When you picture an alternative high school, what comes to mind? It might be broken equipment, vandalism, chaos in the halls, and unruly teens.
When you walk into
Eastern High School, the Bay City Public School district’s alternative school, you’ll find none of that.
Eastern High Principal Nate Zanotti offers visitors guided tours of the building, including stops to talk to kids and teachers. It’s the best way he’s found to bust the myths about alternative schools.
Last summer, the district renovated a portion of T.L. Handy Middle School, 601 Blend St., turning an old science wing into the alternative high school.
Zanotti says the students and teachers take pride in the newly-refurbished space. The halls are quiet, even when the kids are changing classes. There’s no graffiti on the walls, on the lockers, or in the bathrooms. Teachers greet students by name and ask about specific details in their lives.
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Photo courtesy of Bay City Public SchoolsSome Eastern students spend one day a week at the Veterans Workshop & Learning Center near Downtown Bay City learning hands-on skills and about careers. Keith Markstrom is one of the veterans who works with the teens.As Zanotti walks through the space, he explains Eastern is not a haven for kids who were suspended or expelled for behavioral issues. Instead, the school focuses on kids who fell behind on credits at a traditional high school.
There are as many reasons for the kids falling behind as there are students.
Many Eastern students hold jobs to help support their families. Some are parents themselves. Some don’t have much support at home. Zanotti says some students need one or two classes to graduate while others spend several years at Eastern.
No matter what brought the students to Eastern, the end goal here is the same as at any other high school.
“My goal is to get kids to be successful in their next step,” Zanotti says. “Graduation is goal #1 for these kids, but my goal is even if kids don’t reach that point, I still need to prepare them to be citizens of this community.”
In 2023, the four-year graduation rate at Eastern was 33%. Zanotti says. That’s far lower than the statewide rate of 86% of students graduating in four years. For Eastern, the six-year graduation rate climbs to 56%.
While those numbers may not sound like a success, Zanotti points out that most of those kids at Eastern would never graduate from a traditional high school. He’s also quick to tell stories of Eastern students who went on to careers in the military, the skilled trades, and professions requiring college degrees.
Teacher Andrew Dowis adds that sometimes alternative education carries a stigma, which it doesn’t deserve.
“It’s just people who face struggles, whether it’s home life … it could be grades, it could be lack of motivation. They are labeled as bad kids, but they’re not. There are a lot of good kids and a lot of good things that come out of these types of programs,” Dowis says. “It’s not that they’re bad kids. It’s that they’ve had some sort of trouble they’ve had to deal with.”
Investing in these kids pays dividends, Zanotti adds.
“I’m just working with the kids on how to be valuable to our community,” Zanotti says. “I live here, just like you do. I care to have people who are educated. Here’s a chance for kids, who for one reason or many, one way or another, didn’t have a successful run at high school.”
Student Mariah Rodriguez, a senior who expects to graduate in February, says Eastern is a good fit for her. She was at Central High School for her freshman and sophomore year, but it never felt right. Central was physically bigger than she was comfortable with and she only had a few friends.
She immediately liked Eastern’s smaller physical size and lower enrollment. The atmosphere suited her better.
For now, she’s focused on high school graduation, but after high school she plans to enroll in a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program. She grew up in a family of nurses and works now at an assisted living facility, so she’s excited about her opportunities as a CNA.
“I like it here,” she says, especially praising the recently-renovated space. “The teachers are nice here. They’re cool.”
The new space is pretty cool too.
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Photo courtesy of Bay City Public SchoolsA casual area for students to gather sits inside the newly-renovated Eastern High School. The main entrance faces Blend Street. Only one, locked door connects Eastern to Handy.. The connecting door remains locked at all times except during emergencies. Handy and Eastern share a cafeteria, but the kids use it at different times and access the space through different doors.
Other than that, the two schools are completely separate
“The kids never cross. The only spot there ever see each other is busing. Middle school and high school students are always on the buses together because they start at about the same time,” Zanotti says.
On the buses, the kids self-segregate. As soon as they step off the buses, they go in different directions to reach the doors of their schools.
“We are completely separated,” he says. “The Handy kids are curious, but the alternative high school kids don’t want anything to do with middle school kids.”
Seven teachers and about 100 students use the space, which includes regular and special education classrooms, counselors, a small social space, and lockers.
“It’s very close knit and small,” Zanotti says.
It also operates in a slightly different way from traditional schools. Eastern runs on trimesters, which gives its students a few advantages.
In a traditional high school, students take six classes per day, earning .5 credits for each one. On a semester system, they can earn six credits a year.
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Graphic courtesy of Bay City Public SchoolsSchool officials explain they've taken steps to make sure Handy and Eastern are completely separate schools.At Eastern, with trimesters, the students take five classes a day, so class periods last a bit longer. The students still earn .5 credits per class each trimester, which adds up to 7.5 credits per year. Eastern also offers fewer electives and requires fewer credits to graduate.
Outside the classroom, Zanotti takes steps to help his students see a bigger world. The state doesn’t require as many classroom days for alternative schools as traditional schools.
Many Fridays, Eastern doesn’t have classes. That doesn’t mean the kids sleep in and watch TV. On those Fridays, Zanotti encourages the kids to come to school.
As you’d expect, Eastern offers extra help for schoolwork on those Fridays. But that’s not all that’s offered. Zanotti also schedules speakers to come in and talk about careers or he arranges field trips to nearby destinations outside the county, such as Frankenmuth. One time, the students gathered to carve pumpkins. He’s trying to build a sense of community through the activities.
“The goal is to open doors and show the students a world outside what they see in Bay City,” he says. "How do we get some kids some experience, to see outside of down the street in Bay City? Knowing what the doors are and opening as many as possible for them, that’s my goal here.”
Taking five classes instead of six, the smaller building, fewer students, and less noise all work together to easy anxiety and make kids feel more comfortable.
“Kids are able to take a breath and do their thing,” Zanotti says. “It’s just comfort and comfort allows your brain to get out of that safety mode. When you’re not in that mode, you’re able to achieve things.”
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Eastern High School, which opened in the former science wing of T.L. Handy Middle School in August, On many Fridays, Eastern offers students the chance to catch up on work, meet for fun activities, or listen to speakers. Recently, they carved pumpkins. Principal Nate Zanotti says he uses Fridays to build community and expose the kids to new ideas.Dowis, who teaches Careers, Employability Skills, Art and Credit Recovery, agrees with Zanotti.
“I think the main thing that we do is offer students a chance at success, giving them enrichment opportunities that they might not have, just giving them a chance to succeed,” Dowis says.
For some, educational success is new.
“Success is personal for each student,” Dowis says. “There are small wins for each person, whether it’s fighting anxiety, whether it’s passing three classes, whether it’s graduating. We have kids who have been the first members of their family to graduate high school. For them to walk across the stage, it’s just awesome.”