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BEAUFORT, N.C. – Carteret County school officials are trying to save the Twilight program, which focuses on dropout prevention. Currently, the program is at East Carteret and West Carteret high schools.

The program allows students who have fallen behind a chance to make up credits for classes and assignments they've missed or lost credit for.

Administrators hoped to expand it to Croatan High School as well, but now, the school system is struggling to keep the program alive.

“Their personalities flourish. They become outgoing, confident,” Twilight Director Jessica Anderson said. “And their success in the daytime classroom, that improves as well.”

Officials say the county's graduation rate jumped almost 10 percent the first year of the program, which was funded by a grant that ended in December. Now, the school system is scrambling to find a new source of funding.

They're even putting on a fundraiser selling energy efficient light bulbs to try to get through the school year.

“We're going to try to do what we can,” Superintendent Dan Novey said. “We're going to scale back what we do, but we know how important it is to have that second opportunity because there's some things that go wrong in a child's life, and they need that help and support.”

East Carteret High School senior Amanda Heuser is enrolled in the program and is poised to graduate this summer.

“Last year, I made a lot of bad choices and I got suspended a lot and I never really came to school because I thought, 'What's the point?' I lost credit in all my classes and I failed,” she said.

If you'd like to participate in the program's fundraiser, contact the school system at (252) 728-4583.