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Racine Unified plans administrative change for Alternative Learning; board to consider school closure formality
Summary
District staff told the board the Racine Alternative Learning site will transition from being reported as a school back to being operated as a program, affecting reporting and assignments; the move is administrative and will be presented to the board as a school closure formality for a vote at the Oct. 20 business meeting.
District administrators told the board on Oct. 6 that Racine Alternative Learning (Alt Ed) will be returned to program status rather than operate as a separately reported school, a change driven by state reporting and identification rules.
Miss Decker and other administrators explained that although the alternative learning site has functioned as a program in practice — serving students ages 8 to 21 across multiple programs — state reporting treated the entity as a school because of how students were assigned and reported. Recent state accountability and ESSA identification processes prompted the district to seek to align reporting with actual operations.
“The work…is we must shut down this…as a school and return it to a program,” a presenter said, clarifying that students will continue to receive services at the Alt Ed brick‑and‑mortar site but will be officially assigned to their home schools for reporting purposes.
Administrators said the move would change how graduation and attendance are reported and how the site is treated for state oversight (including CSI considerations). They noted the change is largely administrative and intended to better reflect the program’s day‑to‑day functioning; District staff said DPI would work with Racine Unified through the transition.
Board members asked whether the reclassification would negatively affect the home schools’ report cards. Administrators responded that the effect could cut both ways: Alt Ed graduates who otherwise would not graduate can positively affect district graduation counts once properly assigned, but individual school report card components tied to achievement or growth could be influenced depending on student movement and outcomes.
Administrators said about 140 students graduated from the Alt Ed program last year; they said the district must complete state coding and reporting changes by the end of the month and will bring the formal school‑closure item to the Oct. 20 business meeting for a board vote because the change is treated administratively as a school closure.
No immediate change to student services was announced: staff said programming, supports and the Alt Ed facility will continue to operate as before while reporting and coding are adjusted.
