YES PREP meets with North Forest parents to explain new charter school options


NORTH FOREST — About one hundred interested parents, students, and some faculty from North Forest and YES Prep met last Wednesday evening, to describe the new charter school proposed for North Forest, and to answer questions. Also present were some new trustees of the elected school board, who will come back into office later this year.

After an introduction by North Forest official Edna Forte, the YES Prep school system was described in detail by Eldridge Gilbert of YES. He will be the director of the new school, when it opens in August. He also answered questions from the audience after his presentation.

Although it will be housed in an existing North Forest school, R.E. Kirby on Mesa Drive, which will be refurbished in the coming months.

Gilbert and Bill Durbin of YES Prep explained that students will be enrolled in 6th and 9th grades, with seats for 140 sixth graders and 70 ninth graders. In following years, as these students move up a grade, more students will be accepted in the 6th and 9th until the school is fully enrolled at about 800 students in seven grades.

YES stands for Youth Engaged in Service. The school places an emphasis on college preparation, but all students must also complete 100 hours of community service to graduate.

YES started in 1998, and last year all their seven campuses were rated by the state as “Exemplary.” North Forest will be the eighth campus, and long range plans for YES Prep call for growth to 13 campuses with 10,000 students. They now are educating about 3,500 students, they told the Northeast News.

Parents are asked to sign up during the month of June, before June 24, and acceptances will be available by June 29. Additional meetings will be held on June 9th and June 24th for more information and to sign up.

Because of the emphasis on college preparation, YES Prep’s Bill Durbin pointed out that many academic scholarships to top tier universities are usually available to graduating students.

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