The institution of an in-house alternative learning program was finalized Wednesday night, when the Sumner school board signed the lease on its headquarters.

Sumner School District will pay the City of Sumner $23,676 per year to occupy the former medical services building adjacent to the Sumner Pierce County Library. The district has negotiated a deal with the city that will allow for easy year-to-year renewal, according to Erin LaVerdiere, the district’s executive director of teaching and learning.

“The board discussed (at last month’s meeting) using the McAlder Elementary campus, but we decided it would be much more prudent to lease from the city,” LaVerdiere said. “The McAlder building needs much more work and is too big for the number of students in the alternative program.

“The building’s proximity to the library and the options for employment at businesses downtown also make it a better choice, I think.”

The city-leased building is fit to hold 50 students, approximately the same number of Sumner School District students enrolled in the White River Alternative Program.

The Sumner and Enumclaw school districts were both partners in WRAP, sending their non-traditional students to Buckley. But in March, the White River School District announced it would dissolve its outside partnerships in the alternative program, due to strains on the budget. Upperclassmen would be allowed to stay on and graduate as White River students, but no new outsiders would be able to enroll in CHOICE, Collins High School, or other WRAP subsidiaries.

LaVerdiere’s department was aware of the closure possibility beforehand; the district formed a committee to design an in-house alternative program in October.

Two full-time teachers have been hired to staff the program, headed by veteran alternative educator Gina Longland.

Classes will be available at both Sumner High and Bonney Lake High, and online classes are being contracted through OdysseyWare. OdysseyWare uses a dedicated teacher for each online course, and the district will use its on-site teachers as face-to-face educational support for students.

Perhaps the district’s greatest obstacle in instituting its first alternative program is how the transition has been received by families established in the WRAP program.

“We currently have 10 kids enrolled for our alternative program—which I think is a good start—and a few others are reticent as to what they’re going to do come fall,” LaVerdiere said. “I think we’ll see a resurgence of enrollment in August and September. The families that have students in WRAP are comfortable there. All their connections are there, students have friends there. So there’s some anger about the change, and some families are having a hard time with having to make the transition. We’re understanding of that, and ready to work with them.”

At least one former WRAP student has chosen to re-enroll at Bonney Lake High School rather than switch to a new alternative program.