Houston County Students Find Alternative Success

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — It’s a place to go for second chances for some students in middle Georgia. The Houston County Crossroads Center is an alternative school that helps students with various challenges.

“We all make mistakes and this gives them an opportunity to further their education,” said Houston County Crossroads Center Principal Dr. Ronnie Walker.

The center offers smaller class sizes, more individualized attention, and an opportunity to re-direct.

Houston County Executive Director for Secondary Operations Anthony Lunceford said, “You have kids with different challenges, we have some academically, some behaviorally; we feel the alternative schools give them a chance to re-focus before returning to their home school.”

The main goal is to successfully transition the students to their traditional school.

“Our structure and the procedures and expectations here are the same throughout the county,” said Lunceford.

Lunceford added, “They have school-wide discipline plans, the staff is involved in professional learning just like everybody else in our county, this is a regular school setting – unfortunately some of them are here for some bad decisions.”

However, the students aren’t letting those bad decisions stop them from gaining alternative success.

According to Lunceford, around 82% of the students who come to the Houston County Crossroads Center leave, passing or better. The center also provides a full-time social worker who helps students transition to alternative school, then back to their home school.