By Associated Press
HARLAN, Ky. – A National Guard school program for at-risk teenagers that has been operating in central Kentucky for a dozen years is opening a facility specifically for Appalachian youth.
The Appalachian Youth ChalleNGe Academy is scheduled to open in 2012 in Harlan. The Bluegrass ChalleNGe Academy, located at Fort Knox, has been in operation since 1999.
Colonel John Wayne Smith, director of the Fort Knox program, says the Harlan school will recruit in 23 eastern Kentucky counties.
The new academy will be housed in a former elementary school and will serve 200 to 300 students a year who are either high school dropouts or at risk of dropping out.