GRANITE FALLS — When Greg Chartier quit high school last year, he figured it was for good.
He was failing his classes, behind on credits and had trouble getting along with his teachers.
It was time to get a job and get on with his life.
It didn’t work out that way.
In a down economy, employers were choosy — no matter what the job. On paper, Chartier didn’t have much to offer.
“I was applying everywhere I could: farms, grocery stores, restaurants, anywhere,” Chartier, 18, said. “I applied to 53 places and didn’t get a job.”
He even got the cold shoulder from the Marine Corps when he talked to recruiters.
That’s when Chartier realized he really did need that high school diploma after all.
He enrolled at Crossroads Alternative High School in Granite Falls and qualified through a grant for a part-time job at a Mukilteo assembly plant if he stayed in school. These days, he’s earning credits in the classroom and at the workplace and is trying to be a good role model for his younger siblings.
Fellow students at the alternative high school tell similar stories of returning to school after fruitless job searches.
It is part of the reason why the tiny school with four full-time teachers has a record enrollment of 123 students this fall. By comparison, Granite Falls High School has about 630 students.
“Our prediction was 85 students for this year,” said Crossroads Principal Bridgette Perrigoue. “I honestly think it has a lot to do with the economy and a caring staff.”
Tough times also are leading adults back to the classroom in search of high school diplomas.
At an Everett Community College high school completion night class offered for adults in Arlington, students are older this fall than most years. In a class of 15 students, 12 are in their mid-30s or older.
“They are coming back because they know they need the high school educations to get a job or they need it to keep a job,” said Darrell Mihara, EvCC’s dean for basic skills and adult education.
At Crossroads, Sierra Stroud, 19, the mother of a 14-month-old boy, is back in school this fall, two years after dropping out.
She spent months looking for jobs. She would hand out resumes showing she attended school, but there wasn’t much interest when employers found out she didn’t graduate.
She applied at malls and fast-food restaurants. Some places would tell her the position had been filled but would continue to keep a “Help Wanted” sign up.
“Because of the economy, more of those people who have their diplomas don’t have work and it’s like competing with them,” she said. “It’s really hard.”
Two weeks ago, Stroud finally landed a part-time job at the Seattle Premium Outlets mall. These days, she said, she’s thankful for the chance to be juggling school, work and motherhood.
Enrollment at Crossroads has nearly tripled over the last three years.
Part of the surge can be attributed to a dropout prevention and intervention grant that provided $125,000 a year to beef up outreach efforts over two years. That grant ran out this year, but Granite Falls was one of five districts and education groups to win another round of funding, this time for $80,000 a year for two years.
The money allows the district to not just serve students who struggle at larger high schools but to seek out dropouts and get them back into the classroom.
Word is out among teenagers looking for a fresh start. Many are “retrievals” who dropped out of school for a period of time.
“We got our grant in September and we already have met our goals for retrieval for two years,” Perrigoue said.
Not all Crossroads students are discouraged job seekers.
Many have been looking to find a school where they fit in.
Kathy Grant, 16, believes she might have discovered that niche at the small school where, she said, the size is right, the faculty cares and students don’t seem to judge one another.
During her freshman and sophomore years, Grant attended five high schools in Granite Falls, Monroe and Snohomish and tried an online school with little success. Along the way, she ran away and whiled away part of her days watching the children’s show “Clifford the Big Red Dog” to pass the time.
Today, she gets a ride to school each morning from Marysville and is the Crossroads student body president. She believes she can catch up and graduate on time. She’s taking a foreign language class online because she wants to go to college and knows it is a prerequisite at many institutions.
“My whole mind-set has changed,” she said.
Principal Perrigoue said the key for her and her staff is “holding them (students) accountable but loving them at the same time.”
In English class the other day, teacher Tom Matlack worked with students on grammar before turning to a cause-and-effect essay assignment that drew from the writings of James Thurber and an Albert Einstein quote about the nuclear age.
Math and science teacher Tiffany Villahermosa, known as “Miss V” to her students, said she feels she can make a difference in their lives.
“In an alternative-type setting, you have all kinds of different students and different circumstances,” she said. “The needs here are huge. Economically, emotionally, it’s huge, but the atmosphere and the climate of community is just incredible.”
Perrigoue said each student who quits and comes back has a unique story. She’s just glad they return — either on their own or with a bit of prodding.
“I just think when you look at the costs of dropout, what they cost society, I think it’s imperative that we retrieve these kids,” she said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3346; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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