Trying to help troubled students

YOUNGSTOWN — The new president of the city school board would like to see an alternative education program created to house high school troublemakers who disrupt the traditional educational process.

It would be a program for children who have been expelled from school because of their behavior and attendance, and they would be ordered by a court to attend, said Shelley Murray, who is starting her second term on the board. She envisions setting up a cooperative effort with the judicial system as part of the process.

“Expulsion is not the answer for those students,” she said, pointing out the need for an alternative program.

Students can be expelled for a maximum of 82 days, and no learning will go on during that period if the child is sitting at home, Murray said.

She doesn’t know yet how an alternative program would be funded, where it would be held or even how many children might be assigned there but said she would like to see one up and running this fall.

“We need a plan, and that’s what this committee is all about,” she said, referring to the creation of an ad hoc committee she set up at her first school board meeting as president to look at school safety and alternative education.

She’s on the committee and has been joined by newly elected board members Anthony Catale and Richard Atkinson who volunteered to participate. The committee will have its first meeting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the central office building at 20 W. Wood St.

For the complete story, see Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.