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| District-205 Approves Alternative School Plan |
A growing dropout rate at Galesburg High School is all the evidence the Galesburg School Board needed in order to spend six-figures annually on the creation of a new alternative high school.
The District-205 Board Tuesday night okayed the formation of the school, to be located in the former Rose Hoben Welch facility, which will open at the start of the fall semester, taking in 50 students at first, and increasing to 100 the second year.
District-205 Director of Alternative Programs Wes Olson says 86 students have already dropped out of GHS this school year, up from 55 just two years ago, and believes while the district is already attempting to address the drop-out rate, more needs to be done.
"One of the core strategies...to address the dropout issue is alternative schools," Olson said. "That's an area that we don't have available right now. That's the missing component for us. Alternative schooling has been proven, research-based, to help reduce truancy, if done correctly, improve attitudes, improve academic performance and credit accumulation, and also improve behavior problems."
Olson was citing any of a number of studies that support the formation of alternative schools. As part of an overall plan to address dropouts, the board also supported the formation of a strategic development plan that will look at a sort-of early warning system to get students the help they may need in school before they become dropouts, and also address needs at the middle school level.
The alternative school will cost the district nearly $150,000 in start-up costs, another $400,000 in the first year for operation, and over $550,000 for operation in the second year.
The District-205 Board Tuesday night also approved bids totaling nearly one-point-four million dollars for the removal of asbestos and associated remodeling of the Learning Center Wing of Galesburg High School.
District officials say both bids came in well under cost estimates. |
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| 04 14 09 by Newsroom |
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