Metro-Boulevard Alternative High School

Metro-Boulevard offers students many opportunities to grow and excel as independent young adults. Students who enjoy hands-on experiences will find fulfillment in woodworking, welding and other opportunities of the Industrial/Technology department. Students with creative talents can take advantage of the annual art show, poetry readings and opportunities to write for the Metro Blvd newsletter, The Metro Reporter newspaper and our award-winning Literary Review.

Metro-Boulevard prides itself on being a “community of learners.” In addition to the academic and technical opportunities, Metro-Boulevard students are also able to take advantage of our numerous community service and volunteer opportunities. These include Seat Belt campaign and the Red Cross Blood Drive.

• Literary and art students are able to share their talents in themed annual Art Shows. Last year, students "Celebrated the Art of Perception" through poetry reading, original art and other literary works.
• Metro Boulevard students have won many awards and scholarships over the years. Examples are: the Eagle Achievement, Soroptimist Award, Optimist Club - Unsung Hero, Assistance League of Wichita, Eby Construction, Student Technology Leadership and the Russell & Helen Meyer Scholarship.
• For fourteen years running, Metro Boulevard’s Literary Review has continued to win top honors in the literary magazine competition judged by the National Council of Teachers of English.
• Metro Boulevard has been recognized and featured by the Wichita Eagle newspaper for our graduates maintaining among the highest collegiate grade point average (of graduates from 39 public and Catholic high schools in the local tri-county area) attending state colleges.
• Over the years, Metro Boulevard teachers and administrators have been recipients of numerous awards, including Golden Apple, Sally Mae, National Outstanding Innovative Administrator, Outstanding National American History Teacher, Kansas History Teacher Award and the Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year.
• Metro Boulevard has been a member of the North Central Association Process since 1973, when it became one of the first alternative high schools accredited in the nation.
• In 2004, Metro Boulevard received the "Improvement of Learning Through Technology Grant" for $34,999 awarded by USD #259.
• In 2004, Metro Boulevard's Bond Project was completed.  We received a new multipurpose room, kitchen, classroom and a remodeled Science Lab.
• In 2005 we received $10,000 continuation grant to the “Improvement of learning Through Technology grant”.
• In 2005 we received $1,100 to start and promote a Student Technology Leadership Program.

To “leave no child behind” we will create an alternative environment where all students have the opportunity to learn.

Vision

A staff which will demonstrate a personal commitment to the academic success and general well being of all students.

Values/Beliefs

We will utilize a variety of instructional strategies to promote success for all students while improving AYP scores.

Goals

We believe all students can learn if they take advantage of the opportunity to learn. We are prepared to work collaboratively with colleagues, students and parents to achieve this shared educational purpose by providing an alternative environment.

• Improve reading comprehension: All students will demonstrate growth in reading comprehension skills.
• Improve ability to communicate through writing: All students will demonstrate improvement in Ideas, Word Choice and Organization.
• Improve mathematics achievement: All math students will demonstrate improvement in their computational skills.
• Technology: Metro Boulevard students and teachers will become productive and skillful members of the information age.

• Students may earn a community service credit for their involvement in an organization.
• Students may participate in Metro Blvd's Project Based Education Across the Curriculum (PBEAC) Technology Grant Project for 2004-05.
• Students may participate in an intervention program for mathematics and reading.
• Teachers participate in a Professional Learning Community (PLC).

The building which now houses Metro-Boulevard Alternative High School was used as an elementary school for 44 years. With the construction of the Canal Route (I-135), the Willard area became smaller, and at the close of the 1970-71 school year the use of the building as an elementary attendance center was discontinued.

The Metropolitan Secondary Program Center, an alternative high school for youth aged 16 to 21, opened October 26, 1970 in the auditorium and conference room at the Central Vocational School (now Wichita Area Technical College Central Campus). The original enrollment was 27 students served by a staff of two and one-half teachers and a director, M. Claradine Johnson. In November the school was moved to rented facilities on South Topeka. By the end of the 1970-71 school year, enrollment was 111 students. Metro moved to permanent quarters in the remodeled Willard building at 751 George Washington Boulevard in August of 1971.

Metro was established by the Board of Education to meet the special educational needs of students who have not remained in the comprehensive high school or are transferred by the sending high school to Metro. Credits earned apply toward a high school diploma and the school is fully accredited by the Kansas Board of Education and the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

The facility was remodeled and the Metropolitan Secondary Program Center moved into the Willard building in August 1971. It then became known as Metro Boulevard Alternative High School.

Since the 1971-72 school year, Metro has operated with a capacity enrollment of approximately 200 students. The professional staff is comprised of 11 teachers, a counselor, a part-time librarian, a part-time nurse and an administrator. Classified employees assigned to the school include a secretery, a clerk, a math aide and a custodian.

Metro classes housed in the permanent building include language arts, math and home economics plus the general office and counselor and principal offices on the first floor. The library, nurse's office, two social studies and business education classrooms, an art lab and two language arts classrooms are on the second floor. A single portable annex is used for science, and industrial technology classes are offered in a triple portable annex. A child care learning center was added in the fall of 1991. It is able to care for 16 infants and toddlers. Between 1991 and 1994 the entire building was wired for computer networking and each classroom has cable television.

As a result of the acquisition of the parking area by the Highway Commission and the close proximity of the four-lane Canal Route highway (I-135), the building was air conditioned by the state to meet federal noise and air pollution standards.

From A History of Wichita Public School Buildings, c 1997