As the start of the 2018-19 school year approaches, the Sewanhaka Central High School District has set up everything it needs in order to launch two new programs for the students in the district this fall. Superintendent Ralph
Ferrie described the new Academic Learning Center as a resource that will serve students who have been suspended from school.
“There will no longer be your typical out of school suspension, as those students will attend the Academic Learning Center at our CTE building in Sewanhaka,” Ferrie said.
District officials hope that the ALC will help deter students from being suspended, something they said similar programs have accomplished in other districts. They also see the program as a way to halt the learning gap that students face when they are suspended, because the students will attend a full day of classes at the ALC.
In addition to the ALC, the district will also launch its Alternative School Program, which allows nontraditional students who usually attend night classes to study at the school during the daytime. John Kenny, who had served as Sewanhaka High School’s asssistant principal, has been put in charge of overseeing the Alternative School Program along with the ALC. Kenny said the Alternative School Program will have four teachers, a teaching assistant, a school psychologist and a counselor available for its more than 30 students this fall.