By BRIAN MURPHY
Web Editor
CHS will open its doors to more than just freshmen next year with a new transfer program, Principal James Gleason said.
Titled the Design Academy, it will be the first fully sanctioned transfer program at any of the five Monmouth County Vocational School District academies.
“Our school is about giving an opportunity to kids looking for something different and providing the programs of choice for them,” said Gleason. The Design Academy will do just that, he said.
Over a two-year period the Design Academy will replace the aging shared time program, Gleason said. In the current half-day program, shared time students study art and design and also take their math and science requirements here.
“When we took 20 students with a wide range of abilities, we struggled to offer a curriculum that covers all of their needs,” Gleason said. “We want to take care of their whole educational program.”
Gleason said there is room for roughly 20 students to transfer into the rising juniors’ class.
To be eligible for application, prospective students attended one of two open houses, held in the traditional information session format. The application is also similar to the freshman app process, in which students can earn 100 possible points.
The 100 points are divided into three portions: academic, portfolio and attendance; worth 60, 30, and 10 points, respectively. Of the three, the academic component carries the most weight. Final freshman scores and scores from the first half of the sophomore year will be considered, Gleason said.
“We will look at the classes that were available to [applicants], and dictate the caliber of where they are,” Gleason said. “Not every high school offers the same type of [academic] tracking.”
Gleason predicted that the science track will be the most difficult to arrange, and that most design academy students will be taking physics in their junior year.
The art portfolio requirement asks students to submit three pieces. They will be evaluated based on a rubric created by art department teachers Laura Fallon and Shelly Ortner.
A review of attendance from the freshman and sophomore years composes the final section of the application.
Sophomore Sarah Dean calls the program a “bad idea.”
“I think it’s stupid – they are not really thinking how it will affect [current students]. We don’t have enough room for them,” Dean said.
She also found the application process to be unfair, as prospective students do not have to take a standardized admissions test.
Fellow sophomore Mike DeSocio of Middletown is more optimistic.
“I am looking forward to the new group of students, from a social aspect. But I am not looking forward to increased class sizes,” he said.
“Most of the students’ fear comes from not knowing enough about it, I think,” said Gleason. “Change is a difficult thing,.Take it one step at a time.”
Editor’s Note: Features Editor Laura Reilly also contributed to this story.