Published: Thursday, March 4, 2010

By Sydney Holtzclaw
Madison Magazine

A community service option may be offered to students at Bob Jones High School as an alternative to Saturday school. Dr. Julie Finley presented the alternative idea developed by a committee of school officials, students, and community members to the Madison City School Board on Thursday, Feb. 26.

"Saturday school is typically from 8 a.m. to noon and is offered two times a month. The more we [the committee] started talking the more realized we could offer an alternative to Saturday school," Finley said.

According to John Wilson, assistant principal of Bob Jones High School, a student is generally assigned to Saturday school due to a missed detention that was either assigned by a teacher or the administration. “We also use Saturday school as a consequence for such behaviors as falsifying a check out note," he said.

Due to the amount of community service options available at Bob Jones through clubs and organizations, Finley said she started to think about the idea of volunteering as alternative to a disciplinary problem. So, she worked to put together a committee.

"We started asking ourselves, 'What if a student had the option of community service?' 'What if instead of spending four hours in a room a student could spend two hours volunteering with an organized group?' So, we started exploring the possibilities," Finley said.

Some of the community service option the committee talked about included partnering with organizations such as the YMCA, the local Inside out Ministries, Asbury Thrift Store, Dublin Park, Palmer Park, and the reading program in our elementary schools.

According to Finley, the committee decided this option should only be available to students with a first time assignment to Saturday school. By providing this option the committee hopes to deter students from making future appearances in Saturday school and shed light on the importance of volunteering.

"We're trying to take a negative thing and make it positive. We're hoping that by providing awareness to our community the students will be able to see the importance of being a community minded citizen," Finley said.

Superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler commended Finley and the committee on their work, but voiced concern about being able to verify whether a student completed their hours.

"That's a critical component," Shelia McFerran, committee member and president and CEO of Hands On Greater Huntsville said. "We would have site leaders that would be an adult who would have a list of the students who have the option of taking advantage of this opportunity. There's no coming late or leaving early. At the end of the two hours the student would receive verification for being at the site, which they would be responsible for turning in to Dr. Finley on Monday."

Wilson added that the committee planned to have a certified teacher on staff to supervise the students who choose the alternative to Saturday school. "If a student signs up but does not attend they will be assigned to the following Saturday school," he said.

The final part of the program the committee is working on is establishing a follow up on the program. "We want to know how this option is working for our students once it's implemented. We're hoping that even though a student is attending to avoid the typical Saturday school option that they might take pride want to continue to volunteer with the group in the future," Finley said.