Nick Bond didn't want to go to any school, let alone an alternative school. So, when it came time to start school at Choctaw Ridge Academy in Doylestown, he didn't go. He locked himself in his bedroom.

His parents agreed to let some of the students come over one morning to try to persuade him to go.

He said, "The only way I could communicate with them was by stomping my feet."

The students ultimately convinced Bond to come out of his room and go to school, but they didn't convince him to talk to them. He followed along with his head down, not making eye contact.

"As soon as I attended school, I didn't want to leave," Bond told the Central Bucks school board. "It made me better."

Bond graduated from Choctaw Ridge Academy in 2008, and is currently attending classes at Bucks County Community College.

Five other graduates of Choctaw Ridge Academy and the parents of several others shared similar stories Tuesday night. Some said they or their children might not have finished high school if they hadn't gone to Choctaw, and now they're working and going to college. They said Choctaw helped them learn more than academics - it helped them learn about life and find a purpose.

Now their much loved school is at risk of closing because it can't afford to pay its September rent, Choctaw President Pete Stollery told the Central Bucks school board. Stollery asked the district to consider agreeing to a contract under which it would promise to send 12 students to Choctaw each year.

Central Bucks Superintendent N. Robert Laws said he didn't think the school district could do it, and the school district took no action to guarantee that it would send 12 students to Choctaw.

"I wouldn't want to fill a slot just because we had it, and I wouldn't want to leave a slot empty," Laws said.

"I think we have to be cautious about guaranteeing positions."

Laws and school board President Stephen Corr said they appreciate the work Choctaw does, but they couldn't commit to sending a set number of students to Choctaw.

Central Bucks sends troubled students to eight different alternative schools in the area, including Choctaw. It has contracts with all of the schools that establish the amount of tuition Central Bucks will pay per student.

The only school that has a contract specifying a number of students is the Lakeside School in Horsham; it gets 10 each year. Dale Scafuro, the Central Bucks director of student services, said the district entered into the contract because Lakeside draws students from a significant number of area school districts and wouldn't save space for Central Bucks students otherwise.

Central Bucks sent seven students to Choctaw last year, and had plans to send three this year, Scafuro said. If Choctaw closes, Scafuro said, school administrators will have to meet with the parents of those students and find another place for them.

Stollery said Choctaw is different from other alternative schools because it is also a therapeutic community.

The school gets students from Abington, Central Bucks, Council Rock, North Penn, Palisades, Pennridge and Quakertown school districts, according to its Web site. It practices self-responsibility training, using peer groups of students to set the rules and consequences for breaking them, settle disputes and create rewards.

The school refers to suspension as "exclusion" from the group so the students feel like they're losing something when they are suspended from school, Stollery said. School director Matthew Shane said the name works, and he's received several calls from suspended students asking to be allowed back in school.

Choctaw also employs former students as staff, so they can relate to the students and be role models for them.

Stollery said he thinks his school is creating a "national model for how to manage disruptive students."

Jordan Yeager, the attorney for Choctaw, said he is holding out hope that Central Bucks officials will "come around."

"Without a firm commitment from the school district, they can't continue. It takes a certain amount of space to be able to operate a school like this. They simply can't afford to do it."

Christina Kristofic can be reached at 215-345-3079 or ckristofic@phillyBurbs.com.
August 26, 2009