The recent administrative leave of the principal and four teachers from the Mansfield Integrated Learning Center has prompted questions about the Learning Center’s role in the Mansfield City Schools district. Despite an investigation into these staff members regarding an alleged failure to follow Mansfield City Schools policy, the Learning Center is still considered a valuable asset to the district.
Betsy Alexander, Director of State and Federal Programs for Mansfield City Schools, did not express concern that the students would be disrupted by the academic leave of four teachers and Principal Robert Singleton.
According to Larry Gibbs, Public Relations representative for Mansfield City Schools, the absence of the four teachers will not change day-to-day operations at the Learning Center.
Also, Mansfield City Schools Superintendent Brian Garverick has placed former Learning Center faculty member Tom Hager as acting principal of the center. Hager currently serves as Assistant Principal of Malabar Intermediate School in Mansfield.
“Without elaborating, not all four teachers are full-time Mansfield Integrated Learning Center teachers,” said Gibbs. “Hypothetically if there are one or two [teachers on leave], I’m sure internally they’ll make the adjustments they need to cover the classes and get things done, no disruption of academic service over there.”
The center originally existed as the Mansfield Alternative School, created and funded 18 years prior by an Alternative Education Challenge Grant from the state of Ohio designed for students who are at risk of school failure and other related problems.
Three years ago, the school was renamed the Mansfield Integrated Learning Center and moved to its new location at 176 Hedges Street in Mansfield. This improvement was thanks to a federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) application wich was sent to the U.S. Department of Education by Alexander.
“One of the reasons we qualified for the grant was because the graduation rate was low, and we have a high poverty rate in that building,” explained Alexander. “The other was because we are a priority status, which means the scores of achievement were not up to par according to the state. It’s the only school in the district with a priority status.”
Alexander explained that the priority status given by the state means the state assists the Learning Center, helping the school to grow the number of students in attendance and help more students in need. The Learning Center first earned the SIG three years ago and has reapplied and qualified for more funding each year since the initial grant. Alexander noted the school follows grant rules by expending funds correctly, sending in quarterly reports and following the advice of a transformation specialist from the state that visits the building weekly.
“They want you to look at your population and see what you really need for your students that you don’t already have,” said Alexander. “We’re doing OK because they just gave us more money. If we weren’t doing OK they’d take us off. We’ve gotten the grant every year, and they’ve helped us to change things.”
The teachers and consultant staff of the Learning Center serve the needs of students considered at-risk in the Mansfield City Schools district. According to Alexander, students’ needs continue to include the following root causes: difficulty functioning in a traditional school setting, minimal family and community involvement, highly dysfunctional domestic situations, teenage pregnancy, high mobility rate, high incidence of juvenile crime, and inaccessibility to 21st century technology required for college and career readiness.
“Sometimes it’s because maybe in ninth grade they didn’t work really hard so they fell behind, or maybe they got mixed up with the wrong bunch, or they lost a parent or they didn’t have somewhere to live,” said Alexander. “All these factors can affect these kids.”
Students are admitted to the Learning Center through a referral process. A teacher may feel a student could benefit in attending the center due to issues such as discipline, domestic concerns or failing grades. Occasionally a student or their parent may request to attend the Learning Center for their own reasons. Administrators at both the home school and the Learning Center collaborate in making the decision to send a student to the Learning Center.
“A student can go to a teacher or an administrator and say, ‘I’ve got these issues, I can’t concentrate and I can’t work here,’ so then the teachers and administrators get involved and that can lead to a referral, once they’ve explored the situation,” explained Gibbs.
The Mansfield Integrated Learning Center is home to approximately 120 students according to Alexander, but not all students stay throughout the entire academic year. Students at the Learning Center sometimes take certain classes at their home school, and other classes at the center. They can even participate in extracurricular activities such as clubs and athletics at their home school. Seniors at the Learning Center also participate in their home school’s graduation ceremonies.
“They could have an issue at the beginning of the year and then they get in that environment and they stabilize, and their life stabilizes, and they can go back to a traditional school,” said Alexander.
The Mansfield City Schools district is responsible for funding teachers in core subjects, but the SIG grant allows for the learning center to bring in a consultant support staff, some of which are available 24-7. Alexander said the center has a social worker, drug and alcohol consultants, a special education teacher, and a male behavior intervention specialist supplied using grant funds.
“That doesn’t mean we will sustain those positions forever; they are hired strictly out of the grant,” said Alexander. “We utilize those folks to be extra persons to help the students. If kids get into trouble they have those people to lean on.”
The Learning Center has approximately 12 teachers on staff, including: one kindergarten through third grade teacher; one intervention specialist for grades fourth through sixth; one intervention specialist through grades seventh and eighth; one computer lab teacher; two English teachers; two Math teachers; two Science teachers; one Social Studies teacher; and one Physical Education teacher. In addition, there are consultants paid by the SIG grant for additional help. Alexander noted there are full-time teachers, and then there are teachers on a consultant contract who do not work a full 40 hours per week. She explained they are Highly Qualified Teachers in Ohio who come in as tutors and are paid using grant funding.
Students at the Learning Center may not thrive in a traditional school setting, but according to Alexander the key to their success at the center is relationship building.
“The students that go there are really drawn into that stability with the kinds of teachers we hire there, the kinds of people we hire for support staff and the extra tutors we have,” said Alexander. “If you walk in and see how these people all work together, it’s just the nicest staff. They really take care of the kids. If one of them is gone or someone’s amiss, the kids kind of fall apart. That’s their stability factor.”
Instruction at the Learning Center is individualized and small group oriented. With 29.1 percent of the student population with disabilities and on Individual Education Plans (IEPs), Alexander said many classes model their learning to reflect IEP accommodations. Teachers may modify their assignments per student or give a student extra time to complete an assignment, and may even create a more creative way for a student to express how they understand the material. Students are also allowed extra learning time after school if needed.
According to Alexander, the relationships students have built with teachers and consultants at the Learning Center have diminished discipline issues, diminished the acts students may get into in an environment where there are more students, and has increased the graduation rate.
In the 2011-2012 school year the Mansfield Integrated Learning Center had a graduation rate of 25.7 percent. According to the most recent state report card for the Learning Center, in the 2012-2013 school year the graduation rate increased to 47.4 percent. The percent of students passing the state test was 46.5 percent compared to the district’s acheivement of 70.6 percent of students passing the state test. The state average is 81.3 percent.
“Increasing the number of kids has also increased the graduation rate,” said Alexander. “Whatever we’re doing over there is working or the state would not be giving us more money, or even allowing us to continue.”
“The students that go there are really drawn into that stability with the kinds of teachers we hire there, the kinds of people we hire for support staff and the extra tutors we have,” said Betsy Alexander.
