The past week or so Brant and I have been looking into the Area Learning
Center independently as well as jointly. You are aware of some of the
concerns, the buildings are overflowing, community relations problems, law
enforcement problems etc etc.
I sat in on a meeting with Dr. Hannon, Deb Moe, Chief Pomeroy and other law
enforcement people last week concerning the student’s behavior outside of the
building itself. A closed campus appears to be the best way to address this.
Because of the cramped quarters, this would be difficult if not impossible.
There have been numerous suggestions on where to move this program. One
thought was to move it to the Senior High School in the industrial arts wing.
Brant and I talked to Senior High administrators about that today. They were
able to show us that this space would not be available. The physical space and
bringing some of the behavior problems back into overcrowded class sizes is
not the answer. The discussion went on about discipline being key to changing
the behavior pattern of a number of these students. Discipline at a higher
level than is administered now is impossible without a closed campus and an
administrator on site to deal with these problems as they occur.
With that in mind, perhaps we could use the school board list serve over
the next several days to see where each board member wants to go with this. I
would start out the discussion with a recommendation that the ALC program be
moved to Rollingstone. It would be a closed campus and a large percentage of
the students would be bused to the site, keeping them there for the full
school day. We have a few that are not adapting to the Big O atmosphere and
could very well be less accepting to Rollingstone. I maintain we have too many
kids that want to learn to be spending precious resources on individuals that
go out of their way to defeat any attempt on teachers trying to teach
them.
We have started the process for moving the administration out of Lincoln
School. Whereever admin lands, it needs to be for an extended period of time.
In my mind, any of the elementary schools, Middle School or the Senior High
School is not a good fit. The school district owns the Big O cheap. It would
be the easiest of all the buildings we have broached to retrofit for offices.
Consider moving Eric and company here. Parking is adequate. Public visibility
is good. What do the rest of you
think???
