Through a series of community meetings with most parents, all students and all teachers, residents determined they could not depend on others for resources and needed to look at what they could provide for themselves. The Lancaster County Academy is an alternative school for high school dropouts. However, standards are kept high, even students needing only two credits to earn a traditional high school diploma must take at least six credits at the Academy.
Many graduates go to four-year institutions following graduation.
There is no homework because if you worked at McDonalds, they don't make you take home the Happy Meals. The use of service projects has reduced absentees, dropouts and violence in Springfield, created a belief in the potential of all young people and increased community cohesion in Flambeau County and in Lancaster, service activities are often the work-experience activities, supplemented by employer visits, interviews and job shadows. Reported by Donna Walker James.