(Related story: Roberto Clemente alternative school redefines itself: 'We're really about sending kids to college')

Marcus Buggs came to Roberto Clemente High School from Clague Middle School because he was getting into fights. Bria Gray came to Clemente from Scarlett Middle School when she was suspended too many times for her to count. Mica Sims just finished her first year at the “alternative high school” and saw her GPA improve by more than a full point.

All three say they probably would not have graduated from high school if they had stayed on the path they were on. Now, after one more year at Clemente, they all plan on going to college. They aren't the only ones, either.

“Fourteen out of 15 graduating seniors got in to college,” Principal Benjamin Edmondson boasts. “And nine of them got into four-year institutions.”

That compares to 2010, when 16 of 29 graduating seniors were accepted to community colleges, and two actually enrolled.

The increased focus on achievement - and college - is one gauge of success at the alternative high school that creates a smaller, more nurturing environment for students who aren't reaching their potential in a traditional program.

When Edmondson took over as principal two years ago, he noticed a laxity that he was uncomfortable with.

“I came in and I told them on the first day, don’t (mess) with me, I’m not that kind of guy,” he said.

Edmondson came to Clemente from Scarlett Middle School at the personal request of Clemente’s founder and only principal for its first 30 years, Joe Dulin.

Dulin is a mentor of Edmondson, and he has been a strong voice for minorities in education for more than 30 years. He was instrumental in the creation of National African American Parent Involvement Day (NAAPID) that high schools across the country now participate in annually. Edmondson only agreed to take over as principal at Roberto Clemente because of a personal request from Dulin.

"I was not interested in this job, but then when he was going to retire, Joe called me and said 'I’d like you to be the next principal. You’re the only person here who could do the job,'" Edmondson said. "And that was a great honor."

He had established a name for himself in the Ann Arbor school system when he canceled 8th grade commencement at Scarlett following a food fight in the cafeteria. At Clemente, he immediately tightened the bolts and tied his policies to real world lessons.

“We tell our students, ‘if you come out of uniform, you don’t come to class,’” said Barbara Malcolm, community liaison at Clemente. “If you tried to go to work at McDonald’s or as a postal worker and you didn’t wear your uniform, what would happen?

"We try to hold them to the same standards here.”

The focus on real world application goes beyond school uniforms. Teachers routinely tie classroom lessons to real world experiences and use hands-on projects to help students think critically.

Mike Frantsen, a second-year design teacher, and his class built picnic tables from leftover wood from an earlier project. The students were responsible for finding picnic table designs online and drawing up drafts for their tables before doing any actual woodwork.

When the time came to put the tables together, Frantsen was impressed with his students' abilities.

“A kid that you never would have thought could pick up a drill and measure this or cut that and put the pieces together actually used some critical thinking skills and proved most people wrong,” he said.

In the past year, students at Clemente have built picnic tables, experimented with hydraulic botany, and even published a book through 826Michigan, a local non-profit tutoring and education promoter.

But there is one accomplishment that stands out above the rest: Graduation and acceptance to colleges.

“Graduating” from Clemente is somewhat of a misnomer. Students at Roberto Clemente graduate with a degree from their comprehensive high school, either Huron, Pioneer, or Skyline.

During the school year, Clemente also receives the same amount of money per student as the comprehensive high schools (usually totaling between $12,000 and $14,000). Edmondson said that after professional development, instruction materials, and other basic costs there is not a lot left over.

"On that money, I can't take a single field trip," he said. "If I took the kids on a field trip, I'd have no money for the rest of the year. It's tough to keep up with the comprehensive schools. We have less money because we have fewer kids, but they are kids who need more."

For the time being, Edmondson tries to do more with equal funding. He hangs student's college acceptance letters in the hall to set the tone for the building.

“When I take perspective students on tours I show them these letters,” he said. “You may have heard that Clemente is a school for the ‘bad kids,’ but this is what we’re really about, sending kids to college.”

Edmondson’s focus on grades and college has made an impact on both students and faculty at the school. But he’s also reaching out to parents. He sees parent involvement as imperative for students to achieve academically.

“I have this little function that lets me see how often parents are checking power school [a grade-tracking website],” Edmondson said. “If they don’t they get a call from me.”

The school’s open house (called curriculum night at other AAPS schools) is also mandatory for parents, and grades are not mailed home. When parent’s come to pick up their student’s grades, they have conferences with the teachers. Edmondson believes this dialogue helps parents see just how much their children are improving.

The combination of positive re-enforcement and strict discipline, supplemented by a “family atmosphere” appealed to Bria Gray, who will be graduating after four years at Clemente. Edmondson was her principal at Scarlett and she saw him as only a strict disciplinarian, but when he came to Clemente he focused on highlighting student success.

“We have a goal each trimester, the goal is to get a 2.5 or higher, and if you do you get an award and you get a chain, and you get to walk across the stage and invite your parents to come see you,” Gray said. “And it really made me happy that my mom could come in and see me succeed at something.”

Another rising senior, Marcus Buggs, lost his father at a young age and had a GPA of 1.7 before Edmondson took over as principal.

“The presentation he made on the first day, it kind of like changed me. It transferred me to a whole new person and made me become a leader,” Buggs said. “I now have a GPA of 3.1 and I’m the student body president.”

Buggs has mentored younger students and wants to be a social worker when he graduates college. He attributes his turnaround to his principal who he sees as a father figure.

All of Clemente’s administrators see themselves as parental figures for their students, especially Barbara Malcolm. She is the school’s self-appointed “Mama Bear.”

“I’m taking them to college visits, I’m going to pick them up. I’m going at 10 o’clock on a Friday night to the East side of Detroit to pick up the student who’s stranded there because they didn’t have anyone else to call,” Malcolm said. “Each student and parent has everybody’s phone number. That’s what we do. And I think that’s what makes this the Roberto Clemente family.”

The Roberto Clemente family consists of 12 teachers, four administrators, eight staff employees, and about 100 students.

The school does not succeed 100 percent of the time. This year’s state standardized testing scores were well below where Edmondson would have liked them to be: Zero students scored as proficient in math and writing, while 7 percent reached that level in science, followed by 23 percent in reading and 38 percent in social studies.

Still, he said he isn’t discouraged.

“This is a school that helps kids who would not succeed otherwise,” he said. “We help put them on the right track, and that’s a benefit to them and to the community.”

Ben Freed is a summer intern at AnnArbor.com. You can reach him by email at benfreed@annarbor.com or by phone at (734)-623-4674. Follow him on Twitter @BFreedInA2.