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Committee agrees recommended language for alternative placements, flags limits and staffing needs for middle‑school virtual option
Summary
The committee reviewed recommended board language for placing students in alternative settings (in lieu of expulsion), asked policy review for implementation rules and suggested limiting placements to the school year; staff also reported a virtual pilot for middle school that cannot yet serve expelled students because of state proficiency‑model limitations and staffing constraints, prompting a proposed board brief and budget request.
Committee staff presented recommended language the board could use when voting to place a student in an alternative setting instead of expulsion. Staff said senior leadership reviewed the language and recommended coupling the vote language with clear implementation rules — for example, criteria for duration, performance indicators, and whether virtual delivery is an option.
A senior leadership suggestion raised by staff was to limit placements so students are not kept in alternative settings indefinitely. "It needs to be limited like you would — even if they don't meet the performance indicators we would only keep them up to one year or to the end of the school year and then that's it," a senior leader advised; the committee agreed to have policy staff (Dr. Franklin was named) review the language and align it with existing policies.
On a related agenda item, staff described a virtual pilot that used a proficiency‑based model similar to the district's high‑school template. That pilot currently supports middle‑school students in hardship or transportation situations but cannot yet serve expelled middle‑school students because the state's proficiency‑based structure is not approved at the middle‑school level. Staff said the primary barrier to expanding the pilot to serve expelled middle‑school students is staffing capacity: teacher caseload limits and lack of interventionists to provide separate academic and behavioral supports.
Committee members asked staff to prepare a board brief documenting Richland 02's current virtual options for middle‑school alternative placement and to develop a budget request for additional staffing for the academic year planning cycle. Staff agreed to check whether past appeals for interventionist support were requested or granted and to coordinate with academics to prepare the budget submission.
No formal vote was recorded in the transcript; next steps are policy vetting by the district's policy reviewer and inclusion of the recommended language and implementation rules in a forthcoming board brief.
