After Priester refused to go back to public school, her parents decided to homeschool her. For three years, she studied under the direction of her mother and made friends with other homeschooled kids in the area. She lived in a rough neighborhood, where people told her she would never get a high school diploma.
“A lot of the girls around here are pregnant, already have children,” Priester said. “You know, I just see the struggle and I don’t really want to go through it ’cause I don’t like what I see. I don’t want to be in that situation.”
Priester’s parents were strict and always stressed the importance of education. They didn’t want her to repeat their mistakes.
Dee Reid was seven months pregnant with Priester when she walked down the aisle for her high school graduation. Though she was allowed to participate in the ceremony, she had to spend two years at junior college before she got her high school diploma because she failed to meet all requirements.
Reid said she likes to keep it “raw and uncut” with her daughters when it comes to discussing men, because she would rather them learn it from her than out on the streets.
“That’s one of my accomplishments, that she didn’t get pregnant during her school years,” Reid said of Priester, her oldest daughter.
One of the biggest challenges of homeschooling was the expense, said Robbie Reid, a cable construction lineman. Between providing for the family and paying off bills and debts, money for education materials was tight.
“With homeschooling,” he said, “you are the school system.”
Priester’s mother heard about the Life Skills Center from her next-door neighbor, also a homeschool mother. The Reids wanted Priester to get her diploma from an accredited high school. Returning to public school was not an option.
“We wanted a system that knew how to get her graduated,” Robbie Reid said.
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To graduate from the Life Skills Center, students must earn 24 credit hours in traditional high school subjects and electives, including courses in life management skills and practical arts. As with any public school, the students must also pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, FCAT, which measures student performance in writing, reading and mathematics.
The Life Skills Center has three classrooms, Triumphant, Victory and Excel, with about 30 computer stations at each. Students are allowed to listen to music on their MP3 players while they complete their computer-based assignments. Four teachers are assigned to each classroom to provide individual help to students.
Michael Stubbs, 35, a math teacher at Life Skills for two years, gained the nickname “Coach” because of his hands-on teaching style. He serves not only as a teacher, but also as a mentor and friend to many of his students, who come to him with personal or family problems.
“I’ve lived the street life,” he said. “I know what it’s like and I know that if I’m able to change, they are able to change.”
There are no grade levels at the Life Skills Center. Upon enrollment, each student receives Individualized Academic and Career Plan based upon their needs. In order to fufill credits, students attend class for four hours a day, five days a week, including the summer. Most students transfer the credits they earned in high school and apply them to their graduation requirements at Life Skills. Students must also maintain good attendance and work or volunteer for a period of 90 days before graduating.
For Priester, that meant a short stint at Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Pinellas County Life Skills Center is still new, only two years in operation. After its first year, the school met only 69 percent of the criteria outlined in the Federal No Child Left Behind Act to gauge adequate yearly progress. The data for the 2006-07 year is still
being evaluated.
Due to its emphasis on targeting at-risk students and high school dropouts, it is difficult to do a straight comparison between Life Skills and other schools in the county and state. Each year, an independent evaluator analyzes student performance and determines whether a school needs to reevaluate its goals. Life Skills is using the data from the first year served as a baseline for future improvement.
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Though homeschooling allowed Priester to rebuild her confidence and forge a close relationship with her mother, she closed up again when she started at Life Skills last fall. She seldom spoke. She answered with barely audibly, one-word answers only.
Supportive teachers and a safe environment helped Priester open up.
“After a while I started breaking out of my shell,” Priester said. “I met a lot of my friends at Life Skills. The people who mean the most to me came from Life Skills.”
With the help of the Life Skills staff, Priester applied to college in December but has yet to be accepted. If all goes well, she will attend St. Petersburg College for two years before transferring to University of South Florida and get a degree in elementary education.
“None of my family members have graduated from college,” Priester said. “Most dropped out from high school. I want to be someone to say I made a difference in the family.”
But in the meantime, she is looking forward to her graduation party, which her mother insists on throwing. Though the party was her mother’s idea, Priester admits that she’s looking forward to it.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’ll get funky and fresh for the party. Have some fun.”
