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PEEKSKILL, N.Y. Members of the Peekskill City School District Board of Education have made improving student behavior a priority in recent months, which has led to the revisiting of a discontinued program.
At the Jan. 10 board meeting, new Superintendent James Willis told trustees he wanted them to consider creating an alternative classroom setting for students with behavioral issues who were not learning in the normal classroom setting and were distracting other students.
Willis said the district had an ideal setting for such a program in two classrooms located in the district administrative building located across the street from the high School. The location would allow alternative education students to eat lunch and take elective courses like gym and music with their peers, he said.
"We have an advantage since we are so close," he said. "We could start in the fall but we don't have any plans on the table.
The district has had such programs in the past and some trustees said they were concerned about bringing such a program back since they said it eventually became "a dumping ground for bad kids."
Trustee Tuesday McDonald said one of the reasons she initially ran for the school board was to get rid of the alternative education program that the district previously had and said she was hesitant to bring it back.
"The students were treated as second class citizens," she said.
Willis said he understood the concern, since the same thing had happened at his previous district in Utica, N.Y. He assured trustees that students would be treated respectfully if such a program were enacted.
School Board President Joseph Urbanowicz asked Willis to have his staff provide some examples of such programs working at similar area school districts at an upcoming meeting before making any further decisions on the matter.
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