Elmore County Alternative Program: ECAP West officially opens at former Millbrook Child Development Center

BY Amanda Pevey

Elmore/Autauga News

This week, the Elmore County Alternative Program, ECAP-West, officially opened its Millbrook site located at the former Millbrook Child Development Center. This program is designed to serve students with behavioral issues who have broken the code of conduct. The Millbrook site Campus Administrator is Brad Mann. Virginia Barber, Vicki Ward, and Tyler Johnson are the Certified Staff/Teachers. Linda Robinson is the Paraprofessional/Secretary on site.

ECAP-West site is in Millbrook at 5760 Main Street. ECAP-East site is in Wetumpka at 416 North Broad Street.

Superintendent Richard Dennis of Elmore County Public Schools has been searching for the right location in Millbrook for an alternative program site for over six years. This year, due to the low enrollment of students at the Millbrook Child Development Center, the school system chose to repurpose that facility to make it the alternative program.

“I am excited to have our alternative program ECAP West opening in the Millbrook community to serve Coosada, Millbrook and some of the Holtville community,” said Dennis.

He continued, “I think these programs that we were able to initiate here can help us reduce some of the discipline issues that we’re currently experiencing on our middle and high school campuses.”

ECAP (Elmore County Alternative Program) is made up of Short Term and Long Term ECAP.

Short Term and Long Term ECAP serve all Elmore County Schools. Students may be assigned to Short Term ECAP for up to ten days at a time for violations of the Elmore County Code of Conduct; however, additional days may be added if a student does not follow ECAP rules or for violations of the Elmore County Code of Conduct. Students who are assigned greater than ten days will be assigned to Long Term ECAP.Information can be found at the Elmore County Public School website: https://www.elmoreco.com.

Campus Administrator Brad Mann spoke to EAN on the future of the alternative program.

“I am looking forward to starting this new program in Millbrook,” said Mann. He continued, “I am also looking forward to implementing new mentor programs that will also speak life to the students who come through our program.”

“I am very excited for this school to open its doors,” said Virginia Barber, an ECAP-West Teacher.

 She continued, “Yes, it’s an alternative school but it’s not the end all, be all place. We are hoping to make it a place where we can dig deeper into the problems and find out why the students may be acting out in their traditional schools. We hope to reach them in the smaller setting while also having them complete the time at ECAP. Usually, students have a deeper reason for wanting to act out and we hope by bringing experience and mentors in that we can get to that. It’s very exciting for our community and we hope we can be backed by the wonderful people of Millbrook. Personally, I see it as a ministry for me. I want to expand my reach of education experience (16 years) and help students that may be overlooked or misread because of their actions.”

For more information about the alternative programs for Elmore County Public Schools, please contact the Director; Dr. Blair J. Andress at (334) 567- 1298. You can also check out the school website at https://www.elmoreco.com for more information.