BEVERLY — It's the week before school starts, and there are no new middle and high school students from Beverly Public Schools signed up for the alternative program at the former McKeown Elementary.

But that's OK, administrators say.

"I think before the year is out, we'll see it eventually grow to five kids or so," Superintendent James Hayes said.

That's not to say the building will be empty.

There are two students enrolled in Beverly's new LAUNCH program, which provides career and life training to special education students ages 19 to 22. That's one part of the alternative school.

The other part is Beverly's Back on Track program. Although nobody from Beverly Public Schools is currently enrolled, through a partnership with the North Shore Education Consortium, about 100 students from North Shore Academy will fill the classrooms and hallways.

Both Back on Track and North Shore Academy focus on students with social, emotional and behavioral problems.

Also, about a dozen of the consortium students are originally from Beverly, said Debra O'Connor, Beverly's special education administrator.

Essentially, they're returning to the district, which will cut down on special education costs that mainly have to do with transportation and paying teachers and staff from the consortium.

The consortium is renting McKeown from Beverly for $75,000 annually and will share services for free, like a school nurse and administrators, and will allow Beverly teachers and staff to participate in consortium workshops and training programs.

There will be about 35 teachers and staff from the consortium, and about a dozen from Beverly Public Schools.

Another big savings will be transportation costs as students attending out-of-district schools in places like Lowell, Chelmsford and Sudbury transfer to McKeown, O'Connor said.

She said she's received phone calls from parents with kids in other out-of-district placements, inquiring about having their child attend the alternative school.

"When you do the math, we win, even without bringing kids back," she said.

Every year, at-risk students emerge.

"We know, historically, that they come," O'Connor said.

Some come into the system from group homes or DSS placements. Others are returning from hospitalizations and can't go immediately back into a large, public school setting.

In that case, the school would normally pay for a private tutor, or send them out of district. Now they'll have the option to go to the alternative school.

Beverly also pays for other students to be tutored — for $200 a day — because they got in trouble due to a felony, possession of weapons or drugs, or were suspended for more than 10 days. The federal government prohibits such students from returning to their regular school for 45 days, but Beverly still has to educate them. They'll be good candidates for the alternative program.

"It's a continuous process throughout the year," O'Connor said. "We have kids moving all the time."

Working together

When it comes to addressing many of those issues, the teachers and staff at North Shore Academy are essentially the local experts. Hence the partnership.

"We're going to learn from them," O'Connor said. "I see us as really coexisting for the next year or two, because there's a skill level we don't have yet."

Northshore Education Consortium Executive Director Bob Gass said the big draw for them was having a building for the North Shore Academy Program, which was moved from the third floor of Memorial.

"We get a fantastic facility," he said. "We get access to a gymnasium, a kitchen. The space is great. It gives kids the message you're a part of the school. You're not a throwaway kid."

The consortium also benefits because Beverly brings an academic component to the consortium, O'Connor said. It's difficult for them to find foreign language and chemistry teachers, for example, who also have the training to handle at-risk students.

Gass agreed.

"We've talked about the idea of paying a high school teacher to do a class of chemistry, or upper-level English," he said.

Eventually, O'Connor envisions other school districts sending their students to the alternative program, which will be run entirely through Beverly Public Schools.

"I see us as hopefully, a few years down the road, being on our own," O'Connor said. "But I don't see it happening overnight."

For now, the partnership is a win-win for both educational institutions and the students, she said.

"The kids are going to get what they need."