Troy College and Career High School, their single hallway of classrooms.
It’s Not Niles
A look into TCCHS and an investigation into the stigma surrounding it
As students at Troy High School, most of us know Troy College and Career High School as Niles, due to the fact that it is located inside the Niles Center and we have no further indication of the school’s actual name.
The name Niles carries with it a stigma; many believe this school is only for the people suspended from Troy High and Athens, the kids who have fallen through the cracks of our large-numbered school and are sent to this school to be “handled.”
Visiting TCCHS and actually talking with students, teachers and alumni has shown all these rumors we hear through the grapevine aren’t true and we know the truth needs to come out.
TCCHS is considered an alternative school. Alternative is defined as an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Alternative schools are more common than one may know. International Academy is an alternative school, as is Alternative Center for Education High School, commonly known as ACE, in Rochester School District. These provide a new outlook on the traditional high school methods.
Compared to the traditional six-period day with 55 minutes per period, TCCHS has a four-period day with classes that last an hour and 20 minutes. Rather than two semesters spanning months, students at TCCHS can earn credit for their classes in the span of nine-week sessions. Troy High and Athens High School students are able to earn six full credits per year, meanwhile TCCHS students can earn up to 10 credits per year. This opportunity gives students at TCCHS the chance to catch up on missing credits and still graduate by their original date.
TCCHS is a one hallway school with 127 students and seven full-time teachers. The teachers at TCCHS work not only to teach these students, but to get to know and help each student grow as their own person.
TCCHS isn’t the school that the rumors make it out to be. TCCHS is a school were students get the opportunity not only to focus on their own academic needs, but to focus more on themselves as a whole.
This center-spread story is not written to say Troy High or Athens don’t help their students. The story is meant to lay it out on the table that, for the individual learner who may not learn and be tailored to a wide-spread academic course, TCCHS offers students the chance to gain the confidence to do well and learn in the way that suits them.
TCCHS came to be five years ago, generating from its previous name, Niles Community High School, that started in 1995. TCCHS started with a goal to further its students academic achievements and guide students to be the best person they can be as a whole. From the looks of it, the school meets, if not surpasses, their goals.