CV School District Considers Alternative Middle School

The Central Valley school District plans to launch an alternative middle school program next fall, even though officials acknowledge that such programs are tough to keep going.

Central Valley should know. Its first attempt at an alternative school for seventh- and eighth-graders closed after one year. Officials decided there was not sufficient backup for the teacher at the Barker Community Learning Center.

“What do we want?” asked Laurie Sheffler, principal of Horizon Junior High and a member of the committee charged with developing the program.

“Not another behaviorally disturbed room where the kids are dumped in there, but a place where kids could find a sense of community,” she said. Sheffler spoke at Monday’s Central Valley School Board meeting.

The new program would be built around a four-hour core of math, science, language arts and life skills. Extra classes, such as physical education, would be allowed, as students earned them through good class work.

The teacher with the skills to reach these students will have to be a “pied piper,” said Mike Pearson, director of secondary education.

The program may start at North Pines Junior High, where there is extra space in portable classrooms. Officials expect to start with one teacher and a full-time aide, who would have no more than 15 students. They anticipate growing into two classes within the first year.

North Pines Principal Dave Bouge said he could think of five to 10 students at his school who would benefit from the program.

School board member Craig Holmes questioned that number as being low.

Bouge and others on the committee replied that students would have to qualify for the program by showing their commitment.

The program will include parent involvement, counseling, and a dress code that bars hats, spaghetti straps, chains, spiked collars and bared midriffs.

It also will emphasize chances for the students to return to their home school.

Earlier this year, Central Valley began an alternative program at University High School, to supplement the high school program at the opposite end of the district at the Barker Center. The U-Hi program has about 26 students. The Barker Center program has more than 100.

Central Valley isn’t alone in looking for better ways to keep students in school. East Valley and West Valley have also opened alternative programs for the same age group. They all hope to help students early, so that they’ll succeed in high school.

Central Valley’s annual swing in high school enrollment tells part of this story. The enrollment starts high in the fall and sags by spring. The September-to-March dropoff, over the last five years, has ranged between 120 and 220 students, Superintendent Wally Stanley told the board.

But this year, the September-to-March dropoff is just 90 students. Stanley sounded encouraged by that, but also offered this warning:

“I think we’re just scratching the surface. I see a lot of challenging kids coming through. And they aren’t all special ed kids.”