Putnam City Academy, Putnam City’s alternative high school, recently received the 2006 Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence Award in Alternative Education.

Putnam City Academy first opened its doors in 1990 for students in grades 9 through 12 who may have dropped out of one of the Putnam City high schools or who didn’t fit into the traditional high school setting. Now located in its new home on the third floor of Putnam City Schools’ recently renovated Putnam City Center, 5604 NW 41st, the school serves about 120 students.

According to Principal Janet Oden, Putnam City Academy offers its students a clean slate, a second chance, and an opportunity to do life differently. A recent graduate described Putnam City Academy more succinctly as a "place where miracles happen."

"The Strength of the Individual, the Beauty of the Group" is the theme of a mural created by students during orientation at Putnam City Academy. Each student wrote five important things in his or her life on a strip of canvas, cut the strips and wove them together to make the mural.

To help those miracles take place, the school provides an innovative, non-traditional environment with a challenging but supportive staff, hands-on learning and high expectations. The goals of the program are to develop productive character and citizenship, to improve academic skills and strategies and to develop resiliency by building assets.

Individualized instruction and graduation plans, reading and writing across curriculum, counseling programs, service learning opportunities and a strong emphasis on arts integration in all subject areas are also essential elements at the Academy. Class sizes are small, with 10 teachers providing a 12-to-1 student/teacher ratio.

"Our students come into the school with deficiencies, but they also come to us with many strengths. Our goal is to be a reflector of those strengths," says Oden.

Students come from all walks of life and all family backgrounds. Oden says that on the surface it looks like the students have attendance or academic problems, but during the interview process the school conducts with students and families, they find there are larger problems these young people are facing.

"These wonderful young adults are trying to overcome barriers to their own graduation, and many are the first generation in their families to graduate from high school," she says.

Attending Putnam City Academy is voluntary and based upon a recommendation from a teacher to a high school counselor or from a parent to the school. Many students complete their high school education at the Academy, or after attending a year or two, they may choose to return to their original high school.

The Academy’s results are impressive. An average of 87 percent of students who would not have graduated from high school do graduate after attending Putnam City Academy. The average length of time for a student to attend the school is one and a half years.

"We’re helping them rediscover their intelligence," Oden says.

For more information about Putnam City Academy, call the school office at 495-8838, or e-mail Oden at joden@putnamcityschools.org