• BY LESLIE WILBER - LWILBER@VICAD.COM
• Originally published October 25, 2009 at 10:48 p.m., updated October 25, 2009 at 11:05 p.m.

• ABOUT BOOT CAMP

  The Calhoun County boot camp began in 1999 as a program for students in the juvenile probation system, which includes students expelled from the school district.

  "The purpose of the boot camp is to try to get ...

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ABOUT BOOT CAMP

The Calhoun County boot camp began in 1999 as a program for students in the juvenile probation system, which includes students expelled from the school district.

"The purpose of the boot camp is to try to get them ready to succeed in the classroom," Calhoun County school district Superintendent Larry Nichols said.

Besides regular school work, students participate in tough physical training and are subject to strict discipline, Louis Leija, chief juvenile probation officer for the county, said.

PORT LAVACA - Calhoun County's temporarily suspended youth boot camp is scheduled to restart early next month.

"We knew it was a great program to begin with," said Luis Leija, chief juvenile probation officer for the county.

Officials with the school district credit the camp with keeping its dropout rates for at-risk students lower than rates for other area districts. But the program was unexpectedly canceled weeks before the start of the school year.

The Juvenile Probation Board stopped the boot camp because the county had discussed cutting funding, said Judge Alex Hernandez, the board's chairman.

"When I raised it as an information item with a board, then the judges decided they should support the decision to close it," Hernandez said.

But the board was nudged toward making that choice by the fact that school officials were referring children to the program more often than judges, Hernandez said.

"It was used almost exclusively by the school for voluntary referrals," Hernandez said.

The boot camp ran two similar programs: a 90-day court-ordered program and a 30-day program to which school administrators referred students.

Travis Middle School Principal Lina Moore said she sent students to the 30-day program to avoid expelling them. Once the students were expelled, they would have been ordered to boot camp, she said. But Moore wanted to avoid forcing young students into the court system and establishing a criminal record.

While the boot camp was out of business, probation officials examined some problems, Leija said.

Research showed the department doesn't have authority to run the voluntary program, because those students aren't on probation, Leija said.

The school district agreed it would no longer make its own referrals to the program, Larry Nichols, Calhoun schools superintendent, said.

"I would rather have this program under these circumstances than have no program at all," said Moore, who also serves as the head of Citizens Concerned for Youth.

The boot camp, which includes strict discipline and physical training, has a 69 percent graduation rate for students who stay in the school district, she said.

"You see a transformation in these kids," she said.

Details for reopening the camp are still being worked out, though Nov. 2 was mentioned by probation and school officials as a likely start date.

The program is located on the same campus as Hope High School. The district also provides teachers and curriculum, Leija said. The juvenile probation department provides two drill sergeants, uniforms and equipment for physical training.

Two students are preparing to start boot camp in November, Leija said.

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