The Catalina Foothills Alternative School has moved onto the campus of Catalina Foothills High School after spending more than a decade at an obscure location on Sabino Canyon Road.
The students from the Alternative School, also known as Falcon Rock, will take their classes at the high school while the district looks to revamp its alternative-education program.
District officials said they are discussing the district's alternative-education program, but they don't know whether the Alternative School will continue to operate on the high school campus beyond this year.
"We're exploring a number of different plans, but there's nothing firm that I can talk about," Associate Superintendent Terry Downey said.
The district decided to move the school because the students would have more resources on the larger campus, and the program could reach out to younger students more effectively, Downey said.
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"We actually believed they would benefit by being part of a high school campus," she said.
The low number of students attending the program contributed to the decision to move as well, said Loren Rathert, Catalina Foothills High School's principal. "It occurred to me — when you have too few kids in a program off campus, you run the risk of depriving them of what goes on in the community," Rathert said.
Teachers can feel isolated from the rest of the district, he said. The program has about 10 students and one teacher.
About seven students were recruited for the program before it moved, teacher William R. Waletitsch said.
"There's still a chance for them to be in the program," Waletitsch said.
The Alternative School, which opened in 1993, was located near Sabino Canyon and Snyder roads. The program is now operating in a classroom in one of the high school's buildings.
The school district still owns the property on Sabino Canyon Road, Waletitsch said.
The school serves as a dropout-prevention program that allows upperclassmen to earn their class credits at an accelerated pace, he said. The curriculum combines self-paced classes with character development and self-management skills.
"Historically, the students I've had have been a minimum of one semester behind," said Waletitsch, who has been with the program since its inception.
The program provides an alternative to students who might struggle in a regular high school setting.
"A lot of times in a large high school, they get lost," he said. "Everybody is so busy. Sometimes kids struggle with that."
Recognizing struggling students in the early stages will be the key to developing an effective alternative-education program, he said.
Developing an intervention system will be one of the school's top long-term priorities, Rathert said.
Rathert and Waletitsch will work with district officials to define what's needed for an effective program, Rathert said.
"I don't know what the district wants to see happen with alternative education," he said.
In the meantime, school officials will do their best to cater to the students who are enrolled in the program this year, he said.
"The most important short-term goal is that we're successful with the nine to 11 kids who were in the program last year and are in it this year," he said. "If you moved the program back on campus, you don't eliminate the need."
