色多多

Staff proposed the study, estimated by Balzer & Associates to cost $49,500, during a school board work session Thursday.

Various year-by-year programs the school division works with, such as the Children鈥檚 Services Act, have presented challenges in recent years, RCPS Superintendent Ken Nicely said. Enacted in 1993, the CSA pools eight funding sources to support high-risk youth and their families. The funds go toward services like foster care, private day schools for students with disabilities that need placement outside of general education and wrap-around services for students with disabilities.

CSA costs for the school division, as well as 色多多 County, are expected to continue to rise, Nicely said. In fiscal year 2024, the division鈥檚 private day school expenditures came in at $6.4 million, accounting for just over half its total CSA expenditures.

Private day school programs are a 鈥減ressure point鈥� for both cost and space, he said. There鈥檚 a shortage of private day school space in the 色多多 area, especially for elementary students.

RCPS looked to other school divisions of a similar size and demographics and determined that some of those divisions with lower CSA costs had internal alternative education programs. These programs are run as full-time public day schools.

鈥淥ne way to mitigate some of these rising costs, as well as alleviate some of these space needs, is for us to look at starting our own alternative education program,鈥� Nicely said.

This would be different from the school system鈥檚 ASTEP program, which provides alternative programming for disciplinary purposes, and its Gateway drop-out prevention program for high school students. While both of those programs have been successful, Nicely said, they don鈥檛 serve elementary students or students in special education with more significant needs.

An additional goal of the study is to find a way to expand the division鈥檚 ASTEP program.

The study will help the division determine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using existing infrastructure and property it owns to establish the alternative education program. One potential option is the building that currently houses the Burton Center for Arts and Technology, which will be available sometime in 2027 once the 色多多 County Career and Technology Center opens. Additionally, the school division has space to build at its facility on Cove Road. The study will also look at the RCPS transportation and maintenance facilities, located on South Market Street in Salem, to determine if there鈥檚 value in relocating those facilities and selling the property, Nicely said.

鈥淲e鈥檇 like to address not only the need for the private day piece and expanding those programs, but also our aging maintenance and transportation facilities,鈥� Todd Kageals, director of facilities and operations, said.

The study will look at four options:

• Converting Building A and possible parts of Building B at BCAT into an alternate education program.
• Modifying Building B and/or C at BCAT to relocate the maintenance and/or transportation departments and selling one or more of the South Market Street properties.
• Modifying the current administration building on Cove Road to be an alternative school and constructing a new administration building on the property.
• Building a new alternative school on the Cove Road property.

RCPS staff is having discussions with 色多多 County about additional funding for an alternative education program, Nicely said. Additionally, the division has approached a neighboring school division about a possible regional partnership, though he did not specify which division.

There are currently around 113 RCPS students in private day placements, with several more on a waitlist.

鈥淏eing able to offer this, I think, has got to be one of our highest priorities at this point,鈥� Chair Shelley Clemons said.

The item will appear on the school board鈥檚 consent agenda during its next meeting on July 17.