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Alternative school hoping to go private

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By GEOFF FOX

gfox@tampatrib.com

Published: October 25, 2009

SAN ANTONIO - When state officials elected last month not to renew a contract with San Antonio Boys Village, directors at the facility for teenage boys with legal problems were left scrambling to find a way to stay open.

Al Capodiferro, executive director of the facility that has operated in this small town in northeast Pasco County for 36 years, hopes to re-establish it as a private school.

"It would be for young men with difficulties in the general classroom setting due to behavioral or emotional problems," he said. "It would be strictly private. Parents would have to apply (for admissions) or pay themselves. We'd have to set up a private, tuition-based school."

He said the school could offer a vocational curriculum and after-school-type program.

In September, the state's Department of Juvenile Justice elected not to renew the facility's three-year, $2.95 million contract after it failed an annual review.

The Boys Village scored 59 percent on the review, receiving its lowest scores for mental health and substance-abuse services, records indicate.

Last year, the 30-bed facility barely met the state's minimal performance standards with a 61 percent score. Juvenile Justice officials have declined to comment, saying the review speaks for itself.

The village was considered a moderate-risk facility by the state, which categorizes such facilities as low, moderate, high or maximum risk. The village houses 13- to 17-year-old boys who go to school five hours a day and receive behavior-modification therapy and other counseling.

Many of the boys have committed felonies; some have substance-abuse or behavioral problems.

Making the leap from state-funded facility to private institution won't be easy.

For starters, Capodiferro said, the Boys Village will have to sell the facility, which it owns. The property includes 30 beds, a roughly 10,000-square-foot main building, plus a plant nursery, a large maintenance shed with two offices and several smaller sheds on about 121/2 acres.

He said a private school could be established on less than half the acreage and a smaller building.

"This facility is our only asset, but we'd be buying and selling in the same market," he said as he strode around the campus, the noise of boys playing basketball echoing in the background. "It's a good time to be buying, a bad time to be selling."

Most of the teenagers at Boys Village are from Pasco and Pinellas counties; a few are from Hillsborough. Many complete the six- to nine-month program in a little more than seven months.

Capodiferro said the current residents can complete the program before the contract ends at the end of the year, but a couple may have to transfer to other facilities.

Cathy Craig-Myers, executive director of the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, said she has noticed a trend of facilities losing state contracts and attempting to stay open as private entities.

"A lot of kids are in the juvenile justice system because they have learning disabilities, behavioral problems or other issues," she said. The programs may "have to take on a different approach."

Capodiferro said he has met with Pasco County school district officials to explore possibilities, and he said he plans to meet with leaders at other private schools "to get a handle on how we need to do things."

There are no concrete plans, and Capodiferro had no clear figures on how much the village might have to spend to start a new school.

"We're not officially on the market yet, but we're working with a local Realtor," Capodiferro said. "We're cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to make a smooth transition without any debt.

"But we need enough (money) to operate before we even have a student or revenue coming in."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 731-1239.

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