toledoblade.com --

Fifteen-year-old Jamie, who is expecting a daughter in October, says being pregnant has been somewhat of a difficult experience.

But despite the problems, the teenager is excited about her new child and already has picked out a name for the baby.

Once the high school student and her mother learned of Toledo Public Schools' intent to open a charter school for pregnant and parenting teens, they felt elated.

If not for the charter school, she probably would have stayed at her high school, "but with everyone knowing I was pregnant, it's more pressure and harder on me," Jamie said. "I think I can concentrate more at a school like this."

The Polly Fox Academy is one of three schools the Toledo system has decided to sponsor.

District officials said yesterday that all three schools will be housed at the Mercy Healthcare Professional Building, 2238 Jefferson Ave., which was once used as a nursing school.

"It's definitely going to help the girls," Jamie's mother said of her daughter and other teenagers in her situation. "I'm so glad they have the school through the 12th grade. I'm told they will really emphasize not getting pregnant again, how to take care of the baby, and to finish school."

The two other charter schools that will begin classes in the building on Sept. 8 are the Phoenix Academy, which will target actual and potential dropout students, and the Brigadoon Academy, for students who are chronically expelled, suspended, or truant.

All three will include a virtual curriculum using the Internet and will focus primarily on secondary school students, district officials said.

Dr. Adrienne Noel, director of pupil placement services, said the district tracks students who have dropped out until they are 21. Three thousand letters were mailed to prospective students for The Phoenix Academy.

"We want to first address those who have already dropped out this year, those who have gone to a charter school, or who need a flexible schedule ... because they are working or have some other family problems," she said.

Dan Burns, the district's chief business manager, said the building is an excellent choice because of its location, proximity to a TARTA bus route, and that fact that it was once used as a school.

Each school will occupy a different floor for about $250,000 a year, Mr. Burns said.

A Mercy Heathcare spokesman confirmed the school district had signed a letter of intent to lease 35,000 square feet.

The enrollment estimate for the Phoenix and Brigadoon academies is 200 students each; Polly Fox's initial enrollment is projected at 100.

"Material has gone out to the various populations we are targeting, whether they are dropouts or parenting teens," Craig Cotner, the school system's chief academic officer, said. "We are already receiving interest from perspective students, so I think these projected numbers are low."

Joan Durgin, the district's health services coordinator, said one goal for the charter schools is to lure students "back to education because urban districts generally lose students" to private charter schools or dropping out.

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