Alternative school lease approved at former Easton Area Academy site

The Easton Area School Board approved a lease for a new alternative school at the former Easton Area Academy site.

The approval for Buxmont Academy came at the board meeting Tuesday, Sept. 21. You can watch the meeting on the school district’s YouTube channel.

The school district shut down its in-house alternative school at 2035 Edgewood Road in Palmer Township in 2019. Rather than re-start another in-house school, the administration recommended bringing in Buxmont Academy because it wouldn’t be subject to the same regulatory hurdles as Easton Area Academy.

The former alternative school ran under an Alternative Education for Disruptive Youth license, which made it subject to putative restrictions. Buxmont is run under a private academic license and delivers a “restorative, trauma responsive approach,” according to Easton Area School District Director of Student and Community Services Karen Trinkle.

The proposal was first introduced in June but finally approved this month.

Buxmont will accept children from across the region but the Easton Area School District will be guaranteed at least 25 slots. Buxmont will pay $100,000 a year to lease the building and will give the Easton Area School District a 20% discount on each child placed there. It’s a five-year lease with the $100,0000-a-year rate locked in for the first three years.

Buxmont also agreed to split the cost of fixing the broken chiller.

Admission to Buxmont is voluntary, where children could be mandated to attend the former Easton Area Academy. Buxmont’s restorative approach aims to get students back to their home schools as quickly as possible. It’s an intermediate step before sending a child to a compulsory alternative school.

Buxmont accepts children in grades 7 through 12. Students at Buxmont can participate in extracurricular activities in their home school districts. State rules forbade that of Easton Area Academy.

Easton Area Academy was founded in 2007 inside a former office building. It closed at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.

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Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com.