Northwest R-1 School District officials plan to start a new Alternative to Suspension program beginning next school in an effort to better meet student needs. The program will be housed in the former Cedar Hill Intermediate School building, 6471 Cedar Hill Road, which is currently vacant and will be transformed into the district’s alternative center for intervention.
Some of the district’s existing intervention programs will also be housed in the new center.
Doréan Dow, assistant superintendent of secondary schools, said the Alternative to Suspension program will serve students in grades six through 12 who receive 10-plus days of suspension. Rather than serving that suspension at home, the students will continue their learning through the Alternative to Suspension program at the new center.
“Our district hearing officer will work with families during superintendent suspension hearings to outline placement in this program,” Dow said. “Depending on the length of the suspension, students will either continue with their current coursework to stay on track for their return to the classroom, or, for students on longer suspensions, they might learn online through our Edmentum coursework.”
Programs to be moved to new center
One of the existing programs to be relocated to the center is the PRIDE Academy, which operates out of the high school and mainly supports high school juniors and seniors who are significantly behind on credits needed to graduate and might benefit from a smaller setting to complete their learning. Students in this program use a combination of teacher-delivered and virtual learning to earn their required graduation credits.
Another program housed in the high school that will be moved to the new center is the Missouri Options Program, which offers students who are at least 17 and significantly behind on credits an opportunity to attend half-time and work 15 hours a week. The students must show readiness on a placement exam. The students work with a teacher to practice the skills needed to pass the HiSET exam, which if passed, allows students to receive a high school equivalency diploma, similar to passing the GED.
The mental health services the district provides students also will be available the center.
“We have wonderful existing partnerships with COMPASS, Chestnut Health, CHADS, PreventEd, Children’s Division and others who regularly offer support to our students and their families,” Dow said. “We also have caring district counselors, social workers and school resource officers who already support these students now and will continue to do so at the new center.”
Each of these programs will have its own placement criteria and will be determined by a team of parents, educators and administrators, Dow said.
She proposed the idea of consolidating the district’s intervention programs and running them out of the old Intermediate School building. Dow oversees education at the high school and two middle schools and will oversee the center.
Goals for alternative center for intervention
The purpose behind the center is to provide increasing levels of intervention to support students’ needs in the areas of academics, behavior and social-emotional learning, Dow said.
“We saw a need to more efficiently deliver instruction and services beyond the general classroom and buildings and have discussed the need to rethink our approach to discipline. We will do this by providing an alternative to out-of-school suspension to maintain continuous instruction and minimize the academic impacts of behavioral consequences. We are also working to continue to improve our alternative programming options for students requiring a different route to graduation,” she said.
The Cedar Hill Intermediate School building was closed at the end of the 2009-2010 school year when the district reorganized the grade levels at its elementary and middle schools. Through that reorganization, the district also opened its Early Childhood Center, previously the House Springs Intermediate School, at 6180 Hwy. MM in House Springs. Students from the House Springs Intermediate School were divided between the two existing middle schools the district has today, Woodridge Middle School and Valley Middle School.
“We are lucky to have beautiful, well-maintained and continuously improving facilities available to us to adapt our programming as necessary to meet students’ needs,” Dow said. “The intermediate school is a wonderful building with beautiful land surrounding it. Its floor plan is perfect for this unique arrangement of programs, with spacious classrooms, several large common areas and offices for outside service partners. There will still be room left for future expansion as other needs arise. It’s really ideal for what we are trying to do.”
In November, board members agreed to spend $1.5 million on renovations needed to accommodate the new programs that will be housed in the center. Those renovations are underway and are expected to be completed before the start of the 2025-2026 school year.
“Our maintenance crews are amazing and have been doing the work needed to clear the building of any items we’ve been storing there. Abatement has already begun; equipment is being ordered,” Dow said. “Following that, we’ll get new floors, lighting, paint and furniture. We will then get to move in all of the items we’ve been gathering from our PRIDE Academy and from around our district to fully equip it. We will not be doing a lot of the decorating and personalizing upfront because we want our students to make this space their own, something they feel an ownership and responsibility for.”
Kasey Schaffer, the district’s director of maintenance; Mark Janiesch, chief operating officer; and their teams have worked to outline and implement a coordinated series of steps to get the facility ready for students. Director of technology Zack Pizzullo and director of administrative services Jennifer Younkins and their teams are preparing technology and security upgrades to the facility, Dow said.
“We are grateful for all of the support and hard work of each individual and department who are contributing to making this center a reality,” she said.
Matthew Guethle, a Northwest alum and Northwest High School’s current PRIDE Academy teacher, will be the new coordinator of intervention and will oversee the programs at the center. He currently earns a $69,172.27 annual salary, and next school year, he will be paid $88,200 as the coordinator, Janiesch said.
“Our existing PRIDE Academy teachers from the high school will be relocating to the new center and have been phenomenal in being open to and excited about what could be with this new space. We will begin interviewing for positions to staff our alternative to suspension classrooms and our office soon,” Dow said.
She said she looks forward to the opportunities the center will provide, not only for the students who will be enrolled there, but also for the additional space the center will provide for other programs and activities.
For example, during evening hours, the center could be used for athletic practices.
“We have excellent land around the building to expand into outdoor learning spaces, which our PRIDE Academy students have already started brainstorming ideas for,” Dow said. “We have more space within the building to house additional programs in the future so we can be quickly responsive to changing needs. Also, the classrooms currently occupied by the PRIDE Academy at the high school will be able to be repurposed for evolving programming in that building. It’s a really exciting time for growth and new opportunities.”