LEWISTON – Standing in front of a burner, Lewiston High School student Kyle Gosselin held a vial with iodine crystals over the heat.

“Start dancing that around,” instructed science teacher Roger Berube. The crystals turned to a purple vapor, prompting smiles from the student and his teacher.

“Science is cool,” Berube said.

He asked his bio-chemistry class: “What’s the process called when a substance goes from a solid to a gas?”

“Sublimation,” they answered.

“What is it when the gas becomes a solid?” he asked.

“Deposition,” students answered.

“You’ll need to know those terms,” Berube coached.

This class is held after school hours, from 3:30 to 6:45 p.m.

It’s part of a new alternative program called Lewiston Academy.

The small program began last spring. It enrolls 20 to 25 students who haven’t had success in the traditional high school setting, who are in danger of dropping out or not graduating on time.

Students said the academy is helping them.

“I’m here because during my freshman year I was young and stupid,” said Natasha Lopez, 17. “I didn’t care about high school. My sophomore year I didn’t have many credits because of my freshman year.”

She turned things around her junior year, but she was missing too many credits. Her guidance counselor suggested the academy. Lopez applied and was accepted.

“I like this a lot better,” she said, citing more help from teachers and smaller classes.

In the traditional setting, she said she doesn’t think she’d graduate. “I would start to feel like there’s no hope because I’m so far behind on my credits. There’s not the help there is here.”

Kyle Gosselin, 18, said he likes the hands-on approach to learning. “I’m not a books person. I can’t sit still. We’re always doing a lab or on the computer.” He called the academy “a wonderful thing” and said it had helped him a lot. He plans to graduate in June and attend Southern Maine Community College to become a firefighter.

Blake Chung, 17, is also behind on credits. “I fooled around freshman year,” he said.

But he’s done fooling around. “Graduation is the biggest deal of my life,” he said. “If I don’t get my diploma, I can’t do anything.”

The academy allows more ways to make up credits faster if they’re willing to work, students said.

They said they like the independent style of learning and less time spent in class. Students meet for a class once a week for three hours, then do more work independently online.

The program was developed to help juniors and seniors graduate at a school whose graduation rate is below the state average (see related story), said Lewiston High School Principal Gus LeBlanc. The timing is critical, he said.

“We found out when kids don’t make it in June, if they don’t finish up that summer, the chances that they will finish drops off dramatically,” LeBlanc said.

The science teacher agreed. Some students might drop out and return to school years later, “but those are wasted years,” Berube said. “The longer you leave them out of the school setting, the more likely they are to marry and enter the work force without a diploma.”

Traditional high school works for most, but not for some kids, LeBlanc said. Often it’s because students have a rough home life or have to work to support themselves, or they don’t do well at a large high school, he said.

In the alternative program, classes are more personal. “The teacher gets to know you well. You get to know the teacher. They’re more relaxed,” LeBlanc said.

Lewiston Academy costs $50,000 a year, and is being paid through a Smaller Learning Communities grant. Classes are held after hours at the high school, and during the day in rented downtown space near the library. Classes combine two courses into one. For example, one combines government and English; another combines chemistry and biology.

When students finish, they’ll have the needed courses to enroll in college, along with work skills, how to apply for and hold down a job and how to deal with employers and customers, LeBlanc said.

Since the program began last spring, “attendance has been outstanding,” LeBlanc said. “And these are kids who’ve had attendance issues. I’m encouraged.”

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