AUBURN – The Auburn School Committee is scheduled to vote on eliminating three programs Wednesday night: the Merrill Hill alternative middle school, which teaches at-risk students, plus two special education programs, the Regional Educational Treatment Center and Students of Success.

As a cost cutting move, City Councilor Ron Potvin made a motion last month to eliminate the programs at the Nov. 5 meeting. Potvin is the mayor’s representative on the school board. Attempts to reach Potvin for comment Monday were not successful.

Collectively, the programs cost about $800,000 a year and teach some 60 students.

School Superintendent Tom Morrill said Monday the special education programs save Auburn taxpayers about $400,000. If the programs weren’t there, those students would have to be sent out of district which would cost more, Morrill said.

Housed on Mt. Auburn Avenue, the treatment center program teaches grades four through nine students. That program now has 16 students, eight from Auburn. Morrill said the program enjoys success: 70 percent of students are there for 18 months and improve to the point that they’re able to return to their districts.

The SOS program has 12 Auburn students in grades nine to 12. If it were to close, “once again it would cost us an additional $200,000 to $210,000 in avoided cost,” Morrill said. “We’d have to send students from Auburn out of district.”

The alternative Merrill Hill school is a sister program to Auburn’s Franklin alternative high school.

About 31 students attend the Western Avenue school, which has a small, highly personalized program for students at risk of failing, Morrill said. Students have to perform to the same academic standards but have smaller settings and more attention from teachers.

“Our charge today is to educate 100 percent of the student population,” Morrill said, achieving that requires different approaches.

The family a child is born to makes a difference how they’ll do in school, said Merrill Hill principal David Eretzian. “One kid goes to school, he’s been made to feel smart, worthy and well liked. Another kid goes to school wearing Wal-Mart clothes, mom and dad divorced. Maybe he doesn’t get that kind of treatment.”

At Merrill Hill each student attends typical classes such as civics, math, English and science, plus an “advocacy” class that offers some psychology and group support.

During one advocacy class Monday, teacher Marion Rausch led a discussion about how to avoid confrontations during such an emotionally charged election, or any emotionally charged topic.

People decide how to vote on how that vote will impact them, and how the candidate’s views matches their philosophies. When people think that what they believe in is threatened, “people can get uptight,” Rausch said. The teacher asked how could they have conversations that don’t become arguments?

Talk but don’t disagree, one student answered.

Another way is to use “I statements” instead of “you statements,” Rausch said. She asked students to try.

One girl said to another: “You need to stop licking the paint off your hand.” She then rephrased it: “I don’t think you should be licking the paint because you could get sick.”

With politics and people so heated, use the “I” sentence, Rausch recommended. A “you” sentence” sounds like an attack; an “I” sentence sounds like concern.

For different reasons, Merrill Hill students have had low expectations. That changes when they’re in a school environment where they’re nurtured, valued and made to feel capable, Eretzian said. Bad behavior stops, motivation, learning and aspirations return.

As proof, he said in the last three years all of his Franklin School graduates, many who went to Merrill Hill, were accepted to college or were applying in June. That’s a big deal, Eretzian said.

Merrill Hill students will be talking to School Committee members Wednesday night, Eretzian said.