School opens for unruly students

By Harold Gwin

Young people adjudicated as delinquent will attend the alternative school.

YOUNGSTOWN — The new Mahoning County High School will get its first students Monday.

There will be only four or five of them, as the school for students facing expulsion and/or incarceration for misbehavior in their home districts opens its doors.

The idea is to start out slowly, said Judge Theresa Dellick of the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center. She has been the driving force behind development of the school.

Enrollment will grow, with capacity for the first year capped at 40 students, but the program is expected to expand to as many as 90 in its second year and perhaps 140 in its third year, she said.

A school planning committee estimated that as many as 900 students from across the county could be eligible for the program at any given time.

“There is a need for this,” Judge Dellick said. If the kids can be kept in school, they have a better chance to become productive members of society when they grow up, she said.

“We’re the stick. The school is the carrot,” she said, explaining that the student’s school performance will be assessed daily, and they will have to appear before an Education Court — over which she will preside — at least on a weekly basis at first.

All of those who come to the school will be boys who have been adjudicated as delinquent, with their commitment to a detention facility held in abeyance, and expelled or facing expulsion from their home school, said Anthony D’Apolito, president of the school’s governing authority and court administrator at JJC.

Girls may be accepted at some point in the future, he said.

Offenses may range from truancy to assault on a teacher.

The offenders will be placed on probation and serve that probation by completing their education at the alternative school, or by improving their academic performance and personal behavior to the point where they can return to their home school, according to Judge Dellick. Most will stay in the alternative program for at least a year.

If they follow the rules and do well, they get to stay in school. If they don’t, that’s where the stick comes in, the judge said, explaining that they could be removed from school and incarcerated.

Those who complete the program can have the original charge against them dismissed.

The school is located in the former Sheridan building on Hudson Avenue, portions of which the new school is leasing from the Youngstown city schools for just $1 for a 32-month term. The school is paying its share of the utilities for the building, which Youngstown closed last year.

Each classroom will have a teacher and a student correctional officer who will be in charge of discipline. Officers will monitor every child daily.

There will also be a deputy stationed at the front door, and a probation officer and school counselor will be in the building.

After school, most of the students will report to a day reporting program located in the building where they will remain until about 9 p.m. doing homework and participating in various in-house programs. Those who have jobs or are involved in other counseling programs will be permitted to leave after school.

Transportation is being provided by students’ home schools, and the program is open to all of the county’s public schools, with each district being allocated an equal number of student slots.

The school is sponsored by the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, and the state has provided $450,000 in federal school start-up funds to be spent at the rate of $150,000 a year for three years.

The school will initially operate on a calender similar to regular school, ending in June, although the goal is to eventually make it a year-round operation.

D’Apolito said the court will provide tutoring assistance to students during July, August and September until that time.

Judge Dellick said the focus will be on academics and behavior modification, but that will soon branch out to include vocational training, once each child’s ability to work with tools in a vocational setting is determined.

gwin@vindy.com