Santa Rosa to weigh shutting alternative middle school

Santa Rosa middle school students facing discipline problems or academic challenges have for years been sent away to the Lewis Opportunity School, located in a separate campus on Lomitas Avenue.

But this approach has not helped students overcome the obstacles to their education as the Santa Rosa City School District hoped it would, officials say.

To address the issue, the Santa Rosa City School board will hear a proposal Wednesday to replace the so-called alternative school with a new program that would keep students at a traditional middle school while giving them more intensive support to help them succeed.

“We’re hoping this is a way of making kids feel that their home school is embracing them rather than ostracizing them and sending them off-campus,” said Board President Donna Jeye, who added she was supportive of the idea and eager to learn more about it.

The idea to make a change arose when the district decided to temporarily relocate the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts, whose campus is set to be renovated, to the Lewis site, said Assistant Superintendent Diann Kitamura in a staff report.

That, she said, “created an opportunity to review and rethink how middle school students might be served more effectively when there is a need for an alternative setting.”

So the district’s five middle school principals developed what they are calling the Bridge Academy, a “school within a school,” where students remain on traditional campuses but are taught in dedicated classes apart from the general student population. The Bridge Academy would include a teacher and instructional assistant at each school so students could remain on-campus while receiving more intense support.

The model would provide a greater ratio of teachers to students than is available at the Lewis Opportunity School, where there was the equivalent of 3½ teachers in addition to a secretary, counselor, campus supervisor, custodian and administrator. The campus served 19 students last school year.

In addition, each student would get a specialized learning plan and have daily meetings with someone specializing in restorative justice as well as a counselor or mental health clinician. They’d also get help with social skills and homework, Kitamura said in the report.

There will be an emphasis on making the student feel valued, she added.

“Children who will be served in the Bridge Academy deserve the deepest interventions and a system designed so they will flourish,” she said.

The board will be hearing about the program for the first time and is not yet scheduled to vote on it.

Staff Writer Jamie Hansen blogs about education at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach her at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jamiehansen.