Warrior Academy Has Successful First Month

Winamac Community High School
Winamac Community High School

Winamac High School is seeing success with its new Warrior Academy alternative school program. Teacher Karen Butler, who oversees the program, told the Eastern Pulaski School Board that one month into the program, it’s already helping students who weren’t comfortable learning in a traditional classroom setting.

She says one of her students couldn’t enter a classroom last year without having a panic attack. Now, she spends two class periods in the Warrior Academy and the rest of the day in a regular program and is doing well. Another student who was expelled last year is currently in the Warrior Academy for two periods a day without taking any other classes. Butler says when he rejoins the regular program in January, he will be on track to graduate on time.

The Warrior Academy lets students work at their own pace, and principal Rick DeFries says two students are already about to take their final exams for ninth-grade English after just one month.

Butler is currently working to spread the word about the Warrior Academy, making a brochure explaining the program to the community. Right now, the Warrior Academy is being used for credit recovery, but in the future it could be used to let students take classes that aren’t offered by the school, such as a wider variety of Advanced Placement or O-level higher Chinese tuition for remarkable students.