THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020451
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 54 lines
Now is the time to develop a plan for the district's own alternative school for troubled middle and high school students, the School Board told Superintendent Joyce Trump on Thursday.
The board, meeting in Isle of Wight County for its retreat, said it wanted the school to open in the fall of 1997.
The board also embraced Trump's idea to set up a committee to study ``character education'' this coming school year - making Suffolk the latest South Hampton Roads district to investigate the issue.
But for many city residents, Suffolk's lack of a comprehensive, alternative day school or center is one of the district's major weaknesses.
At public meetings and elsewhere, residents frequently complained about unruly students who disrupt classes, and how such students have all day to cause trouble in the streets after they've been removed from their regular schools and placed in the district's ``nighttime'' alternative program at John F. Kennedy Middle School.
The creation of an alternative education school ``is something we as board members are committed to, and I think the general public expects us to do this,'' said board member William Whitley.
The move is in line with a recent recommendation from the board's Alternative Education Planning Committee.
Trump said the administration would start work on the project.
The district must figure out, among other things: what the school will offer, how much it will cost to operate and the best location for it.
The goal is to provide an environment where teachers, counselors and others can work intensively with students who routinely have caused disciplinary problems or broken rules in their regular schools.
Successful students will be allowed to return to their regular schools, the board said.
Suffolk now refers its most disruptive students to one of two places: the district's alternative night program at Kennedy - which serves about 40 students at a time - or the regional alternative school, where six slots are reserved for Suffolk students for the upcoming year, administrators said.
This year, the board's alternative education committee recommended the creation of a alternative day school or center in Suffolk, with a September 1997 opening date.
The committee urged the board to target students who are at risk of dropping out because of behavioral or academic problems.
In other matters, Trump convinced the board that character education programs are worth studying.
The programs typically stress the teaching of basic virtues or character traits, such as honesty and responsibility.
Portsmouth and Norfolk will start character education programs in the middle of the 1996-97 year.
KEYWORDS: ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL SUFFOLK SCHOOLS by CNB