The new building will be home to Wake County’s Infinity Program, an alternative learning environment for students suspended from school for at least 11 days.
James West, chairperson of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said the board decided to pay $2.1 million for the building because it will address disparities that arise in a large school district.
“In a school system like Wake, many students, especially minority and poor students, have some real problems as it relates to suspensions and staying in school,” he said.
Betty Parker, director of real estate services for the Wake County Board of Education, said renovations are set to begin next fall and the facility will be ready at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.
She said the Infinity program is currently located in two classrooms in the basement of the Longview School in Raleigh, and the new facility will hold 60 to 80 students.
“There are a number of these smaller programs that have been constrained by the spaces they’re in because of the growth we’ve had in our area,” she said.
But Larry Kortering, a special education professor at Appalachian State University, said alternative suspension programs can unnecessarily segregate students.
“There’s a strong federal, state and social preference for these kids to be with other kids as much as possible,” he said. “It’s borrowed from the civil rights era that whenever you separate people based on a disability ... there’s an inherently unequal facility or an unequal service.”
