Some Cherry Hill parents remain uneasy about moving Alternative High School to wing at East.

Karen Bell said Cherry Hill East High School students face an unfortunate experience at the start of every school year.

"We all know there is overcrowding in East," Bell said during a March 26 Cherry Hill school board meeting, commenting on plans to move the district's Alternative High School to a wing of East.

"It is difficult to walk in the hallways. A lot of the children, my kids included, have not had seats for long periods of time at the beginning of the year," she said.

Others, including parents, students and the editorial board of eastside-online.org – Cherry Hill East's school newspaper  –  shared some of Bell's sentiment about this fall's move of the Alternative High School from the Lewis Administration Building. The alternative school now has 38 students.

In an April 11 article on its website the Eastside editorial board also noted that with half of the B-wing slated for Alternative High School classes, "teachers will not be able to decorate their classrooms and make them their own 'home' within East."

During a presentation to the school board, Lauren Giordano, the Alternative High School's principal, and Caitlin Mallory, the district's director of special education, said Alternative High School students are those who are either experiencing trauma, have a transient school history, have difficulties managing their emotions or those who need academic recovery and acceleration.

Giordano and Mallory also said the space the Alternative High School students utilize will be called Coles Alternative High School. Any potential overcrowding was not mentioned in their presentation.

Parents have raised other concerns about the relocation in interviews with 70and73.com and on social media.

Jamie Willis, who said he is the father of a 14-year-old and 16-year-old attending Cherry Hill High School East and has taught at-risk youth, said in an interview that he sides with opponents of the relocation.

"No one is looking at the side of the (East) students, who are going to be at a disadvantage now," he said.

During the school board meeting, Mallory said steps would be taken to reduce the various stigmas and misunderstandings members of the community may have, including establishing an in-house committee among district case managers, social workers and building administrators to monitor the relocation.

Cherry Hill High School East parents like Laurie Neary, who said she is the mother of a special needs child, offered a related suggestion during the school board meeting.

"Please get in there and speak with students and staff at East (High School) and at Alternative (High School) and have those roundtables with the community," she said.

Noting that she has seen social media posts from adults where Alternative High School students are described as prison inmates, Neary said: "That perception has to be changed, or day one (of the relocation) scares me. I do not want those kids to feel and see what I have seen from the adults."

Giordano and Mallory said during the school board meeting that they have sought and will continue to seek input from Alternative High School students and parents about making the relocation as smooth as possible. Giordano and Malloy also indicated that the current Alternative High School's academic core staff — two full-time certified mental health clinicians, a full-time counselor, a secretary and a principal — would be retained.

Cherry Hill parent Anne Einhorn was at the school board meeting where Giordano and Mallory made their presentation. Reached by 70and73.com after the school board meeting, she noted that there was no mention of the Alternative High School nurse.

"I am concerned about the kids," Einhorn said. "Not all kids cope with high school as it is without emotional and social (issues)."  

Cherry Hill Special Education PTA President Jennifer Naddeo told 70and73.com that the findings of a previously published study by Hanover Research titled "Alternative Education Models and Strategies" indicate that the relocation "has limited benefits and is not best practice."

She disagreed with some of Mallory and Giordano's comments, saying "the district professes the importance of student voice; however, no students were included in these conversations."

Wills, the parent of the two East students, said he spent his pre-high school years living next to drug dealers in Browns Mills. He said that time led him to desire a better educational experience for his children.

He said he works three jobs, and his wife works one job, so their four children — there are two more children at home who are not yet high school age — can attend Cherry Hill East.

He predicted the relocation would also hurt Cherry Hill East students academically.

Paul Caracciolo, a former Cherry Hill resident who now lives in Philadelphia, told 70and73.com after the school board meeting he needed more information before deciding how he felt about the relocation.

"My initial thought is that this move could be wonderful for students of the Alternative High School — whose parents pay the same taxes as the other East students' parents — in that they would gain access to East's enriching electives and extracurricular programs," he said.

"On the other hand, I do not know anything about the learning profiles, behavioral challenges and special needs of students at the Alternative High School. Do those components hold the potential to have a substantial negative impact on other students of the high school?"

During the school board meeting, Superintendent Kwame Morton said alternative school students would add value to Cherry Hill High School East. 

"For those who have had an opportunity to visit the Alternative High School within the last several years, you will know that that is one of the shining stars of all programs that we have within this district," he said.

"If you have been within… the administrative building during the day, you have never even noticed that the children in the building here because of the way that they conduct themselves, because of the systems that have been built, because of the supports that have been put in place and because of the leadership that (Alternative High School Principal Giordano) has displayed."

School board members Miriam Stern and Gina Winters made comments during the school board meeting that indicated they supported Morton's decision. During the same meeting, school board member Joel Mayer said his understanding of the relocation was that Alternative High School students "have the comfort of what they are used to in terms of their daily experience in the school, but they also have expanded opportunities to explore new endeavors… that they just cannot do in the (Lewis Administration Building)."

In response, Giordano indicated that, among students, "better lunch options and more people to play basketball with were two of the top (reasons)" for the relocation of Alternative High School. Mallory acknowledged that although such a relocation has been discussed many times in the past past 10 years, the district only now currently has "the right leadership, staff and group of students to endure a transition like this."

A 70and73.com reporter unsuccessfully attempted to interview Mallory and Giordano after the school board meeting. The reporter's questions went unanswered.

Barbara Wilson, the school district's public information officer, told the reporter in an email that "the Cherry Hill school district is excited about the expanded opportunities our Alternative High School program students will have when the program relocates to its own section of Cherry Hill High School East. The administrative team has been discussing the move with students and staff."

Wilson also said additional details regarding the relocation are forthcoming.