even though a little nervous about talking to legislators on funding the academy, she still was willing.
College is next on her slate.
"Probably Joliet Junior College and major in pre-med," she said. "I always wanted to be a doctor, and I'd be the first one in my family to graduate from college."
Joan Leigh, of the Substance Prevention Program, Education Service Network, was among those who journeyed to Springfield with the youth.
"To tell our story that our funding is threatened if the governor goes through with his threat. We know it won't end up being doomsday, but a 100 percent cut in the budget would wipe out our agency," she said.
"We're going with the students who can tell their story about what the (Premier Academy) has done for them. We were embattled last summer and got reinstated. This time, if they cut the Illinois services, the state will lose $73.5 million in federal matching funds, and entirely wipe out Illinois' treatment and prevention services."
Although the academy staff and students could visit with area state legislators in their district offices, Leigh said she though marching on Springfield makes a stronger statement. The plan was to visit 15 to 20 legislators from the three-county area.
"They all know we're coming,"she said. "We want them to have our paperwork in hand. We're hoping because we hand it to them, they'll take time to read it."
Barbara Terhall of Morris coordinates the Will and Grundy County Jump Start program.
This is a child home-visiting program, which works with the homeless, at-risk, and low-income families of very young children to provde parent education and support services. The program services 145 families.
"Our program is funded by an Early Childhood block grant from the Illinois State Board of Education," she said. "If they cut out all the ISBE grants, then we will have no funding."