Board hears proposal for small alternative high‑school program at annex to support credit recovery and behavior needs

District staff presented an alternative‑program proposal designed to serve high‑school students who are significantly behind on credits or who have chronic behavior issues that make them unlikely to graduate in the traditional setting.

Key elements of the proposed program included: - Location: proposed at the district annex (separate building) to reduce hallway and bathroom disruptions at the main high school and to give students a smaller, more supervised learning environment. - Enrollment/capacity: planned for roughly 10–15 students, with an intake requirement that students remain enrolled in the district (form 4‑15 enrollment) and a formal application and team meeting to approve placement. - Instruction and delivery: core coursework would be delivered primarily through Edgenuity (the district’s existing virtual/credit‑recovery platform) with teacher support and individualized learning plans; the program would set progress benchmarks (for example, minimum percent completion targets) and provide counseling and SEL components. - Staffing and cost: administrators proposed one full‑time teacher, a 1.0–1.5 additional instructional staffing/para allocation and related benefits; staff estimated a starting personnel cost (salary + benefits) roughly in the district mid‑range and said that specific budget numbers would depend on candidate experience. - Student services: the district would deliver breakfast and lunch at the annex and provide counseling and individualized planning; special‑education students could participate if the IEP team determined the placement appropriate.

Board members asked several operational questions — transportation, fire‑marshal inspection requirements for a building that previously did not house students, staffing recruitment and whether existing staff would volunteer. Staff said transportation would be the parents’ responsibility (no dedicated bus service), that the annex would require a fire‑marshal inspection to certify it once students were placed there and that administrative teams would handle IEP and placement decisions.

Staff recommended proceeding by searching for qualified candidates for the teacher role and returning to the board if a viable candidate is identified; the board instructed staff to explore recruitment and bring back budget and facility readiness information.

Ending: Staff will continue recruitment and provide more detailed cost and facility compliance information for the board to consider before authorizing program launch.