Metro

Gary Weisserman has become a familiar figure on the

Zach Menken and Ellie Schuldinger, both 16, of Walled Lake, share their thoughts with Gary Weisserman.

OCC campus.

Early College!

New Oakland program ties high school with community college classes.

Judith Doner Berne
Special to the Jewish News

post-secondary access and opportunities
and in improving the quality of education
to students who are being underserved by
traditional, comprehensive high schools!'

G

ary Weisserman is hard to miss
as he strides around campus
at the Orchard Ridge branch
of Oakland Community College in
Farmington Hills.
Tall (he says he's 5'18") with a goatee
and "resigned to being bald;' Weisserman,
a native Detroiter, is the proud head of
school of Oakland Early College (OEC), a
program he designed and implemented.
It's the first attempt in Oakland County to
become part of the growing nationwide
experiment to combine high school and
community college.
"Our kids are doing it seamlessly," he
says of the 99 high school students chosen
for the fledgling educational endeavor.
It is co-sponsored by OCC and the West
Bloomfield School District, where he
taught social studies and English and
coached basketball for 12 years.
"We're the supporting organization
and Gary is the driving force behind it;'
says Orchard Ridge Campus President
Jacqueline Shadko, Ph.D., who sat in on
some of the dozens of personal interviews
with prospective students.
"We interviewed for days and days;'
says Shadko, who also grew up in Detroit,
graduating Mumford High School before
earning degrees at Barnard College and
Yale University in music history.

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"l can walk into Mr. Weisserman's office and we'll just talk"— Victoria Greenstein

Every student has to be at grade level
because although OEC isn't a traditional
high school, "it's also not an 'alternative
high school; "Weisserman says. "Our goal
isn't remediation!"
They're looking for college-appropriate

kids who for one reason or another — too
smart, too unconventional or whose school
system isn't delivering — would do better
in a different kind of high school setting.
"We're especially interested;'
Weisserman says, "in helping to increase

The Beginnings
Indeed, the program began in September
with a class of mainly juniors who come
from as far away as Oxford and as nearby
as Farmington Hills. OED will expand over
the next two years, until it reaches 300
students.
At no cost to them, students take an
extra year of classes, graduating with both
a West Bloomfield High School diploma
and up to 60 hours of transferable college
credit and/or an associate's degree from
OCC. Even their college course textbooks
are free.
In addition to Weisserman, the West
Bloomfield district provides four full-time
teachers, who are also advisers and coach-
es, and a full-time secretary and counsel-
or/social worker. OCC provides classroom
and office space as well as access to the
college's classes, tutoring opportunities
and campus gathering spots and activities.
Each student from outside the West
Bloomfield School District brings state
money with him or her, which funds
Oakland Early College. OEC then pays OCC
for each college course its students take.
Weisserman was surprised when kids
applied from schools like the International
Early College on page A14

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October 30 • 2008

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