There is concern among neighbors living near the closed Salmon Creek Elementary School that an alternative school for White Center high school students might be moving in.

Neighbors, who are accustomed to little kids being in the neighborhood, worry the New Start program will bring teenage gang members to the area around the 600 block of Southwest 120th Street. They also are suspicious because they're just learning about the plan, which was scheduled to go into effect July 1. Officials say no final decision has been made.

People also fear that, once established at Salmon Creek School, the program would be expanded to include more students. Currently 50 students are enrolled and there is a waiting list.

New Start is a King County program for students ages 14 to 21 who live in White Center and have fallen behind in acquiring enough academic credits to graduate from high school. Some of the participants have had run-ins with the law. About two-thirds of New Start participants return to regular high school and graduate, said Grace Kong, director of New Start.

The program was started in 1999 by King County government to help White Center teens get back into high school. Most of the students at New Start are from Evergreen High School.

The program relies on a 1:4 ratio of teachers to students to create smaller "learning environments," Kong said.

Students are at New Start from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. After-school tutoring and job training go from 2:30 to 5 p.m. If the program moves to Salmon Creek School, New Start would be a closed campus. Students would not be allowed to leave school during lunch.

Besides teaching students the academic subjects they lack for a diploma, New Start also helps them get summer, part-time and full-time jobs.

Currently New Start spills from a former day-care facility in a nondescript building at 11216 16th Ave. S.W., next to the White Center Library. People have to walk through one classroom to reach the other classroom.

New Start is interested in moving to the now-closed Salmon Creek Elementary School because there are more classrooms and space, a multipurpose room that can serve as a gym, an outdoor playground with basketball hoops and two softball diamonds.

The program's current location has no access for people with disabilities either.

Last week New Start staff and students, along with officials from King County and the Highline School District, invited neighbors of Salmon Creek Elementary to the New Start facility to discuss the proposed move.

Students and staff gave heartfelt testimonials as to the effectiveness of the New Start program and how participants contribute to the general community. For example, New Start students built the flower-bed boxes in the courtyard at Salmon Creek School. They've also dug holes for wetland plantings around Hicks Lake in Lakewood Park.

Theresa Wilson told of how, three years ago, her son wasn't doing well in public school so she and her husband enrolled him in private Kennedy High School. The boy got involved in drugs, guns and gangs, she said, and soon the family was entangled with the juvenile justice system. That's when they got their son into the New Start program.

"For the first time in four years, A's and B's," Wilson told the crowd. "I cried for two hours."

She urged meeting attendees to give New Start a chance.

Tamica McKean said she and her friends skipped school a lot in high school, so much so that, when her class was scheduled to graduate, McKean had accumulated just seven credits. She enrolled in New Start last September is now on track to graduate next year.

"So I'm really happy and, yeah," she told the crowd.

George Dignan, administrator of work training programs for King County, said follow-up evaluations of the New Start program show it brings about a "dramatic decrease" in the rate of prosecution and detention for its participants.

"It's a positive place for them to come where there are adults with high expectations of them," Dignan said. "They don't need to be bad to have a place."

After listening to success stories, neighbors of Salmon Creek School said they were impressed by the New Start program but still didn't want it to move to their neighborhood. Although they had fewer misgivings, they were still suspicious about why they hadn't been informed of the proposal sooner if originally it had been scheduled to occur in only a few weeks.

"When I called (Highline School District headquarters), all they cared about was, 'Who told you about this?'" said a woman at the meeting.

Catherine Carbone Rogers, the school district spokeswoman, denied the move was being done in secret.

She confirmed the structures at Salmon Creek Elementary School are sound and were not damaged in the Nisqually earthquake. If New Start doesn't move in, some other program might.

Salmon Creek Elementary, which was built in 1955, closed because the district could save money by placing students in newer schools nearby, Carbone Rogers said.

There were numerous biting questions from meeting attendees about graffiti, auto theft, vandalism, fighting and the danger of having teenagers coming and going from school with younger children in the same neighborhood.

"There's a Honda a month behind the school being stripped," said one neighbor.

A woman said she and others sometimes take matters into their own hands.

"I go lock the parking lot gate myself because security doesn't come," she said.

A man got up to say he attended Salmon Creek Elementary as a child and he supports the New Start program. But he was concerned that there would be no full-time security officer at the school. In case of trouble, teachers and administrators would call Highline School District security. If they were unavailable, the school would call 911.

The man replied on-call security isn't the same as on-site security.

"It just takes one at-risk kid," the man said.

At one point, a female student at the back of the room stood up.

"I feel like this is unfair," she said. "You guys are putting us down like we're criminals."

New Start counselor Laura Jo Severson stood up for the program too.

"The Highline School District doesn't have another way for kids to catch up. This is it," she said. "This is not a conspiracy."

A neighbor lady also supported the program.

"I was born and raised in this neighborhood," she said. "I live across the street and have never had a problem. They want to change their lives. What do you want to do with these kids? Send them to Walla Walla?"

A man responded.

"We don't dispute the merits of the program," he said. "It's just not good for a residential neighborhood. If it's so positive for our neighborhood, why were we not consulted?"

Science teacher Chris McLeod told the crowd there are no guarantees. However, he said there are far fewer fights at New Start than what he witnessed teaching at Kent-Meridian High School. He's not afraid to bring his own children to the school nor is he worried about parking his car in the parking lot.

McLeod is a former judge and was a defense attorney for 22 years.

"The risks (having New Start in the neighborhood) are really low and the rewards are really high," he said. "Come in our classroom any day you want."

Tim St. Clair can be reached at 932-0300 or tstclair@robinsonnews.com