In a first for Ontario a Niagara-area school opening this fall will only admit low-income students whose parents don’t have a college or university education.

While raising concerns about stigmatizing poor children, the board has approved the initiative saying the current system doesn’t serve them well and that similar U.S. schools have proved successful.

“If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’re not going to change anything,” said Dale Robinson, vice-chair of the District School Board of Niagara.

“I think this has the potential — if it is as good as we think it will be and makes as much difference as we think it can — it will be an amazing project for our board, and other boards.”

The program is also thought to be a first in Canada.

Students from low-income homes often struggle in school and drop out in higher numbers, and closing that achievement gap is now a major focus for educators.

The Toronto District School Board will next month begin a weekend program at two high schools where targeted groups of at-risk students will earn a credit and also a guaranteed summer job, provided they show up and do well, the Star has learned.

The board is also considering paying the students for each five-hour Saturday session, recognizing that many of them have to financially support their families — although that is still under discussion.

The schools are Central Technical — which will focus on Hispanic youth, among the most likely to drop out — and C.W. Jefferys in the northwest end, which was the site of a fatal student shooting in 2007.

“They’ll earn a social science credit, but the crux of the work (at Central Tech) will be an action research project to determine how we can support students of Hispanic descent more fully,” said Jim Spyropoulos, the board’s coordinating superintendent of inclusive schools.

The Niagara school, to be named DSBN Academy, is “a great idea,” said grandmother Pam Damanis, who works as part-time as a crossing guard in Welland at her granddaughter’s elementary school and also volunteers there.

“The more doors that are open, the more chances children have.”

She hopes her granddaughter, in kindergarten, will one day attend the academy, which for now will be located in Welland and eventually serve students from Grades 6 to 12.

Hopes are high that it will find a permanent home on the campus of Brock University or Niagara College.

However, Damanis doesn’t like “hearing the word poverty thrown around.”

“Low-income is one thing, but being called poverty-stricken? Let’s not put a name on these children, life’s hard enough on them as it is.”

Annie Kidder of People for Education worries about the long-term effects “when you start to divide up the school system based on anything — socio-economic status, even interests.”

She said studies have indicated that having a mix of students from all incomes helps improve achievement for everyone.

The idea for the DSBN Academy is to support families with the help of community partners, said Warren Hoshizaki, the board’s director of education.

The area has the second highest unemployment rate in the country and the proportion of low income families is now 14 per cent.

The school will start at Grade 6 because that’s the time when kids make decisions about going on to college or university, he said. It will draw students from around the Niagara Region, and provide free busing.

No one will be forced to attend; students must apply to go and provide references from teachers or principals. Parents also have to commit to volunteering 15 hours at the school each year.

“The school will provide tutoring, mentoring, and the involvement of parents,” he said. “We will make sure that they have the opportunity to finish their homework, do after-school activities and there’s talk of Saturday programs.”

Robinson said the school will provide nutrition programs, as well as a stable environment for low-income kids, who tend to move a lot and switch schools.

“You remove some of the daily grind of poverty,” she said. “The stress of not feeling like you fit in, the social stresses, the physical stresses . . . if those concerns aren’t addressed you aren’t able to focus on education.”

Ben Levin, education professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said the idea is a good one and hopes it will offer some dual credits, where students earn both a high school credit and college/university credit attending one course.

The Toronto board program was created in the wake of research about Latino students recently conducted by the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. It will also focus on training teachers to help deal with the effects of poverty on students and to be culturally responsive.

It starts in February for about 40 students at Central Tech, and 150 at Jefferys. The summer jobs would be with the provincially funded Focus on Youth program for at-risk kids.

Spyropoulos, a former Jefferys principal, lauded the Niagara board for its low-income school but said such an idea is not on the Toronto board’s radar.

“I think it’s inspiring,” he said. “We know the effects that poverty can have on academic achievement, and I applaud our neighbour for such innovation.”