Ashdown Student and Administrator Receive National Recognition

AHS senior Channen Branch and Ashdown New Tradition School Principal Linda Walker took the podium as keynote speakers at the national convention for alternative education in San Antonio on Jan. 20-23.  The convention, entitled “Alternatives to Expulsion, Suspension, and Dropping Out of School,” was coordinated by Ferris State University in partnership with the National Alternative Education Association and the Coalition for Safe and Effective Schools.

Channen Branch addressed the entire convention audience as the lead keynote speaker, just prior to Assistant Deputy Secretary James Shelton of the U. S. Department of Education, described as “Arne Duncan’s right hand in charge of improvements and innovations in our public schools.”   Walker also addressed the convention as Ashdown New Tradition School (A.N.T.S.) was recognized as one of only four schools in the nation declared “exemplary” in its Alternative Education (ALE) program. 

Branch has spoken at three different national conferences and has the laudable distinction of being the only student requested back by the membership.  He addressed how alternative learning has changed his life.  The convention program introduces him as “a remarkable young man that has overcome many educational, social, and emotional challenges.  He will enlighten our conference with his personal experiences and tenacity to overcome the barriers placed before him.” 

The son of Sharkey Branch and Ulysses Branch of Ashdown, Branch told his listeners that ALE works because it addresses a child’s problems one-on-one and that it is “not only for students who are deprived of discipline, motivation and support from parents.” He is quick to tell anyone that he had that parental support, but needed a specific alternative learning environment and the personal attention that A.N.T.S. provided him in his sixth and seventh grade years.

Branch has spoken more than a dozen times, both nationally and statewide, as a representative of Arkansas’ ALE program.  He is often invited to speak to church youth groups and even at school administrators’ workshops.  His two favorite quotes are from the ALE Code of Conduct which is memorized by every ALE student:  “If it is going to be, it is up to me.  I am in control of my destiny,” and “I must set my goals high because if I aim for nothing, I will hit it every time.”  

Lori Lamb of the Arkansas Department of Education and vice-president of the National Alternative Education Association stated that Ashdown’s ALE program “represents all ten indicators of quality programming required in the National Standards of Exemplary Practices in Alternative Education.”  Lamb explained that these components are based on “research of what is necessary for positive intervention for at-risk students.”

 Walker was asked last year to speak to the general audience at this year’s gathering about the strategies and methods that have brought such success to the Ashdown ALE program in making a difference in the lives of its students and the community.

 New Tradition, located at 180 E. Main Street in Ashdown, and its staff and students have earned a number of accolades and recognitions since its inception in 1994.  Principal of eight years, Walker served as state president of Arkansas Association of Alternative Educators (AAAE) from 2005 through 2007 and was appointed as a lifetime board member of the association. 

In  2007 Governor Beebe chose Ashdown’s New Tradition School as one of four alternative education schools in the state to pilot the JAG (Jobs for Arkansas Graduates) program.

In addition, Katrina Williamson, social studies teacher at A.N.T.S., was named Arkansas Alternative Education Teacher of the Year in 2006-07 and is presently the secretary of AAAE.  Ashdown School District awarded New Traditions with a Campus Beautification and Community Relations Award in 2007, and the students of the school, ranging from fifth to twelfth grades, are familiar helpers at community events sponsored by groups and clubs around Ashdown and the county.  Students in A.N.T.S. have received numerous county and state art awards, as well as producing a first place state poetry award winner.