Lynchburg City Schools presents data showing lower repeat suspensions, officials say gains but note academic and attendance challenges

Lynchburg City Schools officials presented an update on the district's alternative-education system, RESTORE, saying the program has reduced repeat suspensions and produced measurable academic gains for many students but continues to face challenges with chronic absenteeism and students in remote instruction.

The presentation Wednesday came during new business at a school-board meeting, where Dr. Brown, presenter for the RESTORE update, framed the program as an effort to "get upstream" of student behavioral problems rather than simply respond to incidents. "We're not trying to address issues as they come to us and just save the kids that are in the river and drowning. We're trying to get upstream, address problems at its root, be proactive, and be innovative," he said.

School staff described RESTORE as a multi-tiered system that includes a suspension center, restorative academies for elementary and secondary students and more intensive Tier 3 programs such as TAP and Fort Hill Community School. Dr. Chris Glover, principal at Fort Hill, told the board that many alternative-education students move across multiple placements (base school, Fort Hill, Turning Point Academy, remote learning), which complicates data collection and outcome measurement. "Sometimes it is just students bouncing from one program to one school to another situation, and we wanted to make sure that we gave you an accurate representation of what's going on with students that are being impacted," he said.

Officials gave several specific data points: the suspension-center resuspension rate has declined from nearly 60% in an earlier period to about 18.3% this year, and in some categories (explained in the packet) repeat suspensions for the same offense fell to 8.6% this year. Presenters said 92.3% of Fort Hill students in the cohort reviewed either maintained or improved the number of classes they were passing; secondary restorative-academy cohorts showed average GPA increases (presenters cited an average rise of about 1.5 points on a 4.0 scale for some cohorts). Fort Hill staff reported graduating six students last year with high school diplomas and seven students completing GEDs to date, with four more in progress.

Board members and staff cautioned that the cohort-based academic measures are not directly comparable to SOL scores because many students cycle through multiple placements and teachers. Presenters said SOLs were not the primary measure for these cohorts; instead they tracked credits earned and classes passed. Dr. Glover described common student pathways that include temporary placement at Turning Point Academy or short remote enrollments tied to court cases, which can interrupt instruction and lower academic continuity.

Staff flagged several challenges: chronic absenteeism (Fort Hill students averaged about 18 days missed and were on pace to double that number for the year), poor outcomes for students placed fully online (presenters said most of the roughly 13 online students were failing core classes), and reduced mental-health services following budget cuts. Presenters urged that some program elements are grant-funded (they cited an $8.4 million national grant supporting parts of the initiative) and warned that loss of funding could jeopardize services.

Board members pressed on academics and transitions. One board member asked whether state legislative funding proposed for restorative practices would be used for academic strategies as well as personnel; presenters said they would apply for competitive grants and emphasized a mix of academic supports, PLCs for teachers, community partnerships and targeted pre/post assessments (IXL and Edmentum/Admentum) to track progress. Dr. Glover described the district's transition practices for students returning to base schools, including a two-week coordination window, a transition document for base-school staff, visits to the receiving school and a leadership/celebration event before transition.

Presenters recommended more pre- and post-assessment data collection, expanded mental-health services, longitudinal tracking of students after transition and continued community and extracurricular connections to support students. "We believe in what we're doing and we have amazing people and staff that work tirelessly every day," Dr. Brown said. "This program is changing lives and changing generations of lives."

The board moved to continue the question-and-answer portion of this topic at a work session scheduled for Feb. 18 and postponed further discussion to allow counsel and additional staff to attend.

Ending: Presenters asked the board to sustain funding and track students longitudinally to confirm whether current gains persist after students return to base schools. Board members agreed to continue the discussion at a February work session with additional staff on hand.