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WJCC Proposes Closing Academy for Life and Learning to Create New Alt Ed ProgramBy Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, December 01, 2010 The administration of Williamsburg-James City County Schools is proposing to scrap its existing alternative education program in an effort to reach more students and cut costs. The proposal was posted Tuesday on the agenda for the School Board’s Dec. 7 meeting. It suggests creating positions for three middle school “deans” who would be responsible for identifying at-risk learners and developing recommendations to help them transition to high school. To do so, the division would have to close the Academy for Life and Learning, currently housed in the annex at James Blair Middle School. If approved by the School Board, the changes would take effect next fall. Throughout its deliberation over whether to close James Blair Middle School to create a central office for the administration, the board said ALL would benefit from the decision because it could use the annex classrooms. The school was previously located in four trailers on the grounds of Eastern State Mental Hospital. On Tuesday, Acting Superintendent Scott Burckbuchler said the annex would house the division’s adult education and GED classes if the proposal were approved. The basis for the proposal, it says, is to support the board’s desire to help the maximum amount of students, establish a more inclusive approach that would allow students to succeed in traditional classrooms and reach more students without spending more money. The proposal to add three deans would cost $225,000 and programming improvements would cost an additional $45,000. ALL currently has a budget of $570,000 and has 40 students. The new plan would result in budget savings of approximately $300,000 at a time when the division “seeks to restructure in light of a multi-year significant budget challenge,” according to the proposal. The board has previously said it wants to find a way to serve students with behavioral problems. Currently, students who have long-term suspensions or have been expelled are sent to Enterprise Academy in Newport News. That’s been the case since 2008, when the board approved a proposal to change ALL’s mission to focus on academic intervention before students started to have significant discipline problems (read more here). In an e-mail, Burckbuchler said the division will still need Enterprise Academy as an option for students if the dean proposal is approved. In the new proposal, deans would coordinate student discipline and academic data to determine how to “facilitate success” for students. The deans would also track student cases and monitor student behavior issues that seem to be caused by the transitions to middle and high school. They would participate in conflict resolution, and would play a role in coordinating student behavior and discipline. The deans would also collaborate with “drop-out prevention specialists” at the high school level, along with counselors and administrators, to increase student achievement and prevent drop outs. Schools are mandated to decrease drop-out rates in order to reach Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks. The proposal suggests tripling the number of students served by alternative education from the present 40 to more than 120 students. The proposal, which was prepared by Burckbuchler and Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services Dianna Lindsay, says the introduction of deans in the middle schools will be more preventative than the current program, which pulls students out of their home schools into a different school environment. “The proposal for deans is also consistent with the philosophical underpinning that it is best to address the needs of students in their home schools as we build a community of learning in which our students' needs are met,” it says. In addition to the deans, adjustments would be made to the in-school suspension models, community-building expectations and the use of out-of-school suspensions. Last winter, two community meetings were held to address drop-out prevention; in both, suspensions were identified as contributing factors to students dropping out. In a press release, School Board Chairman James Nickols said the proposal was the product of “three years of study and discussion among board members, administration, various concerned individuals and community groups.” He said the proposal addresses the systematic challenges of discipline, absenteeism, parental involvement and more, adding that the proposal expands the division’s alternative education to reach more at-risk children. Parents and community members affiliated with ALL plan to fight for the school, however. Led by parent Veronica Colon, they’ve organized the ALL Program Parent Advocacy Coalition. In the past three years, the academy has succeeded at transforming disinterested students in danger of failing into engaged students passing the Standards of Learning tests for the first time. In the 2009-2010 school year, ALL’s students had a pass rate of 91 percent on the writing SOL, 89 percent on the reading SOL, 83 percent on the science SOL, 77 percent on the math SOL and 57 percent on the social studies SOL. Two students earned perfect scores of 600 points on their math SOLs. The school requires students to wear uniforms and has a character education curriculum that promotes healthy self-images and introduces students to community leaders. Parents became nervous for ALL’s future this fall when its character education teacher, Archie Jefferson, left the school mid-semester to accept a position at Lafayette High School. Sheryl Johnson Foxx, whose grandson Malik Ball attends the school, said she had placed her grandson at the school because she knew Jefferson. “I knew his character and how good he was with the children,” she said Tuesday. “When I went to the school and saw him there, I thought, ‘I can trust him.’” She said her grandson had trouble focusing in the regular classrooms at Berkeley Middle School. She’s read the proposal, and isn’t sure it will give him the help he’s getting now. “I will still fight for ALL because I will fight for the fact that I truly believe some children need more help than others,” she said. “Children grow differently…they’re like flowers. Some don’t need a lot of water, and some need a lot of sun.” Jennifer Taylor, an education advocate who coordinated a community conversation on drop-out prevention, believes the school board should wait until a new superintendent has been named later this month before it makes a decision about the future of alternative education. She said she would rather see the administration and board explore ways to expand ALL for a few years. “We know that the ALL program works. No one disputes this,” she said Tuesday. “The objection is that it is too expensive and/or serves too few children, but does that mean we should get rid of it instead of expanding it? The decision to dismantle the program now is practically irreversible. That money will never be there again.” The board will discuss the proposal at its 7 p.m. meeting on Dec. 7 in the board room of Building F at the James City County complex. A public hearing on the operating budget and capital improvements plan will be held prior to the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. |
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Comments
Veronica Colon
Quoting CITIZEN:
shame on you. may your child never struggle in school. these kids are not all behavior problems, some of them learn different. even if they had behaviors, research would find that when you can't learn like others, you will act up! it is hard for these kids. I say the division had an obligation for all kids. we should not cut back on 40 kids!
Putting the ALL kids back into the big-classroom mega-schools is going to hurt them, and no administrative dean with an office somewhere else in the building is going to be able to give them the support that the current design of the ALL program provides.
Maybe they should offer a class in Pre-Incarcerati on to give some of these kids a wake-up call.
3 Deans =225,ooo.
I should think many in there tough times many would jump at a Dean job for 50 grand.
peace,
jim