An 'impossible task': Brevard Schools mulls doing away with alternative learning centers

By Finch Walker

In Brevard Public Schools, expelled doesn't really mean expelled — at least, not in the traditional sense.

The terminology the district uses to describe the punishment handed down to students for certain offenses has caused debate among board members and staff since January, with board members asking for clearer language and questioning if the current disciplinary process even works.

Right now, students who are expelled are given the option to attend alternative learning centers or learning facilities outside their normal home campuses for the duration of their expulsion. An expulsion — typically — does not mean that a student is kicked out of BPS entirely.

But during a recent work session, Chief of Schools James Rehmer and Alternative Sites Director Misty Bland presented the board with a plan to potentially replace the alternative learning centers and revamp how expulsions are handled. The move came after a January work session when the board expressed concerns that the ALCs weren't helping improve student behavior and were placing a heavy burden on teachers.

Board member Megan Wright said the district owes the ALC staff an apology for giving them an "impossible task."

"I've had a teacher reach out to me, and my heart broke for her because I'm like, 'What we've asked you to do is an impossible task,'" Wright said.

The students at the ALCs, Wright said, need more support than those on typical campuses due to emotional and behavior issues, and too many students of different ages are combined in the same space.

"We're asking a teacher to look at a class range of seventh through 12th grade, which the curriculum is drastically different in all of those, and we're asking our bus drivers to make sure that we have students on buses that are from kindergarten to 12th grade," she said. "There (are) a lot of things there that are just not right. They are not right."

While final details are still being hashed out, the district moved closer to a solution for how expulsions might be handled in the 2025-2026 school year.

Here's what that could look like.

Who currently attends the alternative learning centers?

Students who would otherwise be expelled from Brevard Public Schools are given the option to attend the ALCs for the duration of their expulsions.

As of Feb. 13, there were 209 students in both centers, according to data presented by Rehmer and Bland at the work session. Of the 209 students, 22 were in grades kindergarten through grade six, 92 were in grades seven and eight and 96 were in grades nine through 12. Kids in the elementary classes attend five days a week, while those at the secondary level do hybrid virtual/in-person learning.

The presentation didn't include a breakdown of race, though that's been a part of numerous discipline-related discussions.

During the 2023-2024 school year, a total of 658 students attended the alternative learning centers, according to a presentation given to the school board by student services in June 2024. Of those students, the majority — 274, or about 41.64% — were Black. Black students make up about 15% of the district's overall population.

The second largest group at the ALCs for that school year was white students, with 235 placed at the centers. There were also two Native American, three Asian or Pacific Islander, 70 Hispanic and 74 students of two or more races placed at the centers during the 2023-2024 school year.

What issues do board members have with the ALCs?

During a January work session, board members expressed concerns that the ALCs were overburdening teachers and not working as a disciplinary method.

"These students are being rewarded for bad behavior," Wright said at the time. "They are going to school for two days a week, they are not necessarily on track with their classes and (when) they go back into their traditional classroom setting, it is now the teacher's responsibility to find out, "Did they do their work? Is everything graded? Are they up to par?"

The ALCs employ 38 staff members, according to the most recent presentation. Between the two locations, there are 16 teachers and two social workers to oversee 209 students, as well as one school counselor, one guidance service professional, six instructional assistants, two school resource officers, two assistant principals and other school staff such as secretaries and custodians.

If the district swapped from using the ALCs to the proposed diversion program, they could reallocate 31 staff members from the ALC back into other schools, while seven staff members would work in various capacities in the diversion program.

What would the diversion program look like?

The details of exactly what the diversion program — an alternative to the alternative learning centers — would entail are being explored. But board members agreed the goal would be to keep kids at their home campuses rather than sending them to another site.

The program would likely involve having students placed on a stipulation agreement that would require certain things like their attendance at weekly counseling; participation in online coursework; no participation in things like sports, clubs and other campus activities; supervision at all times; and engaging in a Saturday behavioral modification program. They would be eligible to participate in the program once in elementary school and once during middle/high school.

It's a similar approach to what the district has used with their drug diversion program, which is an option available for students who have engaged in substance-related offenses.

What other options would students be given?

Offenses are ranked on levels from one to five, with five being the most severe. While the details of the diversion program are still being decided, as it stands now, the diversion program would be available for students who were expelled for committing offenses at the one through three level, as well as some level four offenses. The district would decide on a case-by-case basis if a level four offense would result in an automatic expulsion, while level five offenses mean a student is expelled.