School Ensures That Day Jobs Don't Leave Immigrants in Dark

This charter high school is in session weekends and nights to accommodate the Latino teens who have to work to help their families pay expenses. They can't fit weekday school into their schedules. Such a good idea! DP

By Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writer

latimes.com : HOUSTON — Like thousands of teenage immigrants who cross the border into the U.S. each year, Noe Choxom worked a day job to help his family pay for rent and groceries.

"I didn't have time for school," said Choxom, who reached the eighth grade back in his village in Guatemala.

That changed when he saw a Spanish-language television report last year about a Houston high school that accommodated the work schedules of young immigrants. Classes were offered at night and on Saturdays, and held the promise of a high school diploma.

Choxom, now 21, quickly enrolled. "What I'm doing is better for me," he said during a break at his job at a quick-oil-change shop. "If we have bigger dreams, we can make a better life."

Open since January 2005, Houston's Newcomer Charter High School is gearing up for a move in the fall to a new space of its own. Its 185 students currently attend classes in several rooms at Lee High School in southwest Houston.

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