Both were started through the educational cooperative for the region's smaller districts that didn't have the resources to run their own alternative programs. However, the academy is talking to those districts about forming partnerships. Covington and Pendleton County Schools are joining the Phoenix program next year. Phoenix School, a more restrictive setting than the academy, works with special-education students with emotional or behavioral troubles in elementary, middle and high schools. Phoenix, housed in the Cold Spring Educational Facility, opened in fall 1998 with three students, but now has room for 32.
Students get group therapy and individual counseling, in addition to their academics.
Most classes have six to eight students, some as few as three. The Learning Academy opened four years ago in Newport with 30 middle and high school students from eight districts. Costs fluctuate from year to year. The academy works with students who have had behavioral, emotional or academic problems at their schools. The school is a good alternative to suspensions or expulsions, academy Director Demetria Choice said.