MOUNT VERNON – Along about 1992 Judge James Ronk of the Knox County Juvenile Court had seen enough
Three-day school suspensions were removing disruptive students from classrooms but there was no real consequence for the offenders.
“For many of them a three-day suspension was exactly what they wanted,” Ronk, now retired, said in a recent interview. “It was like a three-day pass to Cedar Point. They weren’t staying at home. They weren’t doing school work. Many were just wandering around town and some were getting into more trouble.”
The solution that emerged was creation of an alternative education center that within a few years in the early ‘90s became a model for the entire state. The focus was on juvenile accountability and renewed opportunity, not on punishment.
“My motivation was to eliminate bad behavior,” Ronk said, “while creating an opportunity for kids who, for one reason or another, couldn’t get along in a typical classroom.”
The judge is quick to emphasize that many others worked to make the center a success. Chief among them was Bruce Hawkins, then superintendent of the Knox Educational Service Center.
“Schools were facing a lot of absenteeism, truancy and suspensions, but we were trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” recalled Hawkins, now president of Mount Vernon City Council. “Judge Ronk didn’t want to reward kids for being absent by just letting them go home or wander around town. We called the Family First Council and Pam Pam got a lot of the community together at Mohican for a two-day conference. The key person was Judge Ronk.”
Participants included the county school districts, the Freedom Center, juvenile court staff, the probation department, New Hope schools, Knox County Job and Family Services, the health department and Moundbuilders.
What emerged were plans for an alternative center in the former Mount Vernon City Schools administration building on Chestnut Street, now the site of the Knox County VA and board of elections. Initially the center occupied one floor to house kids in junior and senior high. Eventually it would expand to other areas of the building.
“We got a state exploratory grant of $3,000 the first year and a similar grant the second year,” Hawkins said “The third year we got a $20,000 demonstration grant. We had a lot more kids in junior high and high school than elementary elementary students when we started, some with severe behavioral issues.”
Blaine Young, a Mount Vernon City Schools administrator for 21 years, joined the alternative school in 1993 as a principal of sorts, designing coursework that met state standards. Students generally worked at their own pace to achieve credits for graduation, rather than meet daily assignments. Young continued in that role until his retirement in 1999.
Jim Bisinius of Moundbuilders provided counseling for students at the alternative center.
A graduate of Mount Vernon High School, he earned degrees at Miami University of Ohio State University.
Several others – teachers and support staff – made the center a success.
“The alternative center would have gone nowhere without Bruce Hawkins and Jeff Citizen, then superintendent of Mount Vernon City Schools,” Ronk said. “The other county schools and many others were instrumental in making it work. The court paid for the probation officer on site, the county commissioners paid for use of the building and utilities.”
Ronk and his court staff were the driving force.
“There are two things I have believed from the start,” Ronk said. “Parents are the key to kids’ success and most kids in the alternative setting have the IQ to succeed; something else keeps them from achieving in school.
“My job and that of my staff was to provide the structure in kids’ lives that they didn’t get at home,” Ronk said. ‘Not all kids see proper adult behavior at home; they have no role model. Our goal was to provide it. While not rewarding negative behavior, we provided a time for recovery. Kenyon students donated their time for after-school tutoring in English, math, etc. Most of the alternative students had never talked to someone near their age who went to college.”
In separate interviews, Ronk and Hawkins shared an early success story. A high school girl was ready to be certified in cosmetology but lacked two credits in English. She was enrolled in English-only classes at the alternative center and graduated by Thanksgiving.
Within three years Knox County’s alternative center had become a model for the entire state.
“It was a unique idea at the time,” Ronk recalled. “We had many, many educators from around the state come here to learn how we did it. Now there are many alternative schools throughout Ohio.
“The alternative center probably was the one thing I was proudest of because it made a successful impact in the community. We were blessed to have a lot of good people who made it work.”
Hawkins too looks back with pride on its creation and “the teachers who cared about students.”
His eyes were moist when he added, “It was probably the most successful thing I did, helping those kids.”
Next, Part 2: The alternative school moves to a new building and evolves into the Knox Learning Center.