New Principal Wants To Improve Derita Community

The residents of one of Charlotte’s oldest neighborhoods want change, and they want it to come from the city’s alternative school in the northeast part of Charlotte.

Derita neighbors, like Bernie Samonds, will be speaking at a community meeting on campus Thursday night.

"They've found a place to warehouse students they don't want to deal with, and like so many things, if they don't want a place for it they say 'Dump it on Derita,'" Samonds said.

But a new principal at Derita Alternative School said she hopes to change that way of thinking.

Valoria Burch is a former consultant to North Carolina's alternative school program. She said the first change may be in switching the school's name.

One suggestion she gave is changing it from Derita Alternative School to the Northeast Learning Academy.

She also wants to increase community involvement.

"For everyone to feel comfortable and safe, we have to work together. So they need to feel I'm here to support them and we need to feel they are going to support us," Burch said.

Here are some of Burch's other ideas for the school:

Create "Derita pride" by working with churches and businesses to keep the area tidy around the school. Increase supervision to bus stops so students aren't loitering. Provide more "community service based learning" where projects begin in the classroom and end in the community.

Right now the school has 311 students. Michael Hamilton’s 16-year-old son, Alex, is one of them. He said he has high hopes for the school's future.

“Even though it's a more structured environment, I'd like to see more community involvement, students going out in the community such as nursing homes and day cares, becoming more productive in these areas," Hamilton said.