"The highs and lows of education starts with you the leaders," said Harry Huber as he spoke to Greene County School Administrators at the Greene County Grant and Professional Development Consortium's second annual dinner and board meeting Tuesday night at Saron Church in Linton.

Greene County school superintendents, principals, and school board members were given an update on grants that were awarded during the 2007-08 school year by grant consultants Sophie Haywood and Shirley Byrer.

Bloomfield Superintendent Dan Sichting and White River Valley Superintendent Layton Wall spoke on the vision for alternative education.

Haywood and Byrer reported that $897,741 was received in grant awards during the 2007-08 school year and a total of $2.1 million has been received since the Consortium's beginning.

The grants included a Greene County Math Advancement Partnership Project in the amount of $532,741. The grant will provide a math coach for the county and one lead math teacher for every school in the county. Eighty teachers in grades K-6 are invited to a two-day workshop at Indiana University.

Other grants are a Workforce Development Grant in the amount of $90,000 for computers, supplies and professional development for Project Lead the Way; an Office of Rural Community Affairs Grant in the amount of $150,000, and a Service Leaning Grant for $150,000.

Also pending are federal and state grants to reduce alcohol abuse, for alternative education, and for Safe Schools and Healthy Students Grant.

Haywood and Byrer also reported on the grant for $350,000 for Project Lead The Way, which introduces engineering classes to high school students. A grant also provides money for Gateway, a program that introduces engineering to junior high students.

Haywood and Byrer, along with Sichting and Wall, presented their vision of an alternative education program for Greene County students.

At the present time, there is a one-half day, long term alternative program, and Open Arms has a program for high school dropouts who want to earn a diploma. However, space is very limited and there is no program for students who have been suspended for a short time.

In his vision for an alternative school and its need, Sichting noted that circumstances are much different today than they were a few years ago.

To explain the differences today, he related a story about being suspended from school when he was a student. He said he looked forward to having a day off and planned on loafing and having a good time. However, his dad had a different idea and made him work on a hog farm the entire day of his suspension.

Sichting went on to say that today both parents usually have to work, so there is no one home to see that the student is kept at home, off the streets and busy while suspended.

"I started thinking what we could do to make this situation better," Sichting said. "I even talked to some judges to see if they would become involved in school suspension."

He said it finally came to him that maybe it could be done by using the buildings that Eastern Greene School District used temporarily when they were building a new high school.

Wall at WRV was consulted, and he and his school board agreed that the buildings could be placed on WRV's campus.

The reason a junior high suspension program is needed, according to Sichting, is that kids in Greene County need the best advantages that can be had. To succeed in the world today, he explained, a student needs at least an associate's degree and should go on to pursue a bachelor's degree.

"These (students who get in trouble and are suspended) are the kids we should invest in," Sichting explained. "The advantages far outweigh the costs."

Sichting added that Greene and Sullivan counties are the only counties in the state that do not have a suspension program.

"Thank you administrators for listening," Sichting said as he ended. "Go back to your buildings and decide if you want to participate. We are stronger together than separately."

While showing architectural drawings of the planned project, Wall reported what the costs would be for placing the buildings on WRV's campus and operating expenses.

He said the initial cost for each school, except Eastern Greene that donated the buildings, would be $18,000. Operating expenses each year including a counselor, teacher, paraprofessional, computers, etc., would amount to $22,000 a year for each school.

MSD of Shakamak Superintendent CG Epple noted that if strictly thinking of dollars and cents the alternative school would more than pay off if it saved two kids.

"Suspensions are a drain on society," Epple added.

The Greene County Grant and Professional Development Consortium is a partnership among the five Greene County School Corporations and CAPE. The goal of the Consortium is to develop programs to produce funding for both new and established initiations that will benefit all children of Greene County.

Huber is director of CAPE.