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Report lists problems at youth lockup school
MARY HARGROVE
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

The school for juvenile offenders at the Alexander Youth Services Center does not meet some basic state and federal educational requirements, according to a recent evaluation of the facility.
The report lists 24 areas in which the school falls short, including the number of hours students are in class and the subjects offered.
"It will require a massive overhaul of our education system to correct these problems," said Paul Doramus, director of the Youth Services Division, a part of the state Department of Human Services. The division operates the Alexander unit.
Doramus requested the study shortly after becoming director June 1. It was performed by a private Conway firm.
The Alexander school is accredited as a state-operated high school by the state Department of Education and is required to teach students six hours a day. The report states that students are being taught "on the average only 2.5 hours" each day.
"Teaching children for 2.5 hours a day is not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination," Doramus said.
Problems at the school included failure to follow some state and federal mandates as well as the Youth Services Division's guidelines. They include:

The school procedures manual was written in 1984 and was last updated in 1987. None of the six teachers was aware that the manual existed.

Teachers do not evaluate students before they leave to determine if they have made progress.

There is no General Educational Development program.

Two vocational education jobs remain vacant; one has not been filled for at least a year and a half.

Educational software, called PLATO, was purchased two years ago but had not been installed on a computer at the time of the evaluation. No one could explain why it was not in use.

Staff perceived the work environment as erratic and unfriendly. Many said that supervisors and procedures changed weekly.
The number of days the school held classes was also questioned, according to the report:
"On numerous occasions evaluators asked for evidence of last year's school calendar which provided information on the actual number of days the school operated, a listing of school cancellations, reasons, and makeup schedules, holidays etc. Administration was unable or unwilling to provide this information."
Accredited schools must hold class 178 days. Alexander is a year-round program and easily meets that criteria, School Superintendent Joe Kelnhofer said.
However, school is canceled at least once a month when all the children at Alexander are locked in their dorm rooms because of threats by students, the report said. Doramus said he has received information that indicates the school closes more often than that -- sometimes several days a week.
Doramus said he is especially concerned about the deficiencies because of the amount of money spent on the school.
"It appears that $1.4 million is being spent to educate 150 kids," he said. "We have 33 certified positions and appear to be higher than the average per-pupil expenditure for districts with 500 children." The amount spent averages about $9,300 per student. Less than half that amount is spent on average on each public high school student in Pulaski County.
The evaluation also puts the school at odds with the Education Department. The school assured the state in writing at the beginning of each school year that it met all standards for accreditation, including the number of teaching hours.
The state requires the school to offer specific courses to be accredited. The school does not offer the required music, art or computer applications such as databases, spreadsheets and word processing.
"We were just made aware that they are not doing what they reported to us. We will be looking at those areas when they send in their annual report in October," said Bob Maddox, coordinator for the Standard Assurance Unit of the Education Department.
The state began a five-year cycle of on-site visits of accredited schools last year. Alexander will be reviewed in three years.
Kelnhofer said his teachers do not have to teach six hours a day because "we're not listed as a regular district."
He said students were in class longer than 21/₂ hours.
"We have plans to have a 5.5-hour schedule," he said.
But Maddox said the school will be held to the six-hour schedule or possibly lose accreditation.
As far as courses offered, Kelnhofer admitted the school "falls short of Education Department standards because we don't cover all areas such as art and music."
Maddox said he was surprised. "He did check off that he was in compliance with the course standards. That is what he said was taking place."
The Alexander campus is the state's only lockup for children declared delinquent and placed in the custody of the state. The school generally teaches 150 students ages 10 through 17.
Most of the students are part of what is called the open campus and will be at Alexander for 90 days. The report focused on classes for those students.
Some 55 other boys and girls are part of the serious offender program and may live there for several years. On Aug. 12, Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson were declared delinquent in the March shooting deaths of four students and a teacher at the Westside Middle School near Jonesboro. They will be in the Alexander serious offender program until they turn 18.
Vicki Sandage headed the evaluation team put together by the firm hired to do the study, ESC Planning & Management Services Inc. of Conway.
"The main thing is they are not getting individualized work," she said. "That is a major concern for students at any school, but it is especially important for these children.
"The only chance they have to get out from an environment they did not choose to be in is to offer them good educational opportunities."
Sandage is director of the Shirley Alternative Living Center in Shirley. She is a former Pulaski County deputy prosecuting attorney and a former Pulaski County juvenile master under the state's previous juvenile justice system.
She said that during the evaluation of the Alexander unit, she randomly checked what should have been individualized student goals and discovered they were identical.
"The teacher told me she just copied one plan and put the different students' names on it. Because of the high incidence of children with special needs in this group, that was alarming," Sandage said.
Kelnhofer said every student had a personal education plan. "In some cases the personalized plan would be the same if they tested the same," he said.
Kelnhofer said all 34 children in special education classes have individual plans as required by a new federal law.
He said the school does not have enough children to justify a GED class.
But according to the report, "many of the staff felt that many of the Alexander students would be more likely to complete a GED than return to a traditional school."
Kelnhofer said he believed vocational education program "would be extremely important." However, there are not enough classrooms to develop these programs and the school has openings for two vocational education teachers.
A week before the evaluation, Sandage alerted teachers her team would be visiting the school. "I was assuming what I saw was the best they could do because they knew we were coming and why," she said.
But the report cites several examples of what Sandage observed and considered poor educational practices.
Sandage said students in fifth through eighth grades were being taught in the same classroom and receiving the same assignments.
"When I asked, the teachers said they were providing assignments for the different grades in the different levels. My observations did not confirm that," she said. "I can't say they are offering all of the core curriculum based on the information I received."
"All students should not have been on the same worksheet," Kelnhofer said, "unless it was a general lecture. Normally, if they are on different levels, they would be instructed on different levels."
In another instance, two new students were observed. Neither student showed the teacher a schedule, class assignment or assessment records.
"The two students were given the same handouts that all other students received," Sandage wrote. "The teacher's directions were: read and answer the questions.
"One [new] student said, 'I can't read.' The teacher did not respond."
Several students were observed using computers in several classrooms and during class periods. "All students appeared to be playing card games," Sandage wrote.
Some of the problems in the report were linked to small classrooms and inadequate equipment. Chalkboards were so old that they were difficult to read; there were few bulletin boards; carpets were dirty, and walls needed to be painted.
"We need to upgrade the facilities and centralize the classrooms. We have four different locations and that would also make it more efficient for staff," Kelnhofer said.
When teachers were asked what improvements they would like, their suggestions included:

A discipline plan.

Students would be grouped according to their test results.

The boys and girls would not go to school together.

The same importance should be placed on class work as on psychological and behavior modification in the dorms.
"We've made progress since the report," Kelnhofer said. "Some areas have been addressed. Some are planned for the future. We've got a lot of good staff that are really doing what they can."
Doramus said he is carefully studying the report.
"Obviously we have some significant problems," he said. "Those will be corrected sooner than later. We've got to prepare to send these kids back into the communities and we're not doing that to the degree I know we're capable of doing. We have our work cut out for us."

This article was published on Sunday, August 23, 1998

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