SYRACUSE - Alternative education and school safety were two issues discussed by the Wawasee School Board Tuesday.

Superintendent Mark Stock planned to have an update on Wawasee's alternative school program for the board, but not all the information was complete. Erick Jones, director of alternative education, has resigned to take a position in Illinois.

Alternative education for Wawasee high school and middle school students is for students who are "candidates for expulsion," according to Stock.

Board member Marion Acton asked about student attitudes last year.

Wawasee High School principal Alan Frank said, "I think what we see is what society sees. It's hard to keep them at task. Their lives are very busy. ... It's very difficult for students to keep school a priority."

He said it is difficult for the staff to understand that because they are so committed to education. The student body is a diverse group of kids and the corporation attempts to meet the needs of all students, he said.

"The general attitude is as good as the year before; that's not to say we don't have good kids," Frank said.

There are no set patterns in the number of students who attend alternative education. The numbers fluctuate, he said, and some students take advantage of the opportunity of alternative education and some do not.

"Ours is an alternative to expulsion. There are a few students who are 19, 20 years old who have a few credits to go who will stick in there," Frank said.

He said for students in alternative school, the advantage is they don't have to deal with six classes a day.

"The need for an alternative type of school is getting greater every year," Frank said.

He said kids today are vastly different from kids 10 to 15 years ago. But it is not just the kids - society also is different.

Stock said if the alternative school was truly alternative, the kids would work during the day to be able to pay their car payments and then come to school 5 to 8 p.m. two or three days a week and they would have 200 to 300 kids in the program.

"School's just not as important as it used to be," he said.

Acton said he believes Wawasee School Corp. "expects (great) things from kids, it's not just loosey goosey."

Frank said they do everything to prevent violence in the schools but what happens at other schools can still happen at Wawasee. However, he said, the community can be assured that the children are safe coming to school, more so than walking down a street.

Frank said the last thing school staff would compromise is safety.

In other business, the school board was given an update on the corporation's facilities project.

Wawasee Schools plans to build a new North Webster Elementary designed for 700 students, grades kindergarten through five. At Milford School, six general purpose classrooms will be added. Syracuse Elementary and the high school will have improvements made.

Stock said the remonstration period for the project ended Friday. A certified letter from the county auditor was sent to the corporation verifying they had no remonstrators. The next step will be for the board to gather 50 patron signatures supporting the project.

At the Aug. 31 budget work session, the board will accept the petition. The board will then approve a resolution stating the project is needed.

"At that point, we're off and running," Stock said.

Gary Watkins, of Barton, Coe, Vilamaa Architects-Engineers Inc., said, "It's been a long time getting to this point and I'm glad to have been a part of it."

He told the board the land for the new North Webster Elementary School has been surveyed. He said the projects will be divided into manageable pieces instead of being completed all at once because few contractors in Indiana could take on the whole thing at once. There are a few items that can be started on immediately.

Aug. 17, he said, the architectural firm will start talking with the staff at North Webster to see how they can make the building fit the school's programming. They will begin looking at the master planning for the site -Êwhere the utilities are, the road rights of way and where the building may be located on the site. The architectural firm will also look at Milford School to help determine where the additions will be.

"That's what we see as our next step - the beginning of the schematic design," Watkins said.

Stock told the board he hopes to have established a timeline for decision making by the Aug. 31 meeting.

The board approved allowing the administration the authority to exercise the option agreement on the land acquisition. [[In-content Ad]]