Budget cuts threaten alternative classroom

High school was just too much for 15-year-old Tyler Kozuboski of Lindenhurst.

His classes were too crowded, the pace was faster than he could handle and his teachers were too busy with other students to help him, he said. He was flunking and considered dropping out.

"I used to ask questions, but I really couldn't get the answers," Kozuboski said.

That changed when he enrolled in Lindenhurst's Alternative Learning Center, a 26-year-old program meant to help at-risk high-schoolers graduate.

The 10th-grader went from grades in the 50s and 60s to acing even tough classes. His marks are now in the 90s.

But the ALC -- which has served hundreds of students since its inception -- could soon be cut because of budget constraints as Lindenhurst, like so many districts across Long Island, struggles to balance its budget.

The district lost $6.5 million in state aid in the last two years, Superintendent Richard Nathan said.

Lindenhurst, which is proposing a $140,152,477 budget, is asking residents to vote for a 6.89 percent education tax-rate increase.

If voters reject the proposal May 17, the district could cut many programs, including the ALC and the elementary gifted and talented, dance, sixth-grade world languages and JROTC programs. Art, English, social studies, technology, music, home economics electives, the athletics program and full-day kindergarten are also in danger.

"Everything is back on the table," Nathan said.

Diana Casale, one of about 10 teachers who spend at least part of their day working in the ALC, worries that without it students will have one less path to graduation.

Not necessarily, says Nathan. "I believe that the main thing that the program provides is adult mentors, adult support and follow-up," he said. "These are things that I am convinced that all teachers should be doing."

Christopher Matthews said that wasn't his experience. The 11th-grader said he struggled in larger classrooms, where teachers focused on high-achieving students, making it hard for him to learn.

"You have to be built for that type of environment in order to do it," he said. "I just wasn't like that."

Frustrated, the 16-year-old asked his mother to help him make the switch to the ALC in the middle of his freshman year.

"I was doing so much better," he said of his first few weeks in the program. "I wanted to go to school. I'd wake up every morning and make sure I was there on time."

Matthews said his success -- he went from nearly failing to an 87 average -- also improved his relationship with his mother, who has allowed him more freedom now that he's so focused on his studies.

"She sees that I'm more responsible," Matthews said.

The center, located in the high school, offers its estimated 34 students a five-hour school day -- it eliminates study hall, lunch and electives -- in an effort to encourage participants to stay.

Casale said of the 43 high school seniors enrolled in the program since 2007-08, 40 have graduated.

Students take the same courses as those offered in the main high school, but the class sizes are far smaller; the program currently serves a maximum of 15 students per grade.

Danielle Ramirez, 21, of Lindenhurst, graduated from the ALC in 2007 and is now finishing her associate degree at Suffolk Community College.

Bullied for years, Ramirez said that by the time she reached ninth grade, she dreaded school.

"As I went through middle school, it got progressively worse," she said.

Separated from her tormentors and bolstered by alert teachers and supportive peers, she thrived.

Ramirez said her ALC teachers were also more aware and accommodating of her Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

"They disciplined you in a different way," she said. "They didn't yell at you or belittle you in front of your classmates. I got so much confidence from school."