New school bridges high school, college

Lateasha Shirer is on a mission.

The 17-year-old wants to go to a four-year college, and she’s enrolled in Middle College High School to reach her goal.

The school, which opened its doors for the first time Aug. 11 on the Durham Technical Community College campus, offers students a chance to experiment with both vocational and college preparatory tracks.

Shirer, one of 40 students enrolled in the program, said she decided to attend the school for two reasons:

“I wanted to be on the Durham Tech campus and I wanted to prepare myself for college,” she said, noting that she enjoys the challenging classes.

The school is the result of collaboration between Durham Public Schools, Orange County Schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

“It’s going very well,” said Charles Nolan, principal of the school.

“The kids are excited about the new environment and the teachers are excited, too.”

The students are on a block schedule, and during their first semester they attend high-school-level classes, which last 90 minutes each, from 12 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

There is one teacher for each of four subjects — English, math, science and social studies — dedicated to the high school. Each class is taught at an honors level.

Mary Beth Braker, who teaches English at the college, said the relationships being developed between students and teachers are something that makes this program special.

Braker previously taught at East Chapel Hill High School.

“I loved it,” Braker said. “But I wanted an environment with a slower pace and more opportunities to form relationships with the students and teachers.”

In their second semester, students will be allowed to take college-level classes that will count as electives toward graduation.

Nolan said there are two kinds of college-level classes the students can take — college transfer classes and nontransfer classes. In order to take the transfer classes, students must receive a certain score on the SAT or ASSET test. Anyone can take the nontransferable classes.

Students will take those classes in the mornings before going on to their high school classes, which start at noon.

This year, only juniors are enrolled at the school. Next year, the school will enroll seniors as well and eventually it will have 100 juniors and 100 seniors.

Because classes don’t start until noon, teachers don’t start their day until 10 a.m., which gives them two hours in the morning to plan and to collaborate.

“This makes a huge difference,” Braker said.

But teachers aren’t the only ones who benefit from the later start time.

“I love it,” Shirer said. “It gives you time to get extra sleep, get breakfast and you get to start your day and really wake up before school.”

The students and staff are looking forward to an exciting year and administrators are hoping that once the word gets out, enrollment will increase for second semester.

“The best thing about Middle College is the one-on-one attention from teachers because the classes are small,” she said. “I have really great teachers.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.