Des Moines Public Schools considers closing flagship alternative school as students choose online options

Des Moines Public Schools is considering changes to how it serves students enrolled in the district's alternative school programs. 

That could mean scaling back or even closing Scavo, the district's flagship alternative school.

Scavo's enrollment has dropped in recent years as more students take online courses and participate in school-based credit recovery programs. Meanwhile, the school's graduation rate dropped to a meager 27.6% in 2018, the most recent year for which data is available. 

No decision has been made to close Scavo, but the idea is on the table, Des Moines Superintendent Thomas Ahart told the Register.  

"The virtual content that we've created over the last three years ... allows us a lot more ability to serve students in non-traditional ways," he said. 

Des Moines has launched Flex Academy programs in each of its five comprehensive high schools with the goal of helping students recover missed credits and graduate on time. 

Virtual Campus — once a collection of generic off-the-shelf courses — has been overhauled to align with the curriculum taught in Des Moines classroom. 

And Options Academy, the district's newest alternative program, opened this fall. It's designed to help students returning to school and those behind in credits earn their diplomas through a combination of classwork and high school equivalency exams. 

"A lot of the kids already at Scavo are looking at moving into these programs," Des Moines school board member Kalyn Cody said. "Enrollment (at Scavo) has steadily been decreasing in recent years and it's going to take another hit next year."

With more options available and with "fewer and fewer students being referred to Scavo," it's time for the district to reconsider its approach to alternative education, Ahart said. 

Enrollment drops at Scavo

Des Moines' alternative school program began in 1968 when the Greater Des Moines Education Center opened on Forest Avenue. 

A second alternative school opened on the south side in 1972. That facility was renamed in 1995 for former Principal Vincent C. Scavo, according to an article published by Des Moines Public Schools.

Scavo moved a few times before landing in its current home on the fourth floor of downtown's Central Campus building in 2015, after a $7.7 million renovation. 

A week before Scavo opened, Principal Rich Blonigan told the Register that Scavo would be a "one-stop shop" for students, with easy access to Central Campus resources including career readiness classes, a food pantry and an on-site health clinic.

But, since then, enrollment has dropped to 265 students enrolled there this year from 459 students in 2015-16.

Meanwhile, participation in Flex Academies has grown. They are 993 students enrolled this year. Another 380 students take classes through Virtual Campus, and the Options Academy currently has 140 students with another 40 to 50 students on a wait list.

Enrollment in all three programs could increase during second semester as more students look for ways to make up classes they missed during the first half of the school year. 

"We anticipate that many of the students served by Scavo are going to be served by these options," Ahart said.

Moving from bricks-and-mortar programs

Some school districts are moving away from separate alternative school buildings and bringing students back into traditional high schools, said Kenneth Hayes, coordinator of the principalship program at UNI's College of Education. 

"You're starting to hear more and more talk about whether these separate alternative schools are successful," he said.

Iowa’s high school graduation rate hit an all-time high of 91.4% in 2018, according to data from the Iowa Department of Education. The overall graduation rate at Des Moines Public Schools was 80.8% that year.

Meanwhile, Scavo's graduation rate dipped to 27.6%. Since moving downtown, its graduation rate has topped 30% twice, hitting a high of 36.3% in 2015-16. 

"If you only have a 20-to-30% graduation rate, it's just not working," Hayes said. "You're going to get the same if not better results by doing something different." 

Online programs might be a better fit for many students, he said. 

"For a lot of students the school day is a barrier due to their life circumstances," Ahart said. 

Job commitments can be a roadblock for students from low-income backgrounds, just as family obligations can be an impediment for students with children. 

When students struggle to get to traditional high school, it doesn't make sense to send them to another bricks-and-mortar school with the same hours, Ahart said. 

That's not to say Scavo doesn't have its upsides. 

"Some kids truly do better in a small learning environment, and bringing them back into the high schools can create issues for those children," Hayes said.

Scavo provides more one-on-one support and a setting that can benefit some students, Ahart said. 

"The risk is the loss of those small ratios that come with alternative school programs," Hayes said. "Teachers who notice when those kids are not in school and can immediately follow up." 

Rapid recovery key to getting kids on track

One of the keys to getting struggling students back on track is the rapid recovery of lost credits. 

Traditionally, students who failed a class would be forced to retake the entire class to earn credit. But that has changed with the introduction of standards-based grading, which the district began implementing seven years ago. 

Now, students who fail a class or drop out midway through a semester can demonstrate the lessons and skills they've already learned — standards — and focus on problem areas, essentially earning credit for the portion of the class they've mastered rather than retaking the entire course. 

Scavo isn't designed to help students quickly make up credits, Ahart said. Flex Academies, on the other hand, assigns an advisory teacher to students to personally track their credits, progress and post-secondary goals. 

Students are taught in a variety of ways so they can pick from the learning styles that best fit their needs. This includes online and in-class instruction, project-based work, group projects and individual tutoring. 

And with the Flex program available in each high school, students can float back and forth between Flex classes and traditional high school classes. 

"Some are spending virtually their entire day there, and some just one class or just two classes," Ahart said. "It just provides a lot more flexibility." 

As does Virtual Campus. 

Des Moines educators rewrote the online curriculum several years ago to match the standards-based model use in classrooms.

Much like the Flex Academies, students can pick up where they left off by demonstrating the lessons and skills they've already learned. 

"And with Virtual Campus they can access their content whenever and wherever," Ahart said. 

Where does it stand now? 

The Des Moines school board recently got its first look at the changes that might be coming to the district's alternative programs. 

"The discussion was really about how to best serve students in these populations," Cody said. "This was kind of a first dip in the pool to see what they are thinking."

That could mean closing Scavo as soon as next fall, board members and Ahart acknowledged. 

"I don't think there are any predetermined decisions," board member Rob Barron said. "The district has to have the conversation of where are we right now and what are our needs." 

Closing Scavo would require public input and a vote by the board, Barron said. 

"It's delicate," he said. "Any time a district talks about ending any program there's a lot that goes with that."

District officials expect to bring the issue back to the school board in the early part of this year with the goal of having changes in place by next fall. 

Editor-at-large Charles Flesher covers education for the Register. Reach him at cflesher@registermedia.com.