LEWISTON — School Committee members approved a new intervention model for long-term school suspensions and expulsions during Monday’s meeting.

It requires students to meet specific goals and achievements to reenter school after a long-term suspension, according to Superintendent Jake Langlais. It includes an expedited disciplinary hearing for those students.

Students would have 20 days to complete the process and if they fail, they would be expelled, he said.

The school department still provides services to students who are in long-term suspension or are expelled, he said. As officials start noticing students on a path toward long-term suspension, the model will help students correct that behavior.

The department has been working with Tree Street Youth to help curb behaviors among students in specific scenarios with a similar model and has found it to be beneficial, he said.

A City Council representative on the School Committee spoke in support of the model if it means getting students back on track and keeping them inside classrooms without disrupting or harming other students.

School Committee member Janet Beaudoin wanted to know if the model could also be used for elementary students because that is when some students start having behaviors, and intervening at a younger age could help those students as they get older.

Langlais said state law places strict limits on student expulsions and suspensions for students in grades prekindergarten through five.

Beaudoin said she has been impressed that there seems to be fewer student disciplinary hearings this year compared to previous years. She would like to see the model focused more toward middle school students. She thinks that when students get into high school, they have better awareness of their actions, but middle school students do not have the same awareness.

Langlais said if school officials can get eight out of 10 students to reenter school with a different outlook it will be a win.

In other business, Lewiston Regional Technical Center Assistant Director Matt West recognized Ron Morin and Keith Stewart of Sugarloaf Ambulance and Rescue Vehicles for their donation of a functional ambulance to the center’s EMT program. The ambulance will be used as a learning tool for students, who represent six area high schools.

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