Fayetteville School District plans to expand alternative program

The Fayetteville Public Schools McClinton Administration Building Tuesday, November 7, 2017 in Fayetteville.
The Fayetteville Public Schools McClinton Administration Building Tuesday, November 7, 2017 in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The School District intends to expand its alternative learning environment program to serve students in kindergarten through high school.

The district's current alternative setting is at the ALLPS School of Innovation and serves mainly juniors and seniors.

Parking Lot

Fayetteville’s School Board voted 7-0 on Thursday to proceed with another phase of student parking expansion at the high school. The next phase involves adding 60 to 65 parking spaces on the west side of the district administration building. It’s estimated the project will cost $888,000. Officials aim to have it completed by the start of next school year.

Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette

Administrators presented a proposal at Thursday's School Board meeting to provide that alternative model to the rest of the grades.

The board will be asked to approve the plan at its March 19 meeting. If the board endorses it, the plan will be submitted to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for state approval.

Administrators hope to begin offering the alternative learning environment for all grades this fall.

The alternative learning environment program is "designed to assist students who have demonstrated a pattern of not achieving academically, behaviorally, and/or socially at their home campus," according to a program description written by administrators.

The district is struggling to adequately serve such students, said Superintendent John L Colbert.

"Sometimes they stay in their classroom, sometimes they go to the office and visit with the principal," Colbert said. "The principals cannot provide the necessary assistance to those kids, like providing additional coping skills. That needs to be done by a professional who's been trained to handle those types of behaviors."

The district plans to offer one alternative-education classroom with a capacity of 15 students for each school level: elementary, middle, junior high and high school, Colbert said.

Administrators haven't determined which schools will host those classrooms. The district will transport students identified for the program to the appropriate school, said Chad Scott, executive administrative director of student services.

Students will be referred to the program, at which point a "placement team" will determine whether the student belongs in an alternative classroom. Scott estimated a nine to 12-month stay in the program for each student placed in it.

"The idea of this is there would be specific behaviors and criteria for them for entry into the program, then there would be absolute criteria for them to go back" to the traditional classroom, Scott said.

Megan Hurley, board member, said addressing student behavior is crucial, and she complimented administrators for taking steps to address it. The district must be careful to choose the right teachers for alternative classrooms and also make sure to provide those teachers the proper support, she said.

In other business at Thursday's meeting, the board unanimously approved shifting Asbell Elementary and Owl Creek schools from the continuous learning calendar to the traditional calendar starting this fall.

That will leave Happy Hollow Elementary School as the only building on the continuous learning calendar, in which schools get an additional week off during both the fall and spring semesters, but summer break starts two weeks later than it does on the traditional calendar.

Asbell and Owl Creek principals said attendance declines drastically during those last two weeks of the school year, as many children leave because of summer camps, family trips and custody arrangements.

In addition, academic interventions offered to students during the extra weeks they get off during the school year aren't well attended, according to Asbell Principal Tracy Bratton.

Happy Hollow Elementary School likely will spend one more year on the continuous learning calendar, Colbert said.

NW News on 02/28/2020

This story was originally published at 1:00 a.m.

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