From 5 p.m. to 10:45 p.m., he's in school. And from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m., he's a security guard. "I might sleep for two hours," Dautruche, 21, says nonchalantly. "I know what I'm doing. I need to finish school. I want to be a lawyer. And when I get paid, I send money home to my family in Haiti."

Like most of his classmates at Night & Day, Dautruche's reality is worlds away from the more carefree life of a typical American high school student. The doors here open at 10 a.m. and close at 11p.m., and the curriculum is designed for students age 17 to 22 who are juggling school with full-time jobs or child care-often while struggling to find housing or learn English. Its students come from all over the city with about 30 percent from Queens, said principal Howard Friedman.

"Anyone who comes here isn't here because life is good to them," said Friedman, who was also Night & Day's founder. Half of the 800 students are immigrants; the other half dropped out of regular high school but still want an academic diploma rather than a less- prestigious general education diploma, or GED.

Many students, such as Momin Hussain, 20, are on their own. His parents are back home in Bangladesh. Hussain sprints from his last class of the day to a night shift at a Thai restaurant, and speaks wistfully of the teenagers he sometimes sees hanging out.

"They're playing in the summertime in the park, but I have to go to work," Hussain said. "I don't get angry, but I feel sometimes I wish I could do it. Then I think, no, whatever I do myself, I feel very proud.

"I went before to a regular high school, but it was hard for me, because it started at eight o'clock in the morning and I finished working at midnight," he said.

Since the school pulls students from all over the city, many of whom work, the school's location close to Union Square and its many subway lines helps them marshal their time, Friedman said.

Night classes begin at 5 p.m., perfect for students such as Yajaira Oliver, who works from 7 a.m. to 3p.m. She likes her job as a photo lab supervisor in a drugstore, but she sees a diploma as the only way to something better.

More than 90 percent of Night & Day's students get their diplomas; 60 percent go immediately to college. But many aspects of daily living that other young adults might take for granted are considered luxuries bythesestudents. Privacy, for example.

"A student will come in and say, 'I didn't get my homework done,'" Friedman said. "Why didn't you get our homework done? 'I had to turn off the light. The rest of the family had to go to sleep.' Then you realize they're living in a studio with a whole bunch of people."

Sisters Dikra and Bushra Algutaini live with eight siblings and their parents in a three-room apartment in East Harlem, but they consider themselves lucky. "In my country, Yemen, some families don't want their daughters to go to school. But my father, he says we have to go to school," Bushra says proudly.

The New York City Board of Education provides regular funding, for which all public high schools are entitled. But a nonprofit organization, Comprehensive Development Inc., raises money for extras, such as restoration of the 100-year-old building in which the school is housed on the Lower East Side, and funding for the social supports many students need.

"There's housing help, legal help, medical help. Everything middle- class families do for their kids, we try to do for these kids," said Greg Cohen, who heads Comprehensive Development.

A medical van comes once a week offering health care. A lawyer drops by to help with immigration problems, landlord-tenant disputes and even the occasional hip-hop record contract. There's also job training, tutoring, college placement and two counselors who help with housing.

A spotless private bathroom with a shower was installed in the student life center for kids who are sleeping on friends' sofas but don't want to push a tenuous living arrangement by tying up their host's bathroom.

And while regular high school students have time for socializing and sports, Night & Day students make every minute count.

Christopher Alvarez, 18, is from the Dominican Republic and works as a stock clerk in a Polo clothing store; at 6:50 p.m. on a recent evening, he sat in the school cafeteria with a burger in one hand and a vocabulary sheet in the other.

Upstairs, in the gym, students had chosen to skip the period programmed into their schedules for dinner and burn off a little energy with a game of volleyball.

Gym teacher Carl Burnett, who also teaches health education and conflict resolution, says there's a big difference between Night & Day students and kids in the high school where he had worked for 15 years.

"They want to be here so it's a pleasure teaching them," he said. "You don't find correction going on. You find teaching going on. I find students who want to learn. It's a pleasure being here."

He Yinhui, 19, an ambitious Chinese immigrant, already owns his own restaurant. But he's got his eye on a diploma from Night & Day nonetheless.

"Everybody knows only education can improve your life," he said. "I understand my situation. I need school. I have a dream in my future that I'm going to college. If I finish college, I have the ability to make a contribution to America."

Then he stifles a yawn. "But I'm tired," he said with a smile. "I'm really tired."

Manhattan Comprehensive Night & Day High School is accepting applications for the fall term that begins in September. Call 212- 353-2010. The school is at 240 Second Ave., Manhattan.

'When Work's Out, School's In'
for Many Students Night & Day H.S.
helps make every minute count
PUBLICATION: Newsday
BY: Beth J. Harpaz. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS>
EDITION: QUEENS
SECTION: News
DATE: 03-21-2001
A31

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