How educational options can stretch budgets; through fiscal and programmatic resource sharing, alternative schools can stretch a district's budget.

Resource sharing is a smart way to stretch shrinking district budgets, and alternative education schools provide many ways to share resources. Often a district's alternative education program includes continuation, adult education and independent study schools. These programs, while schools in their own rights, differ substantially from traditional K-12 schools in several ways.

First, they educate the most difficult to serve students. Second, their patterns for providing educational services incorporate greater variety with differences in duration and methodology. Third, different state statutes apply to them.

All too often the combination of unique student clientele, along with the programmatic differences, creates image problems for alternative education schools. District staff may, at best, view alternative education schools as a necessary evil. At worst, however, staff may also see alternative education schools as a local version of Devil's Island.

But in spite of their uphill public relations battle, alternative education schools are valuable assets to school districts as a whole. Through fiscal and programmatic resource sharing, alternative schools can help stretch a district's budget. The experiences in Saddleback Valley Unified School District provide examples.

Fiscal benefits alternative programs bring to school districts

The first way that alternative programs bring fiscal benefits to school districts is direct and obvious. Alternative schools keep more students in school. School attendance means ADA and ADA means money.

Continuation high schools help keep those students who have fewer high school credits or who have behavior issues in school progressing toward a diploma. Independent study schools help keep students who are ill, traveling, school phobic or in need of an accelerated academic program in school. Adult education programs help keep more students in school by allowing credit-deficient students to catch up on classes or to give them hope for a diploma beyond the portal of their 18th birthday.

The second fiscal benefit that alternative programs bring is less direct. Students in alternative schools often qualify as educationally and/or economically disadvantaged. Identifying those students and incorporating data about their plight into a variety of grants can lead to supplemental finding. District grant writers and administrators of special district programs should scrutinize the demographics of students in the alternative programs to find qualifying students and uncover useful statistics.

Other fiscal benefits come from the creative blending of the resources of the alternative programs. As long as each of the alternative programs is established as a separate school, it is eligible for its own ADA funding. Students who attend either a continuation high school or an independent study high school may concurrently attend classes in an adult education program. State funding is concurrently generated for those students' time in both programs.

Multiple funding streams

The multiple funding streams give each of the alternative schools a pool of money to provide resources. Each of the alternative schools is also eligible for such funding as state block grants, Carl Perkins, the Workforce Investment Act, Partnership Academies and more. After paying for salaries and direct and indirect instructional costs, other alternative school purchases can be made on items that can be shared with not only the other alternative schools but also other district schools.

Here are some examples of alternative education money in the Saddleback Valley District that has provided shared benefits.

* Money budgeted in the Silverado (continuation) High School Business Academy has been used in combination with money from the Adult Education CalWorks program to purchase enough software and hardware to create and maintain high quality computer labs. Students from Silverado High School, Adult Education, Mira Monte Independent Study High School and other district high schools (who are enrolled in adult education classes) enjoy the benefits of these labs. School district personnel can also receive training at the labs.

* Staff development events, paid for by one of the alternative schools, have been attended by staff from the other alternative schools and from the traditional schools -- both secondary and elementary.

* The adult education specialized funding of the Community Based English Tutoring program has provided money to teach English to adults, with the ultimate goal of having those adults in turn help develop English skills in the community's school-age children. The district at large benefits from this adult education program in two ways.

First, the adult learners help bolster the language skills of school-age children served by district schools, with all costs paid for outside the general fund. Second, the instructional materials -- including books and computers -- purchased through this program to help the adults can also be used by the school-age children at district schools, again at no cost to the district's general fund.

* The adult education specialized funding of the CalWorks Program (a source of funds that provide vocational training to adults) has helped purchase facilities, equipment, instructional materials and instructional time. These can be used not only by community adults but also by students from all of the district high schools who enroll in Adult Education vocational classes. Some of the equipment and facilities paid for by the CalWorks program have been placed on the campuses of traditional secondary and elementary schools, allowing for a spillover use. This specialized funding and its purchases again are outside the district's general fund.

* The costs of developing a strong parent-district connection can be facilitated through adult education. The state funds parent education in adult education. A collaboration between adult education and other district schools and departments allows the costs to be covered outside the general fund, but the benefits of parent education accrue to the entire district. Examples of this approach in Saddleback Valley include the following:

Guidance specialists (counselors) from district schools prepare and present important parent information for one-session events, such as Preparing for College Night, Freshman Parent Night, Community College Night and College to Career Night. These sessions function as Adult Education parenting classes where staff time is paid for through Adult Education but the curriculum has district-wide usefulness.

District experts on special education topics, including psychologists and resource specialists, prepare and present parenting classes that cover topics such as ADD/ADHD, reading improvement and parenting children with special needs. Again, the stafftime costs are covered through adult education but the benefits are district-wide.

Programmatic benefits alternative education brings to school districts

Some of the fiscal benefits available through alternative education lead naturally to programmatic benefits. The sharing of staff development time is a prime example. In Saddleback Valley, online education is an alternative venue promoted in adult education. Adult education and Silverado High School instructors who are proficient at Web page set-up and online instruction have given presentations to both instructors from their own schools and to instructors from other district schools. The presenters' time is paid for through adult education.

Instructors from other district schools have taken the newly learned skills from these adult education-sponsored presentations and incorporated them into classrooms throughout the district. Thus, the alternative program funding of adult education has been a positive stimulus for the instructional programs at other district schools.

The fiscal benefits of the special funding sources in the alternative programs, such as CalWorks and other grants, have also brought programmatic benefits. In adult education, for example, high school age students from any of the district's high schools can concurrently attend classes in computer networking, computer software applications and business office technology through the professional certification programs. This extends the achievement level of high school students to a professional career level.

Additionally, because the credentialing requirements for adult education teachers and the part-time nature of the programs facilitate industry-connected instructors, high school students receive training that is both current and in tune with industry standards.

Other programmatic benefits occur because alternative schools allow students to temporarily get extra academic help. Students from the traditional high schools may transfer into the continuation school or independent study school to catch up on classes or accelerate academically. Later, they may return to their original school to complete their high school diploma program. Students from the traditional high schools may attend Adult Education classes to catch up or, at times, accelerate, while still remaining at their primary high school.

The alternative schools thus provide students with either a sanctioned academic detour, or a support to their high school studies. This not only benefits individual students, it allows the traditional high school programs to keep their instructional focus within a manageable range, without the resource drain required to provide an excess of remedial activities.

A valuable asset

Alternative education programs provide a place of academic respite for students, but they also offer opportunities for resource sharing that can bring both fiscal and programmatic benefits to the district as a whole. Resource sharing makes alternative education schools one of the most valuable assets of a school district. Management should take a closer look at this potential.

Linda A. Albers is dean of adult education for Saddleback Valley Unified School District.