Second Start students concerned by Concord’s plan to bring some alternative school programming in-house

Sophomore Dakota Evens spent much of middle school in detention or in-school suspension.

“I was always getting in trouble,” Evens, an aspiring musician, said. “I didn’t want to be in school; I just wanted to get sent home.”

At Rundlett Middle School, making friends was a challenge for him. Getting help from teachers felt impossible. As high school neared, Evens began placing himself in suspension or simply walking home from school in the middle of the day.

Last year, Concord decided to send him to Second Start, an alternative high school for about 30 students that operates out of a former firehouse on North State Street.

For more than 40 years, the state-approved private special education program has served as an option for students like Evens who struggle in a traditional setting, particularly those with emotional and behavioral challenges, learning disabilities, and trauma.

Classes are small — roughly five students — and staff provide highly individualized support. Most importantly, the two-story building feels a world away from Concord High. For Evens, school has begun to feel safe and possible for the first time, he said.

Last week, Concord School District administrators announced a plan that could threaten the refuge Second Start offers. The district wants to start its own alternative program in-house and pare down the number of students it sends to Second Start.

The news of that plan was “gutting,” said Bill Mealey, Second Start’s chief executive officer.

Program leaders and current and former students argue that the move is short-sighted and will negatively affect Concord’s students and its budget. They are calling on Concord’s Board of Education to reverse course.

“It’s going to get dangerous,” Mealey said in an interview. “They want to bring these 25 kids back to their building while they’re cutting staff. We also need to acknowledge that some of the students that they send to us can be extremely involved with their special needs and then need a ton of support.”

In-house program

Concord’s plan is to create a program called Future Forward, which would expand upon the school’s adult diploma program. The program is currently only offered to students who are 16 or older.

Going forward, students with more acute special educational needs would continue to attend Second Start, but those who are seeking a more non-traditional, flexible and personalized learning environment could increasingly access it on the high school’s campus.

Concord Superintendent Tim Herbert said that the change would not disrupt current Second Start students, who would continue attending the program. Second Start administrators, however, say the district’s proposed budget for next year doesn’t provide enough funding.

The proposal was announced as Concord grapples with how to reduce its $17 million shortfall for next year. Under current estimates, the plan would save the district about $500,000 and would not require the district to lay off any of its own staff. Herbert and Concord High administrators said the change has been under consideration for a long time and is not purely a cost-saving measure.

District leaders said that broadening the in-school support options would target the rising number of students who are leaving Concord’s schools to participate in homeschooling. So far this school year, 50 students in the district have done so, Herbert said at a meeting on Wednesday.

“Part of this is: How do we engage students who are leaving us and not participating in the academics?” Herbert said. “And then part of it does play into our relationship with Second Start.”

Herbert said the plan is not an effort to “shut the doors on Second Start.” Rather, he said, it’s an attempt to “better identify the profile of our students, get them the necessary supports they need, and when a student may access Second Start, it’s going to be a confirmed good fit.”

Krystin Cooney, the director of Concord’s adult diploma program, said she’s been researching ways to expand her program for years, bringing more non-traditional learning opportunities to Concord High as other districts across the state have done. The vast majority of Second Start students who are 16 or older already take courses through the adult diploma program, according to data from the district.

With the exception of more intense special education support, the only difference for learners between what is available at Second Start and what her program would provide would be the location, Cooley said. The new program would operate out of a transformed space on the high school’s third floor.

The benefits of separation

Second Start program leaders and students said that’s a major difference. A big reason why students succeed at Second Start, they said, is because of its separation from Concord High.

“Many of them have trauma from that building or from peers in that building that prevent them from even wanting to be on that campus,” high school program director Jackie Wareing said.

“Concord provides the transportation and Concord High is kind of the hub for that shuttle,” she added. “We have been trying to move the spot for them to catch that shuttle because simply being there for the bus stop is a challenge.”

Junior Brooke Bell teared up at the prospect of returning to Concord High.

“It would be very uncomfortable and stressful,” she said.

Evens is about to start his first adult diploma course. Even though the course happens after the school day, he’s worried about what it will feel like to be there.

“Walking in [the] Concord High halls is not going to work at all,” he said. “Like I’m not going to be able to walk in them halls at all. I’m going to be checking behind my back 4,000 times a minute.”

Cost savings?

The district pays for a set number of “slots” each year, which are for half a day. Some students attend for a full day, or two slots, while some go for just one. Each slot costs Concord, which receives a 20% discount from the state-set rate, roughly $21,500 this year, or $43,000 for a full day.

A discrepancy exists between Concord and Second Start administrators over the number of slots required to maintain current enrollment levels for existing students next year. Concord has budgeted for 12 slots, while Second Start believes 33 would be required. Herbert attributed the difference to the fact that tuition for students with an individualized education program goes under a separate line item in the budget.

Concord administrators have said they could eventually also generate tuition revenue from other districts that enroll their students in the program.

Mealey and Wareing said they couldn’t see how the plan would save the district money in the long run. They said Concord might have to pay to test students for special education needs and potentially ultimately send them to a far more expensive out-of-district special education placement if the new program doesn’t work out for certain students.

“It has a greater potential to, quite frankly, blow their special ed budget out of the water in the next few years,” Wareing said.

As for Second Start, Mealey and Wareing said the program would end up enrolling students from other districts if Concord stops sending students of its own.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional details from the Concord School District about how they calculated the number of slots for returning students next year.

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