School board looks at Christamore, KeBecca programs

The Fairfield school board Monday gave school district administrators the go ahead to recommend a Fairfield-based classroom and program for students with behavioral issues.

Superintendent Art Sathoff provided a written outline comparing two programs under review: Christamore and KeBecca.

The total expenditure for the Christamore services last year ? tuition plus transportation, including the bus overhead expenses ? was $166,480.

To set up a Christamore program in Fairfield, expenses are estimated at $188,220, or $21,740 more than tuition and transportation costs paid last year.

?Christamore will need to have 10 students in a class to break even financially. Our demand is not that high,? said Sathoff. ?We could take students from neighboring districts, and our district would take in tuition.?

Christamore serves students from grades 6-12. Students do not need an official special ed designation of Level 3 behavioral disorder.

Having a local program eliminates the time and costs spent on transportation.

?Putting all our students with behavioral problems together each day for a long bus ride isn?t ideal,? said Sathoff. ?But I went into this telling you we wouldn?t do this unless it makes economic sense. The main benefit would be more flexibility in serving our own students.?

The second program Sathoff provided information about, as an alternative to Christamore is KeBecca, based in Cedar Rapids. The Fairfield school district has not used its services previously.

KeBecca, like Christamore, would provide instructors. Christamore, part of the Young House Family Services, provides an assistant director, a teacher and two associates. KeBecca includes a teacher, a certified Instructional Strategist II and two full-time-equivalent associates, one of whom is a trained interventionist.

KeBecca differs from Christamore in that KeBecca provides the academic curriculum, which is aligned with Iowa Core Standards. Its behavior program is based on Boys? Town. One room/program would serve seven students, versus Christamore?s 10 students. The Fairfield district would have to choose students for the KeBecca program from four consecutive grade levels, such as grades 5-8 or 9-12 and only enroll students identified with a Level 3 behavioral disorder.

The estimated total cost of the KeBecca program for a year in Fairfield would be $156,348. With enrollment in KeBecca limited to Level 3 BD, four consecutive grade levels and seven slots versus 10, available slots for students in neighboring districts could be fewer.

The Lincoln school building could be used. Closed as an elementary school after the 2009-2010 school year. Fairfield?s alternative high school, The Opportunity Center serving 20-25 students, moved to Lincoln last year from its former location at the senior citizen?s center.

With either Christamore or KeBecca, the district would need to renovate a space at the school to be used as a time-out, calm down, de-escalating room for a student out of control.

The estimated costs of either program presented Monday do not include building renovations, only what the district would need to pay for the programs.

Sathoff asked board members to choose among three options:

? Don?t change anything; continue to transport students to programs.

? Have administrators continue researching programs and make a recommendation to the board about which program to have in Fairfield.

? Have representatives from the programs come and give presentations to the school board and board members decide which program to establish in Fairfield.

?Dollar-wise, Christamore looks better, but I?d want a recommendation from school administrators,? said board member Jeri Kunkle.

Basically dividing each programs? overall estimated costs to operate in Fairfield by the number of pupils it could serve, shows Christamore to be the more cost efficient program. For Christamore, $188,220 divided by a maximum of 10 students, equals an $18,822 annual cost per student. For KeBecca, $156,348 divided by a maximum of seven pupils, equals a $22,355 annual cost per student.

Board member Amy Miller asked if students return ? and how difficult is a transition back into the Fairfield school system after attending away programs.

?Students have returned from Christamore to our schools, and done well,? said Fairfield High School Principal Aaron Becker. ?We?ve had good relations with Christamore, and they?ve been very responsive.?

Sathoff pointed out if the district goes with KeBecca which limits service to four consecutive grade levels, the district might still need to send a student not in those grade levels to a program outside of Fairfield.

?Christamore seems to fit a need where we?d have more students,? said board member Bob Waugh. ?And we have a facility that can be adapted for the program.?

Jerry Nelson, board member, asked if KeBecca requires more from the school district.

?No, it serves a narrower population but actually requires less input from us,? said Sathoff. ?I?ve been really impressed with KeBecca, but I have no complaints about Christamore.?

Sathoff would like to implement one of these programs in Fairfield beginning in August. Administrators will bring a recommendation to the board in the next few months.

Fairfield Community School District has been using Christamore services in Mount Pleasant for some years. Last school year, five students were bused daily to attend classes in the Christamore program.

One Fairfield student last year attended Gateway in Ottumwa, a more intense program than Christamore. Sathoff said this year?s number of students attending the programs is similar.

?We have two seventh graders and two 11th grade students attending Christamore,? he said. ?We have one student who will transition back to Fairfield from Gateway at spring semester.?

In the 2010-2011 school year, Fairfield school district paid $13,425 in tuition for the one Gateway student and $116,706 in tuition for the five students attending Christamore. Transportation costs, including overhead, were $49,774 for a daily bus to and from Mount Pleasant; figuring only bus and driver expenses without overhead, costs were $26,660. Driving a Suburban vehicle with one student to Ottumwa last year cost the district $20,424.