Homewood-Flossmoor High School is establishing a new program to give struggling students a chance to study on campus and at the same time save District 233 more than $300,000 in annual costs.
Viking Learning Academy is geared to students who struggle with social-emotional issues, truancy or have fallen behind in their credit requirements. In previous years, these students would be served by Ombudsman, an alternative school that specializes in providing support for students who struggle with academic and minor behavioral concerns.
H-F still plans to use the Ombudsman service, but Superintendent Scott Wakeley told the board’s Planning Committee that H-F’s team expects to send about a dozen students this year, rather than the 30 or 40 in previous years.
The plan was shared at the committee’s Aug. 11 meeting. By sending fewer students to Ombudsman, H-F is expected to save more than $250,000 in transportation costs, and approximately $69,500 in payment to Ombudsman.
Jen Rudan, director of student support at H-F, told committee members about 30 students will get services on-campus through the Viking Learning Academy. The program should offer them better ways to meet high school graduation requirements while reducing the district’s expenses with Ombudsman.
In a report to the committee, Rudan said Viking Learning Academy will serve a very select group of students who are lacking in credits, have a history of school avoidance or have known life events that require a shortened schedule.
Students will attend school Monday through Friday on either a three-hour morning or afternoon schedule, completing work in a self-paced online curriculum. A teacher and an instructional assistant will be assigned to the group, and students will meet with a social worker twice a week.
The goal is to give students access to services that will help them reintegrate to Homewood-Flossmoor’s regular school setting, said Associate Principal Shannon Swilley who will oversee the program.
H-F plans “to ensure that we’re bringing students back under our roof so that they understand they are part of our community, despite whatever struggles they may have,” Swilley said. “Connectedness is a great indicator of how well students can meet success, so we want to do those things” that will move them into the mainstream, he explained.
Costs the first two years of the program will be financed with a $323,500 Community Partnership Grant funded through the Illinois State Board of Education using federal funding provided through the pandemic support American Rescue Plan—Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER).
The academy begins this school year. Board member Michelle Hoereth said she recognizes this as a pilot program and that over the next two years administrators “will tweak and learn” what’s needed. She said she looks forward to a progress report “of what the trends look like,” and student profiles for those in the program and for those recommended for the program in the future.