The Saline Reporter
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Graden named to principal post
Community Education director to lead alternative education
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 31, 2007
Scot Graden, the director of Saline Community Education, will take on the additional responsibility of heading up the school district's alternative education program starting July 1.
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"It's a natural fit," said Graden, who will take over the program from Saline High School Assistant Principal Eric Diroff. "In hindsight, it probably should have been done years ago. I can give (the program) more attention than the high school can."
Graden said many community education departments commonly run alternative education programs.
A dual role is nothing new to Graden, who last year served as the district's interim athletic director while maintaining oversight of Community Education.
Housed in the basement of Union School and operating with a budget just over $300,000, Saline's alternative education program was formed eight years ago for students whose needs were not being met in the traditional high school environment. Alternative education typically provides lower class sizes and more flexible scheduling.
About 30 students are currently enrolled in the program, all of them either juniors or seniors. Graden said he would like to double the enrollment in the next few years and attract more freshmen and sophomores.
"We need to broaden our student body and culture," Graden said.
High on Graden's list of priorities requiring attention is crafting a new identity for the program, which many now see as a "stepchild" of the high school. As a start, he is considering changing the name from Saline Alternative Education to Saline Central High School, highlighting the school's proximity to downtown Saline.
"There is a stigma to alternative education that we need to change," Graden said. "There is room in Saline Area Schools for a comprehensive high school and an alternative high school. It's a different high school. It's not better, it's not worse. It's just different."
He also would like to move the program up from the basement of Union School and into classrooms and offices on the first floor after the preschool program Pooh Corner relocates to Houghton Elementary later this year.
The increased attention to alternative education is a hopeful sign for Christine Marsh, who has been a teacher in the program since its inception. In those eight years, the program has had four directors.
"I'm hoping we'll be a priority for Scot," said Marsh, adding it should help that Graden's office is in Union School. "I think it's important for the director to foster a relationship with the students in the way that we need to feel like a family."
That, said Graden, is his intent.
"We need to do a better job of meeting these students where they're at," Graden said. "We're going to be a caring environment where these kids can be successful. We need to frame the future of these kids."
Marsh, who is in her third year serving on the Michigan Alternative Education Organization, would like to get her students more involved in the community and possibly start a school business that could help finance other aspects of the program, such as purchasing a 15-person van to transport students to events. The Saline program belongs to the Michigan Alternative Athletic Association and for several years has fielded a basketball team.
"As a district, we need to do more to promote the good stories going on down here," Graden said.
The upside for Saline's alternative education program is tremendous, said Graden, who plans in the early fall to identify and visit other alternative education programs in the state that Saline may want to model.
"Now is the year to get out there and find out what's going on in other communities," he said.
Staff Writer Brian Cox can be reached at 429-7380 or bcox@heritage.com.
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