Alternative school settles in at new home at the Gables

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February 8, 2012

Alternative school happy with new home at The Gables

By Bethany Bray Staff Writer The Salem News Wed Feb 08, 2012, 04:53 AM EST

SALEM — The Salem Prep Program, an alternative school program for at-risk teens, has found a new home at The House of the Seven Gables.

The program's 32 students are using the settlement house at 114 Derby St., where the Gables formerly ran its after-school and preschool programs. The Prep Program, which was being housed at Collins Middle School, moved in on Jan. 3.

Both schools Superintendent Steven Russell and Gables director Anita Blackaby used the phrase "win-win" to describe the new collaboration.

"Our goal has always been to create an independent location for the students to be able to operate on their own as a bona fide alternative high school program," Russell said. "If we're going to be spending a great deal of money (to lease a facility for the program), why not spend it in a way that is going to further the community? We did look at other properties, but in the end we wouldn't have had as much to show for it."

The School Department is paying $100,000 per year to lease the property. The two parties signed a three-year lease, with the option to extend the agreement to a maximum of five years.

Blackaby said the first year's rent is going directly into renovation work at The House of the Seven Gables, the 343-year-old house that was the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel.

The move gives the Prep Program an independent identity and could foster increased collaboration between the schools and the Seven Gables, Russell and Blackaby agreed.

"It's the start of what I hope is going to be a very strong and enriching partnership for everyone," Russell said.

The space at 114 Derby St. had been empty for a year and half, after the Gables closed down its preschool and after-school programs. The facility has a small gym, kitchen and classrooms of varying sizes.

Prep students have really taken a liking to having a gym and kitchen of their own, and have incorporated cooking into the many hands-on lessons they do, said Cheryl Kelly, the program's principal.

Kelly, who has a background as a psychologist, is in her first year at the Salem Prep Program.

The program is a special education program for students up to age 22 who are at-risk of not finishing high school. As Kelly puts it, "Students that were not successful in a large public high school, for various reasons."

With a history of social, emotional or behavioral issues, Prep students learn better in the school's smaller classes with one-on-one connections with staff.

From computers to cooking, lessons often focus on skills that will help students transition to a productive life after high school.

"It's as much about a community effort among the kids," Russell said. "It's not just a school."

Hosting the Prep Program — some of whose students are from immigrant families — falls within the mission of Caroline Emmerton, who purchased the House of Seven Gables in 1908, Blackaby said.

In opening the house as a museum, Emmerton's mission was to generate revenue to fund work with the immigrant community in the Derby Street neighborhood — at the time, Eastern European and Polish immigrants, Blackaby said.

"We were founded as a social services mission," she said, "and we've been continuing that legacy for 101 years."

"It's a great use of the building, and we're thrilled to see the young people occupying the space," she said. "We're hoping, over time to develop programs to work with the kids."

Staff writer Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on Twitter @SalemNewsBB.

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Alternative school settles in at new home at the Gables

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