RIGHT WAY ACADEMY News

Excerpted from the August 20, 2006 article Help Before It's Too Late

School offers troubled kids chance outside legal system

   By Lynda Guydon Taylor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The three-story red brick dormitories, well-manicured lawn and the low student-to-teacher ratio suggest the look and feel of a small college campus. All that's missing at Right Way Academy is a student lounge or hub.

At one time a youth home, later a minimum security prison for women and finally a correctional facility for men, Right Way Academy in Morgan, near Waynesburg, Greene County, now serves a different population. It's a private boarding school and, as administrators promote, a "therapeutic healing community" for young people addicted to alcohol, drugs or with behavioral problems.

Flags fly at Right Way Academy in Morgan. The fences are "not so much to keep the people in, but to keep undesirables out," said Vicki Monas, director of education.

"Our kids come from all over the country: Washington [state], New York, California, Arizona, New Jersey," said Vicki Monas, director of education. Teens there also hail from Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, Michigan and Florida.

Once they arrive, Right Way becomes their home, a place where troubled students learn to redirect their lives. None of the students is adjudicated by the courts. All are sent by parents or referred by counselors.

Right Way, housed at the former State Correctional Institution at Waynesburg, is the latest of six "therapeutic communities" co-founded by Charles C. Powell, 64, a onetime alcoholic who, after sobriety, decided to help others.

"When I sobered up, someone told me the only way that you can keep sobriety is by trying to give it away to other people," Mr. Powell said.

Right Way, like his other facilities, is based on the spiritually based 12-step program in which adherents, with assistance from a higher power, find sobriety.

Although Right Way is licensed by the Pennsylvania Board of Private Academic Schools to house 120, currently there are 30 residents. The facility has the capacity to house up to 350 students. The staff and curriculum are certified by the state Department of Education.

Schooling does not come cheaply. Costs are $24,000 a year, or $2,000 a month, for tuition and $12,000 a year, or $1,000 a month, for room and board. That is less than most similar facilities, which can run from $60,000 to $90,000 a year, Ms. Monas said.

Mr. Powell, of Secretary, Md., bought the 117-acre site from the state for $990,000 and spent about $500,000 getting it into shape, most of which involved cleanup. He visits the facility weekly.

What attracted him to the site was its resemblance to a college campus and its rural setting where, he believes, the work ethic would offer a ready supply of employees. About 50 people are employed, eight of them as teachers.

What Right Way can offer teens that a traditional high school cannot is a closed, clean environment, Mr. Powell said. The 14 acres where students live and attend classes is fenced in. As soon as young people leave the high school premises, they associate with the same people and situations that got them into trouble in the first place.

Art teacher Jim Winegar displays the students' work in the art room of Right Way Academy.

One Right Way student who has been there since its Februaryng is Valarie, 17, of Port Orchard, Wash. The school asked that her full name not be used to protect her privacy.

"I'm sober for 10 months from drugs and alcohol. I have a better relationship with my family," she said.

She came to Right Way from Red Cliff Ascent, a Utah wilderness program. Right Way has "pulled me up and made me a leader instead of a follower," she said.

Since coming to the school, she has been elected by her peers to the position of therapeutic community student coordinator, meaning she voices the cares and concerns of the student body.

Describing herself as verbally and physically abusive toward others when she used drugs and alcohol, she said the program had boosted her self-esteem.

The program involves five phases, with opportunities to earn privileges and be promoted at each level. Privileges include such things as increased phone call time to parents, movies or field trips. At the fifth phase, a student must maintain and demonstrate leadership traits, enthusiasm, endurance, balance, unselfishness, respect, loyalty and sound judgment in daily conduct.

Students start each day with a mandatory community meeting. A sort of group therapy session, it begins with a pledge of allegiance and ends with the serenity prayer.

"I think the program is easy, as long as you are working it. The only failure is the failure to participate," said Valarie, who is at the fourth phase.

She expects to graduate in June and hopes to go to college to become a therapist or chef.

Right Way granted its first diploma in June, Ms. Monas said. Students arrive with varying credits and, once their grade level is assessed, must meet Pennsylvania guidelines to graduate.

When is a student ready to leave?

A lot, Ms. Monas said, depends on how much progress has been made and the confidence level reached. An exit interview is required of each student.

Headmaster Vicki Monas in front of Right Way's boys dormitory. Each dorm room accommodates eight students, who are expected to keep their rooms and common lounge area clean.

"We want them to be resilient and not relapse," Ms. Monas said.

Walking through the quiet, orderly hallway on a recent weekday, she greeted casually dressed students by name. There are no uniforms, but students are expected to dress in khaki pants and tucked-in collared shirts.

She pointed to one of the students' recent projects on display in the hallway. The so-called island project involved several disciplines: art, history, natural science, English and civics.

Art teacher Jim Winegar, along with other teachers, challenged students, working in teams, to create a hypothetical island with its own government, economy, natural resources, agriculture and such.

Students are engaged in a variety of art forms, including drawing, painting and collages, said Mr. Winegar, who formerly taught at Washington and Jefferson College. He hopes to start a ceramics class as well.

The school is graded ninth through 12th, and the goal is to limit class size to 10 students. Right Way is seeking partnerships with the University of Pittsburgh, California University of Pennsylvania and Waynesburg College. One student is taking courses online through Westmoreland Community College.

Currently the teacher-student ratio is 5-1. In addition to the therapeutic help, students have access to a fitness room, a nondenominational chapel, intramural sports and music lessons.

They live in dorms, where side-by-side bunk beds accommodate eight people to a room. Students are expected to keep their rooms and a common lounge area clean and work in the cafeteria.

For more information about Right Way, call or visit the school's Web site at www.sistemasje.com.