Springfield school board meetings usually end with these with words being uttered by Superintendent Jennifer Gill: "expelled with a program" or "expelled without a program."
Because expulsion hearings are done behind closed doors, these pronouncements are often shrouded in mystery. Why was the student kicked out of school? What does it mean for a youngster to be expelled, with or without a program? Is this the end of their academic career?
"One of the things I don't like about my job is when I read those off at the end of the board meeting," said Gill. "We say, 'One student at X school has been expelled through the end of the school year' – or whatever it might say. We always say either 'with a program' or 'without a program,'" Gill told Illinois Times. "And I hate saying 'without,' because that's never true. When we say 'without a program,' that means they're not going to go to one of our District 186 programs, but go to the NAACP (school) instead. So that's a pride point, because we don't ever let a child just go nowhere unless they choose to never go to school."
Youngsters are expelled for only the most egregious violations that put other students at risk, such as fighting, dealing drugs or carrying a weapon. But the district has a standing policy that no student is removed from a school without being placed in a classroom somewhere else.
And there is the rub. When the district's alternative programs are full, violent youth remain in their schools, sometimes after a brief suspension or other punishment. Teachers told IT they have been physically assaulted by pupils who remain in their classrooms because the district has nowhere to send them.
IT previously reported on more than 30 teachers and staff at Grant Middle School refusing to go to work May 10 in response to what they perceived as escalating violence ("Not ready to learn: District 186 teachers cite increase in violence and threats from students," May 16). The walkout happened despite a last-minute, in-person plea from Gill for educators at the west-side school to stay on the job.
In a June 13 interview with Illinois Times, Gill said she hopes to expand the district's two alternative schools: Springfield Learning Academy and Douglas School. Preliminary discussions have begun with the Springfield branch of the NAACP on ways its program, which is funded by District 186, can expand as well.
But Gill added she will not be hurried.
"I think a lot of this bubbled to the surface very quickly at the end of the (school) year because of some press, for lack of better words. And (there is) a lot of pressure on me to say, 'This is what we're doing right now,' Gill said. "You cannot just snap your fingers and say, 'This is ready.' You need to plan it. You need to make sure it grows in the right direction, in the right way. And that it serves our kids the best that it possibly can."
That said, some changes are imminent. Two new teachers have been hired to work at Springfield Learning Academy, which will enable the school to serve as many as 28 additional students. The school, which currently serves only high school students, will also begin teaching eighth graders.
Another option under consideration is moving Douglas School from its current location at 444 W. Reynolds St. to the building that formerly housed Lawrence Education Center. The property at 101 E. Laurel Ave. has been vacant since LEC relocated to White Oaks Mall in 2023 and is currently undergoing repairs.
"If we move to Lawrence, it'll give Douglas a little bit of padding to hire maybe a couple more teachers," Gill said. "We don't want that program to get so big that it's ineffective, though. The small setting is actually good. But having more space and having more opportunities for electives will be a game-changer for the program overall."
The three alternative programs affiliated with the district serve students with distinctly different needs.
Douglas School: Trauma-informed training
Most of the students attending Douglas entered the school because they were expelled from their regular middle school or high school, principal Kari Borders said. But many choose to continue to attend Douglas after their term of expulsion is complete.
Borders said some of the things that make Douglas a more appealing option is that class sizes are limited to 14 pupils, which means students receive more individualized attention.
Also, the teachers are trained in working with children with traumatic backgrounds. While the students were placed in the school because of serious misconduct, personal trauma can often be found in their lives, she said.
"We've had parents who have been incarcerated," Borders said. "That's impacted their child. (Some students have experienced) mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, gun violence, gang activity, alcohol, drug use. Every kid in our place has a story. And I think for a lot of people it would be a big shock to hear some of the things that our kids have gone through. And then we expect them to sit down and take an algebra class. We also have some that have been in the foster system for some time with multiple placements."
In addition to the teachers who have trauma-informed training, two social workers and a counselor are available. The counseling position, which is provided by Springfield Memorial Hospital, is not full time because of a shortage of qualified people.
According to Greatschools.org, the Douglas School student body is 72% male and 77% Black or mixed race. District 186 as a whole is 57% Black or mixed race. The school has 141 students altogether, 42 middle schoolers and 99 high school students.
Such statistics are not surprising to David Kho, an assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California. He has written extensively on alternative schools and says while they often are effective in providing learning opportunities, they also are disproportionately educational repositories for Black males.
"Black, Hispanic and low-income students tend to be overrepresented in alternative school sectors, and then there seems to be a pretty disproportionate number of male students in alternative schools as well," Kho said.
According to data District 186 provided to the Illinois State Board of Education, of 4,748 disciplinary actions taken by the district in 2023, 3,755 were actions taken against Black or mixed-race students. Among the 49 Springfield students expelled from school in 2023, 44 were Black or mixed race. That means nearly 80% of disciplinary actions and 90% of expulsions in the 2023 school year involved Black or mixed race students.
Springfield Learning Academy: Not just disciplinary issues
In contrast to Douglas, most students attending Springfield Learning Academy are not there for disciplinary reasons. Often they have had attendance issues, suffer from anxiety, have been bullied or are behind in earning enough credits to graduate on time, said principal Reiko Hurd.
The school operated by District 186 is located at White Oaks Mall and is partially funded by the Simon Youth Foundation, a charity operated by the mall's owner. The school has 69 students.
Unlike Douglas, SLA has only served high school students. But Superintendent Gill said the district plans to open an eighth grade at the school in the upcoming school year.
"The good thing about SLA is when the student is there, they would participate with their home high school in activities, such as sports, dances, proms, groups or clubs," Hurd said. "This is a school for students who need a smaller environment."
According to Greatschools.org, SLA is 66% Black or mixed race and 55% male.
Occasionally, an expelled student will be sent to SLA rather than Douglas.
"We have had kids in the past that have been expelled to us," Hurd said. "Maybe an isolated incident happened that was big enough to go through expulsion, but they would send them to SLA instead of Douglas."
SLA relocated from Lawrence Education Center at 101 E. Laurel St. to the mall for the 2023-24 school year. The new location allows students to work at stores and restaurants within the mall after they finish classes.
Hurd said this provides for a smoother transition for students entering the workforce upon graduation.
Adult education, or GED classes, operated by District 186 moved from the Laurel Street location to the mall at the same time as SLA. But that program is now being taken over by Lincoln Land Community College.
"The adult education program was partially funded by a state grant and subsidized by district money that otherwise would have gone to serve children in the district," Gill said.
"The grant didn't cover enough to handle the program. I was having to pay money out of the K-12 fund to pay for the adult program. And we had a duplicate program at Lincoln Land. So, we've merged.
"I hate the idea that people are saying we 'closed it.' We aren't going to serve students at SLA in that program so that we can have space for the middle school program. But we're merging our program with Lincoln Land and we're going to do everything in our power to help any student transition to that program that might need it," Gill said.
NAACP program: 702 days without a fight
A third alternative education program funded by District 186, Back-to-School/Stay-in-School, is operated by the Springfield branch of the NAACP, which is headquartered at 801 11th St. The program teaches 55 students.
Of the students attending the program, all but one, who is Hispanic, are Black or mixed race, coordinator Tim Allen said.
"These are kids who have been kicked out of school or kids who don't feel comfortable in a large environment," he said. "So, we mostly get the worst of the worst. When they come to us, we try to get them graduated. But our first goal is to get them back to their home school – work on their behavior, work on their character and work on the things that got them kicked out of school so they can get a high school diploma."
However, Allen said that although students officially graduate from whichever school sent them to the NAACP program, many students never return to a traditional classroom.
"Most kids who come to us don't want to go back to their main school," he said. "They just come to us and have classes. We have six or seven teachers that teach every course."
Although the main reasons students are expelled into the program is fighting, the NAACP school recently went 702 days without an altercation between students.
"We find ways to create a family environment where we hold them accountable for everything, and it's still a loving environment," Allen said. "We've had great success in the classroom, working with behaviors. We've had a kid leave our school and go to the U.S. Army. We had a kid leave our school to (go to) law school. We've had kids leave our school and do some great things."
The teachers and administrators at the school are all Black, which Teresa Haley said is a key to the program's success. Haley previously served as president of the NAACP Illinois State Conference as well as president of the civil rights group's Springfield branch. She operates a nonprofit, Visions 1908, that owns the building where both the NAACP's Springfield headquarters and alternative school are based.
"Race is a big part of it – understanding children and where they come from and being willing to give them an opportunity," Haley said. "All of our teachers and administrators are Black ... These kids come from our public school system, our high schools. They're put out of there predominantly by white teachers. And then when they come over here, they see people who look like them, people who remind them of their parents and grandparents. And we have that respect level because we demand it."
Allen said they would like to see the NAACP program expand to serve more students. There have been preliminary discussions with the school district but there is no definitive plan.
A disconnect on school discipline
Aaron Graves, president of the Springfield Education Association, the labor organization representing teachers, contends the district's administration has been dilatory in expanding its alternative schools, which has left teachers and students more vulnerable to violence.
"If you'd listen to people from a regular education (middle school) like Grant, Jefferson, Franklin and Washington and then you'd listen to the Douglas teachers, there is a disconnect where sometimes they feel pitted against each other. The people at Douglas feel like the kids are not being accepted back into the (regular) schools for success.
"And the people at the traditional schools feel the kids' behavior is egregious for far too long and that they are not being accepted into the alternative ed sites," he said. "So there is a struggle with each viewing it differently."
Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at [email protected].
