Once a teacher, always a teacher. The Vermont Retired Teachers Association received a national award in September for the establishment of the Community High School of Vermont, an independent, accredited high school for young people in the state's prisons and other correctional programs. When these teachers retired, they did not put away their professional skills.

"We would not have the current Community High School were it not for Vermont's retired teachers," says Bob Lucenti, superintendent of schools for the state's department of Corrections. "They lobbied for the funds, provided expertise on curriculum, established classrooms, helped to hire qualified paid staff, volunteered as tutors, insisted on high standards, inspected the schools in person, and encouraged the teachers. Most of all, they cared about the students."

Retired teachers Blanche Kelley of Rutland and Dorothy Buttura of Essex Junction accepted the national RTA's Innovative Program Award in Boston for, in Kelley's words "a program unique among all states with education programs for incarcerated youth - a real school with real teachers, granting a real diploma."

The Community High School of Vermont serves 3000 students in seventeen sites - nine behind walls in the state's prisons and eight in transitional communities with fifty certified and paid teachers. Last year 143 individuals received high school diplomas, 107 received trade certificates, and 29 earned their GED's,  passing a series of tests for a certificate of General Educational Development. About 20 per cent of the students go on to higher education.

Last year the Community High School was accredited by the New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, putting it in a class with other independent schools like the St. Johnsbury Academy.

Twenty years ago, Vermont had no coordinated educational system for youth in the custody of Corrections. Six part-time staff members in six prisons helped inmates prepare for the GED.  At that time, local school districts were responsible for the education of the young people in their area's jail. This system did not work. Teachers avoided coming into the prisons. Parents were suing the school districts because their children were not getting an education. In 1987, the state legislature decided to shift the burden from the school districts to the department of Corrections and set up a separate school. Enter Bob Lucenti, who went to the Retired Teachers Association for help. The retired teachers not only came forward, he says. Some of them are still there after twenty years. They visit the prisons, check attendance, support teachers, and run local school advisory boards.

"What was most important was promoting an accredited high school diploma," says Don Messier, retired superintendent of schools in Winooski and a long-term member of the Community High School state board and the advisory board for the Chittenden County Correctional Center. "A diploma opens doors." The retired teachers do not mind going into the prisons, Messier says, having the doors locked behind them. "They understand troubled kids," he says. "It's so fulfilling to see these kids get a diploma that can change their lives."

"When retired teachers visit a prison, many of the officers stand tall," says Lucenti. If they are from Rutland, for example, they remember Blanche Kelley from their own school days. "They know not to mess with her."

How does a high school with seventeen campuses work? It starts with the individual student. When young people enter the correctional system, a teacher visits them with their high school records, gives them a student handbook, checks for special education needs, and signs them up for the first class they need in order to finish the requirements for a diploma. The classes are small. If the inmate is transferred to another prison, his or her school records follow; and he continues the needed classes in a statewide curriculum. In the same way, records are forwarded to an outside school when an inmate leaves the prison system. "The kids are often surprised that we have our act together," Lucenti says.

In Vermont, youngsters must attend school until they are sixteen years old. In the Community High School, attendance is required until age 23, a standard lobbied for by the retired teachers.

Retired teacher Esther Doran of Burlington, who taught all grades in a rural school and mathematics in both public and parochial schools, was an early volunteer with the Community High School. She remembers that in the beginning, classes were offered only to men. Only later were women allowed to participate. She helped set up a special program for women whose children visited them in jail, showing them how to play and read to their children.

"So many of these young people give up," she says. "I like to see them go as far as they can."  

Besides working with the Community High School, many retired teachers volunteer in the prisons in non-academic ways. Some teach crochet to inmates who in turn donate their crafts to nursing homes. Others help with gardens and teach in wood shops.

Want to know more?
For information about the twelve regional retired teachers associations in Vermont and volunteer opportunities, call Dorothy Buttura, 879-3301.

Barbara Leitenberg writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.