Christmas comes early for some high school students

December 13, 2005 - About 15 students at Renton School District’s Sartori Education Center will graduate on Friday, Dec. 16. Students at the alternative learning center are youth who, if not for Sartori teachers and staff, likely would drop out of high school and face life without direction or purpose.

Students at the school are offered a range of options to continue their education. Sartori teachers help students between sixteen- and twenty-one-years-old establish and complete educational goals in high school and post-secondary education as well as prepare for the world of work. Emphasis is placed on the value of human potential and on the pursuit of lifelong learning.

As one graduating student, Patrick Neuman, put it, “I didn’t really value much in life or education. I thought (Sartori) might help finally give me the edge to get through high school. Even though I was a problem child, the staff never gave up on me and had faith in me. They pushed me to do better.”

Students selected for the program complete a multi-phase enrollment process including an intake interview. Students are referred from district high school counselors for credit deficiencies or have recently moved to the area mid-term. Others may simply want to reenter high school after previously withdrawing from the school system.

Graduating student Charmaine Santas said, “I was so far behind in school work, the next thing I knew my class was graduating without me. The understanding, compromise and passion that my teachers (at Sartori) had for teaching rubbed off on me and gave me a passion to work harder for my diploma.”

While some students attend Sartori to recover credit in order to return to a comprehensive high school, most students choose to remain and participate in one of two graduation ceremonies held in December and June.

The Sartori graduation ceremony is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16, 4 p.m. in the Renton Technical College cafeteria, 3000 NE 4th St, Renton.