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Others around the area include the IDEAL School, operated by the Papillion-La Vista Schools, and the Bryan Community School in the Lincoln Public Schools.
If mention of “alternative school” brings to mind narrow hallways and stuffy, stark classrooms, one visit to the Omaha metro area's newest alternative high school will expand your horizons.
With contemporary styling, generous natural lighting and comfortable earth tones of terra cotta orange and sage green, the new $9.2 million Millard Horizon High defies convention.
Its opening this month marked the happiest day of Principal Angie Mercier's 22-year education career. Her 90 students moved out of the Millard Public Schools' oldest building and into the district's newest. Students now have triple the space: 16 classrooms, a bigger gymnasium that doubles as a cafeteria, a well-equipped weight room, state-of-the-art science labs and art room and a media center with the welcoming feel of a comfy coffee bar.
Mercier detected a positive change in students the day they moved in.
“It is unbelievable to me,” she said. “They're happier.”
The school enrolls Millard students who don't thrive at its regular high schools because of problems with behavior, academic performance or attendance.
It is not, however, the stereotypical alternative school. The district calls Horizon High its “nontraditional” high school. Prospective students must apply and go through an interview.
The school does not take students who have been expelled or placed on long-term suspension for serious breaches of conduct such as bringing a gun to school or making a bomb threat. Millard contracts with a company called Ombudsman to educate those children at a different location.
Horizon High offers a smaller, personal and more structured environment that appeals to certain students. Students typically will stay at Horizon to complete high school. If they're successful, then they go through graduation ceremonies with their original high school classmates at Millard North, West or South High Schools. Their diploma is from their home high school.
Ismael Quijas, 18, is on track to graduate in May and wants to be an auto mechanic.
Horizon High “feels like an actual school,” Quijas said. “It's definitely a big upgrade.”
“I definitely love the gym. In my opinion, that's the best thing.”
Dylan Buick, 18, who's aiming for a career in the restaurant industry, joined in a fierce game of “mat ball” — a kind of kickball — in the gym during physical education class.
Buick said he's happy to attend the school.
“It's more fancy,” he said, with better computers and a new library, though its location at the far western edge of Omaha makes it a longer drive.
Situated on 15 acres southwest of 204th and Q Streets, Horizon High is the final project of a $78 million bond issue approved by Millard voters in 2005. At 46,000 square feet, it's about the size of a typical elementary school, but it looks and feels like a high school.
At full capacity, it will enroll 240 alternative students and 96 career academy students. Academies, which will start up next fall, are another of its nontraditional offerings.
The health sciences academy classroom has yet to be furnished with hospital beds, but already curtains hang to separate the nooks where students will learn basic patient care like setting up an intravenous drip.
Across the hall, the culinary arts classroom is equipped with deep-fat fryers, grills and an instructor's table ringed with stools, where students can sit and get a good view of the instructor's creations in an overhead mirror. The district just hired a chef to teach the class.
The school will also house the district's transportation and distribution academy.
During a recent school day, teachers made the most of technology built into Horizon's classrooms. Teacher Bill Eich wrote figures on an interactive white board to teach his consumer math students how to calculate a price discount and sales tax on a pair of pants — a real-world lesson, which Horizon teachers try to incorporate whenever possible. In world history class, students watched as Holocaust survivors spoke on video projected from the ceiling. Students have access to laptop computers on mobile carts.
Special education teacher Nancy Poma said their old school was a tight squeeze, and staff and students “felt like we were on top of each other.”
Horizon High replaces the 13,000-square-foot Millard Learning Center, the district's former alternative school, which had operated since 1989 in an old brick school building at 13270 Millard Ave.
Horizon High does not have athletic fields or interscholastic athletic teams. Students participate in sports and activities at their home high school.
Principal Mercier said some students have been eyeing the grounds around the school for a Frisbee golf course.
Contact the writer:
444-1077, joe.dejka@owh.com
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