School district reserves three seats at Christamore

The Fairfield Community School District Board of Directors approved a contract for services with Christamore Family Treatment Center in Mount Pleasant during its meeting Monday.

Christamore is an alternative placement for middle school and high school students, which provides treatment services for at-risk adolescents and their families. The contract will reserve three slots for the district for the 2011-2012 school year.

?More than anything, this is for Christamore?s peace of mind budgeting,? said superintendent Art Sathoff. ?I?m told historically we?re always using five or six [slots], and this makes sure we have three for our very neediest.?

?We have [students] in there now that will definitely be going back, and I?d be very surprised if there were only three,? he added.

The contract will be $334.32 per day for three seats, and the district will pay $111.44 per day for each additional student enrolled. The Fairfield school district will provide transportation to and from Christamore.

Sathoff also informed the board about the possibility of bringing a Christamore facility to Fairfield due to space limitations in Mount Pleasant.

Sathoff said a facility right in Fairfield would save the school district transportation costs, but it would only be practical with at least 12 full-time students. If the idea eventually came to fruition, Christamore would staff the facility and the school district would be in charge of the educational component.

The former Lincoln Elementary School building would be a likely location for such a facility, which Sathoff said is big enough to be used for several purposes, including the established opportunity center.

?There?s enough room in the building even if the career academy conversations go forward,? he said. ?The nice thing about that building is there are so many exterior entrances and exits. You really could have several different uses.?