Richland School District Approves Alternative Education

Richland School District Administrator, Steve Board, presented an alternative education program to the Board of Education at last night’s (Monday) board meeting. He said that alternative education has proven to be successful in the PARTNER School. After thoroughly examining the data and brainstorming solutions over the past several weeks, the Administration has proposed this new alternative education program, which includes all three buildings for this coming school year. This programming would support students who are on the fringe of needing other supports, such as behavioral and academic, and the need for more support in their social-emotional learning, mental health, and executive functioning skills. He stated that this style of instruction will still give students the most important pieces of their grade level content while providing more time to learn and practice skills for life and getting along with others. Offering this option to families will create another avenue to become the district that families choose to stay in and possibly use their choice to open-enroll. By meeting students where they are and providing the support necessary, the district will help students grow into college and career-ready students in the upper grades. The proposal would require the addition of one full time teacher at each of the three buildings. Alternative education licensure would be required within the next year, and the district will plan to financially support this licensure add-on, as needed. The financial implication is something the administration will work in the current setting. With a decrease in staff this year, the district is closer to making these new positions fit into the current structure. The numbers are still being crunched. In the coming years, it would be sustainable through attrition as well as a decrease in open-enroll out coupled with a potential increase in open-enroll in. The tentative name being used is the R-SSEE School, pronounced R-C, which stands for Richland Small School Educational Environment, focusing on the smaller class size opportunities for students. This initiative would allow the Richland School District to become a District that provides choice, in a world where there are many education options for parents and students. The board approved the plan unanimously.

Board also presented the second reading of the new Title IX Policy. Due to changes in Federal Law surrounding Title IX, all districts need to have a new policy in place prior to August 1. The district needs to have a policy in place for allegations of events that happened prior to August 1, as well as a policy to handle allegations of events on or after August 1. Because of this, the district could not simply revise the current policy, but rather need two policies.

He also stated that the Pre-Referendum Page on the School District website will be shut down for a few days to change it to a Referendum Update Page.

The Richland School Board also accepted: substitute rates for the upcoming school year; monetary donations from Richland Area Crimestoppers, Richland County Children & Family Advocacy Council, and the Richland Center Athletic Boosters Club; and to waive the policy concerning school events on Wednesday, Sundays, and Holidays to allow the Strengthening Families program to meet after 7:00 during their 2024-2025 programming.

Following closed session, the board reconvened to approve the hiring of Elizabeth Forehand as a high school science teacher.