As DISD students gear up for school next week, students at Uplift Peak Preparatory will be in their fifth week of the school year. The charter school started Aug. 1, and in the first days of school, high school seniors began applying for college. Juniors started getting ready for college entrance exams. Even kindergarteners spent that first half-week of school learning rules such as keeping silent in the hallways and how to behave in class.

“We have a rigorous foundation in instruction,” says the school’s director, Chris Garcia. “We waste no time at all on transition.”

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Every year, Peak Prep students must sign a contract with the school stating they’re committed to academics and agree to the rules. New in the language this year is that seniors must commit to going to college in the fall of 2013.

“Some of them didn’t want to sign that,” says Aleta Estrada, the school’s dean of college prep and alumni relations.

She told them they at least have to be open to the possibility. They have to research colleges and try to get into one they like.

Since the school opened in 2008, 100 percent of graduates have been accepted to college.

Angel Jasso is one of them. He graduated in May and is headed to Texas A&M Commerce. A year ago, he didn’t think he would go to college.

“I thought senior year was going to be easy, so I took a job,” he says.

Jasso wanted to pull his own weight at home, where his single mom cared for him and two brothers, ages 4 and 6. So he started working at Subway from 5-10:30 p.m. every day. Then he would be faced with three hours of homework.

Soon, his grades started slipping. He was told he might not graduate, and he couldn’t bear to tell his mom that. College was her dream for him.

Thanks to his mentors at Peak Prep, Jasso was convinced to cut back on his work hours and concentrate on schoolwork. This summer, he completed Government I and II at Eastfield College.

“No more breaks,” he says. “I’m taking classes as much as possible.”

Jasso recently turned down a $10/hour job at UPS, and after college, he wants to go to law school.