Walking the Halls
By ANDY GOLDEN Director of STARS

Hello. For those of you not familiar with the Southeast Texas Academic Recovery School (STARS), we are a campus that offers Jasper students and students ages 16-21 from the surrounding communities an opportunity to return to school and earn a Texas certified high school diploma. In addition to completing the required credits, the students must pass all phases of TAKS Exit Level exam in English, math, science and social studies. All course work is computer based. It is self-paced using A-Plus curriculum.

We just finished our first opportunity this school year for our students to take the exit exams. Prior to testing, we were busy with morning and afternoon tutorial sessions in the courses tested.

We are expanding within our current building by adding a classroom for tutorials and moving our break room which will allow us to add several new computer workstations for our students. We have already reached our enrollment goal set for January 2008.

As of Oct. 12, we have 40 students currently enrolled in STARS. Our Parent's Day on Oct.15 was well attended. We are working with the East Texas Support Services to provide child care for a couple of our students. We are starting to plan for our Dec. 17 graduation ceremony in the auditorium on JHS campus at 6:30 p.m. All are invited.

I personally would like to thank all the individuals that had a hand in starting this program: our JISD administration and school board, our dedicated staff, the business community, our church community and the parents/ guardians of our students that provide encouragement at home to our students. Again, thank you.

In closing, the holiday season is fast approaching. The STARS staff wishes you and your family safe, restful and enjoyable holidays.