School Board decides Brown won’t be educated in Belgrade

 By Michael Tucker, staff writer

Trustees will consider Smith case Monday



Without uttering the word “expulsion,” the Belgrade School Board did just that Tuesday, voting unanimously that the district is unable to educate registered sex offender Albert Brown and ensure student safety.

Trustees mulled over three options provided by Belgrade High School administrators, including online course work, night school or advising Brown to seek other means for earning a diploma, such as a GED or home schooling.

Since Brown is seven credits shy of graduation, trustees would have to alter school policy to allow him to earn more than two correspondence credits. Board members were unwilling to make that change, fearing it would set a precedent.

“It would be a major change and waiver of our policy,” Trustee Dennis Bechtold said. “It could affect future students and we would have to accommodate them as well.”

Board members quickly ruled out night school, which also would include some correspondence work, due to last week’s decision that Brown is not to be allowed on campus due to his status as a convicted sex offender with a moderate risk of reoffending, and a proviso of his court sentence barring him from interacting with children under 16.

Betty Brown, the 19-year-old senior’s mother, asked trustees for an alternative plan that would allow her son to complete his degree at Belgrade High School — allowing him to complete his lessons at home. But that request fell on deaf ears.

That only left one choice — Brown must complete his education without the help of Belgrade Schools.

“We effectively expelled (Brown) although we didn’t use the word, but that’s what it is,” Superintendent Herb Benz said after the meeting.

Some trustees pointed out during the meeting that Career Transitions, a Belgrade-based non-profit education agency, offers free training to people seeking a General Equivalency Diploma (GED), and charges $48 for the test.

But that option doesn’t appeal to Brown, he said Wednesday. He wants the sheepskin.

“You can’t do anything anymore without a high school diploma,” he said. “The high school diploma outweighs the GED.”

Under law, a GED is equivalent to a high school diploma.

At the moment, the Brown family is working with Assistant Principal Russ McDaniel to explore home schooling options rather than working toward a GED, Brown and McDaniel said. McDaniel is gathering information from Gallatin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Ellen Fitzgerald regarding the different curriculum programs offered nationwide.

“I’m going to go through the process with him and give him some direction,” McDaniel said. “I do think he needs to finish high school.”

Home schooling and correspondence work takes “a lot of discipline,” Fitzgerald said, but Brown said he is up for the challenge.

“If it gets me a high school diploma over a GED, yeah, I’m up for it,” he said.

Brown was suspended from Belgrade High School after students learned Oct. 16 he was listed on the Montana Sexual and Violent Offender Registry. Trustees met last week to consider a permanent solution, and at the time stopped short of expulsion in favor of having administrators look for alternative ways to educate him.

BHS officials also suspended sophomore David Tanner Smith, 15, another convicted sex offender whose name appears on the SVOR.

Smith will go before the school board Nov. 5 to learn if the district will attempt to keep him in school or issue him a fate similar to Brown’s.

Smith’s treatment counselor will be present during the meeting, which may warrant trustees to operate behind closed doors based on the “expectation of privacy for any information relating to counselor/client relationship,” according to the agenda for the 7:30 p.m. meeting.

Smith’s case may prove to be “more difficult” due to the fact that he is a sophomore, Benz said Monday.