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Much to the delight of South Middle School parents, the Alternative School will remain at 1025 Dinah Shore Blvd. in the former Health Department building.

The School Board was considering policy changes on Monday that were recommended by the Tennessee Board of Education. One of them was to not have the Alternative School completely separate from another educational facility.

However, concerned parents developed an online campaign to sway the School Board into not moving the Alternative School away from the former Health Department building site.

Alternative schools are designed to educate students who have not been successful in regular schools, often because of behavior, disciplinary issues and safety concerns.

Parents expressed concerns online about having students with more extreme disciplinary problems being mixed in with students in regular campus settings.

South Middle School was mentioned as the site where the Alternative School could be moved to because it has fewer students than North Middle School.

The end result was that School Board Member Erik Cole motioned to retain the language of the policy for the separate site. His effort was seconded by Lance Williams, and the board concurred unanimously.

Chuck Stines, a former county commissioner, current Franklin County deputy and the county’s fire chief, was vocal about the issue.

He said that if the policy change were allowed, the Alternative School would be moved from its current location to South Middle School.

“I am an alumni of South Middle School and can attest that South sometimes plays second fiddle to other schools in the system,” he said in an online post. “The current administration has worked very hard to boost this school and provide a top-notch facility and educational experience to all its students.”

However, he said that if the Alternative School were moved to South, special-education students in the comprehensive development classrooms would be moved from their highly specialized wing “that was designed for them and allows them to work, not only on advancing academically, but also socially.”

He questioned how fair the change would be to the special-education students.

“The students sent to the Alternative School had a choice and the opportunity to correct the problem, but chose not to,” Stines said. “Fights, drugs, threats, disruptive outbursts. … Are these students ‘troubled,’ do they need positive role models? Absolutely!”

Stines questioned whether the change was being considered to save money.

“Is it worth the safety of other students?” he asked. “I personally feel this would be a detrimental move to the current growing positive reputation of South Middle School.”

Stines and others encouraged parents and residents to approach the School Board with about 35 attending Monday’s meeting.

Williams, who was chairing the meeting in Chair CleiJo Walker’s absence, said before the board took action on the subject that he suspected most in the audience were present due to the Alternative School concerns.

After the vote was taken, the audience applauded the board’s action.