High on Liberty

Copyright © 2000 by Dave Badtke

Remember high school? How could you possibly forget. It was the best of times or the worst of times, though probably not both.

If you were good at sports, you had a grand time as an athlete, but if you weren’t coordinated or competitive, you felt inadequate.

If you were good at mathematics or English, your teachers esteemed you as one whom others should emulate, but if you struggled to pass and you didn’t like reading Dickens, especially the "Tale of Two Cities", and pi was round and fruit-filled, then the only thing you dreaded more than taking tests was getting them back – graded.

You were dealing with growth or no growth, acceptance or rejection, pimples, too much or little weight, features and hair that didn’t fit your face, and fashion that either defined or defiled you. And, worst of all, many of you no longer got along with your parents – your home began to feel like a prison.

The transition from childhood to adulthood in our extremely open and free society, with its limitless options and information, many of them masquerading as knowledge, can be an ill-defined and difficult rite of passage. We offer education as a maturation panacea – work hard in school, get a good job, get married, make a lot of money, be happy – but we are less clear about how it’s all supposed to work. When a teenager looks around at the adults in his community, maybe even at the adults in his own family, he finds some who followed the formula and aren’t happy.

If he gets discouraged, loses his way, begins to falter in school, his prospects can begin to look so bleak that he decides to turn off or drop out or rebel to the point that he gets in trouble.

These are the students that Liberty High School helps.

For the past months, I’ve been spending a few hours each week at Liberty working with two students, and I’ve grown to like the school more than I’ll be able to explain in this brief column.

Phil Goettel, who died in December of last year, was principal of Benicia High School when he realized the need for an alternative school for students who were struggling. He asked Vic Prada to establish a program, and in 1969 Vic and two students met in a room in City Hall. After moving briefly to the Industrial Park, the school resided at the Community Congregational Church on West 2^nd Street where it grew to almost sixty students and four teachers.

John Galvan was named head teacher in 1971. In 1975, the school moved to its current location behind the District Administration Offices, on East K, and teachers and students decided to name the school Liberty. In 1976, Liberty was established as a separate high school with its own administrative staff and graduation requirements. John was named principal and remained in that position until 1983. Though John retired in 1995, after 33 years in education, he still frequently helps out at Liberty and, when I talked to him the other day, he said that his time at Liberty was the most gratifying of his career.

But long-term commitment to Liberty is the norm. The current principal, Dave Barnas, has been at Liberty for 12 years and 4 of the 6 teachers have each worked in continuing education for more than 20 years.

Perhaps you’re asking yourself why these excellent teachers, principals and staff have stuck with the difficult task of turning the lives of these students around? Isn’t the money better somewhere else? And wouldn’t their facilities – their status – be better elsewhere? (I know that some of you don’t think much of Liberty. I’ve heard you tell me as much, not knowing how wrong you are.)

Liberty’s facilities are far from grand. There’s no cafeteria. Computer facilities are substandard. The single hallway is crowded with more than 80 students during class changes. While there are some athletic teams, the goal of competition is camaraderie rather than winning. Hours are long. Discipline is demanded. And the problems, which are constant, are difficult, because Liberty students are dealing with issues that have plagued them through most of their time in school.

Liberty faculty and staff have stuck with the challenge day after day, year after year, because they are changing the lives of these students – the 25 to 30 who graduate each year, the 10 to 12 who return to Benicia High School, those who pass the high school equivalency exam, those who connect with a teacher whom they’ll always remember.

As John Galvan told me, when you work at Liberty, you have to prove yourself every day. Be thankful for our community and the lives of these students that they do.

- Dave Badtke is founder of the developing Carquinez Review literary journal. Find him on the web at www.CarquinezReview.com.

Contact him at:
Dave@CarquinezReview.com or Dave@Badtke.com