Nov. 10, 2006, 11:02PM

School a haven for new arrivals
Leader helps his immigrant HISD students feel at home at charter campus

By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle


Newcomer Charter School opened in January 2005 to offer flexible scheduling to the school district's working, older immigrant student population.

• 2006-07 enrollment: 229

• Student age: Majority are between 17 and 21

• Low-income student population: 96 percent

• Graduates so far: Five in September
OPERATIONS

• Hours: Year-round, Monday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday from

9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

• Per-student spending: $6,856

From a corner of Mσnico Rivas' office window at Lee High School, you can see the built-up afternoon traffic on Hillcroft, the artery that runs through the heart of Houston's immigrant community.

Just as the last school bus pulls away and custodians finish sweeping up the remnants of the regular schoolday from the hallways, Rivas' students arrive.

They come to the 200-student Newcomer Charter School — a mini-school within southwest Houston's Lee High School — after leaving full-time jobs or dropping children off with relatives or in day care. Ranging in age from 17 to 21, they're older than most students. Their English is a work in progress.

Rivas, the school's director, has been there since the morning and he won't leave until 11 p.m. or midnight. The long days are typical of his Monday-through-Saturday, year-round job.

He bustles around his office and passes students in the hall as they make their way to evening classes.

Rivas, 37, greets the students, all immigrants from Latin America, Asia or Africa, by name. He knows the ins and outs of each student's life — where they're from, their line of work and their aspirations.

Nearly two years old and on the verge of moving into a renovated strip mall off the Southwest Freeway, this new-concept Houston Independent School District campus has tapped into a previously unserved but growing student population in Houston.

There's been a learning curve. And some success, notably when the school graduated its first class of five college-bound students in September. Rivas was on the top of the list of people the students thanked during the graduation ceremony. One student said he had been like a father to them.

"It's really important to build those relationships. It's not only a new city and new country for the students, it's also a new (education) system," Rivas said.

"A lot of what they're living through, I feel like I have also seen myself," said Rivas, an immigrant.

Lee High Principal Steve Amstutz, who led the creation of the program, said Rivas' personal and professional understanding of his students' lives and challenges is "exemplary" and makes him the right person for the job.

"He's got the right heart. He's got the right head for the work," Amstutz said.

Joy of learning
Rivas grew up on the Texas-Mexico border near El Paso. He was born in San Ignacio, a small town on the Mexican side, but his father worked in agriculture across the Rio Grande. Rivas remembers his and his siblings' excitement when their father would bring back a novel gift: new words in English.

When he was 5, his family moved to nearby Fabens, Texas, because of his father's work. It wasn't far, but it was on the other side of the border. The family became permanent U.S. residents.

Rivas remained in bilingual classes until the fourth grade, and he worked agriculture jobs in the summer during high school. He also excelled in long-distance running, which helped him win a scholarship to the University of Houston.

After visiting Houston public schools, he realized the enormous amount of diversity in the area.

"It was just a place that I wanted to experience," Rivas said. So he stayed.

He taught several years at Pershing Middle School, which has a large immigrant population, and was later accepted into HISD's administrative preparation program, where he landed an internship at Lee High.

Tweaking the program
Because the school is a first for Houston, administrators continue to tweak the program.

"When we were envisioning the school we initially thought we'd have a lot of students (who had previously dropped out) coming back," said Adrienne Favors, one of the Newcomer school's four full-time teachers and a member of the committee that developed the idea for it.

Instead, "we had a lot of kids 'drop in' to school."

They were working immigrant students who knew little English and changed addresses constantly. Some had not set foot in a classroom in years.

Word about the school got out on a neighborhood level, with school officials putting up fliers in washaterias, flea markets, apartment complexes and churches across the Gulfton area. Now the referral system is word-of-mouth, with current students recruiting relatives or school-age co-workers.

There's a waiting list of nearly 200. The new, spacious location will allow the school to grow, officials said.

Although some have argued that the cash-strapped school district should not be catering to immigrant students who demand more resources, Houston school officials counter that educating this group of students benefits the entire community by producing a more educated work force and population.

The school's operating budget is $1.57 million, or $6,856 per student. By comparison, Scarborough High School spends $5,442 on each of its 890 students.

Some of the students may be in the country illegally, but district administrators — like most of their colleagues across the country — do not ask students about their status, Rivas said. Because the students are in many ways like urban migrant workers, the school loses about one-third of its students each year, Rivas said.

Graduation the main goal
The director's office hints at what Rivas' school days are like. Stacks of textbooks — American government, physics, chemistry and Spanish dictionaries — sit near Rivas' office door, alongside a plastic box with bright ballet folklorico dresses and thick-heeled white leather dance shoes.

Much of the school's focus is on mastering English. Graduation is the main goal, which means that, ultimately, students will have to pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam in order to receive a diploma. TAKS passing rates for last year were low, but all students are encouraged to take the exam.

School officials take other factors into account when gauging student success.

"We're looking at language acquisition, if they're passing their classes, earning credits toward graduation," Amstutz said.

'Someone to admire'
Student Alfonso Guerrero, 20, who came to Texas from Mexico five years ago to work, said Rivas is "someone to admire." The school leader has won the affection of his students, he said.

Guerrero enrolled at Newcomer when he realized he wouldn't move beyond working manual labor jobs without a diploma. At first he was juggling work and school, getting up early, staying up late, to do homework. "Sometimes, there wasn't even time to go home in between to take a bath," after working all day in construction jobs, Guerrero said. He now works part time at a car-wash business he bought and operates.

Lead math teacher Diana Matos said, "These students have already had a taste of what life is really about." They pay bills, "so there's no playing around. It's like they're on the clock."

Still, "the truth is, you get to school and you don't want to leave," Guerrero said. "We've all become such good friends."

The students consider Rivas part of that close-knit network.

"I've seen some students who have left (the school). He'll go to visit them and see why," Guerrero said. Some have returned.

Rivas said that for many of the students, "this has become the place where they are able to make friendships and get support — even personal ... They have a newfound social circle that is very important in terms of building a community."

cynthia.garza@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 27211.html