New Alternative Education System on the Horizon in Three Village

A new alternative education program is set to replace Ward Melville High School's FOCUS and P.M. school programs beginning in the 2013-14 school year.

Those two programs currently address the educational needs of students who for one reason or another find it difficult to succeed in traditional classroom settings. At Tuesday's school board meeting, Kevin Scanlon, assistant superintendent for educational services, delivered a breakdown of how the new program – dubbed Three Village Academy – will function.

The goal would be “mirroring what a high school environment would look like,” Scanlon said.

Structurally, the Three Village Academy would provide small class sizes; it would rely on collaboration among staff, students and parents; and it would use curriculum and teaching methods “that are relevant to students, complement their life experiences, and build on their strengths.” There will be a career prep component, including internships for students at the upper grade levels. It holds the potential to bring in students receiving home tutoring and to host summer school programs by the summer of 2014.

It will be housed in the district's former administrative headquarters at 200 Nicolls Road, a facility which the district at one point sought to lease out in April of 2011. It is projected to serve 20 to 30 Three Village students in grades 9 through 12, with the possibility of accepting students from outside the district on a tuition-based system that could actually yield hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Depending on students’ needs, the program would require approximately four to five full-time equivalent positions, plus one teacher aide, one custodian and clerical support.

"We are presently finalizing the staffing needs based on the students’ needs. It's different from how you schedule a secondary program," Scanlon said.

A committee consisting of educators, administrators, parents, and other  was formed in the fall of 2012 to explore this idea. When the committee was exploring its options, Scanlon said representatives visited two other alternative educational facilities in the Roslyn and Great Neck school districts – ones which Scanlon described as having a similar educational reputation as the TVCSD. The Great Neck Village School houses 50 students in grades 9 through 12; Roslyn’s Hilltop Academy serves 25 students in grades 8 through 12.

District students in the Three Village Academy would receive a Ward Melville diploma, while students from outside the district would receive their diplomas from their home schools.

In both of those programs, the cost per pupil breaks down to around $90,000 per year. Scanlon said it would cost along the same lines for the program within Three Village. The total cost of the program would be about $785,000, and is projected to bring in around $290,000 in revenue from out-of-district student tuition.

School board president Dr. Jeffrey Kerman said it looks “very, very promising.”

“They’re still doing studies on it and still coming up with more facts and figures and feasibility, but right now it looks like it could be a very, very good educational thing for the students who need it,” he said. “Nothing is written in stone yet, but it looks promising.”

Superintendent Cheryl Pedisch said she is excited about the program based on both its educational merits and cost effectiveness.

“It is obviously something that is beneficial to our students,” she said. “It enables us to bring students back into the school community and provide an excellent academic experience, as well as, I feel, an educationally cultural experience for them that is so much better than being out-of-district.”