Kids raising their own babies or waiting to give birth as expectant mothers.
Students with severe learning disabilities, behavioural problems or health conditions.
Adult learners trying to earn high school credits.
All find their way to the Centre For Learning Alternatives, and 81 of those students graduated this week with high school diplomas or school-leaving certificates.
Since it opened in the fall of 2010 at the former site of John McInnis junior secondary school on Ferry Avenue, the CLA has been an all-encompasssing nerve centre for School District 57's alternative and adult education programs. More than 2,000 students access the school's programs.
For six of her 19 years as a teacher, Wendy Polik has been involved with the TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) program for students aged 17 to 20 who have either dropped out of schools or don't fit into mainstream education programs.
"We teach all the core subjects," said Polik, one of three TEAM teachers. "The challenge is getting all the electives for the kids because we don't have a lot of the shops and shop teachers like the high schools have. We do have an art program, a music program and phys-ed program."
The CLA is home to several alternate community education programs, including Storefront I and II (for at-risk students aged 14 to 17), Concept Education, and Connections (for elementary and middle-school aged students with behavioural issues).
The school also oversees off-site alternative programs such as Transitional Alternate Program Secondary (TAPS, a more academic-focused college transitional program for 17 to 19-year-old students); Intersect (for students at risk due to mental health issues); Teen Moms Alternate Program (for pregnant or parenting teens); Summit (for alternate students in the Kelly Road catchment area); and Youth Around Prince (for at-risk street kids).
Camp Trapping and Youth Containment Centre programs are based at the school, as well as hospital youth education program in the pediatric and detoxification units of UHNBC. The CLA offers distance education courses and an international program to help new Canadian students learn English.
The school provides a base for SD 57's student support services staff, including speech pathologists, child psychologists, occupational therapists, hearing- or visually-impaired student specialists, district resource teachers and international settlement workers.
