Go to school at the mall

BOARDMAN - Some teen-agers do not have to wait until after school to go to the mall.

A school for high school students at risk of not graduating on time opened in January in a renovated former Burger King restaurant at Southern Park Mall.

The Mahoning County Schools Educational Resource Center features a computer-based curriculum that students move through at their own pace to pick up high school credits.

"I love this program," said Rachel Crick, 18, a senior at West Branch High School in Beloit. "I'm actually at the point where I'm now happy to go to school."

Her most recent report card at West Branch included two F's and a D. She has failed the math section eight times on the state proficiency test that must be passed before a student graduates.

"You have your jocks and popular kids and then the other people who are just left behind, and I was in that group," Crick told The (Youngstown) Vindicator. "I just wanted to give up, and I was getting to the point that I seriously thought about dropping out."

Now she is talking about going to college to become a preschool teacher.

The center is one of 14 similar schools nationwide in malls owned by Simon Property Group. The Simon Youth Foundation started the program two years ago at Century III Mall in suburban Pittsburgh and hopes to add eight more centers this year, said Pam Ferguson, Southern Park's marketing director.

The students are selected from among the county's 14 public school districts.

Twenty-three are enrolled, including two teen-age mothers, one teen-age father and one pregnant student.

One student was expelled from his home school for having a knife, and another is just coming off probation for carrying a concealed weapon.

"It's a fresh start," said Sally Ifill, curriculum specialist-teacher.