The Fort Thomas School Board unanimously approved the creation of a year-round, four-day-per-week schedule for the district’s alternative school, the Mount Turnbull Academy, at its meeting Nov. 13.

The alternative school is housed at the Bylas Learning Center and is aimed at servicing students who have dropped out of Fort Thomas High School.

The academy’s director Susan Logan originally proposed the idea of a year-round, four-day-per-week calendar at the council’s October meeting. She presented her recommendation again during a work session prior to the evening’s meeting. Logan said it was her experience that an alternative school works best broken up into three trimesters rather than two semesters and a summer break as is done at traditional schools. She also recommended moving to a four-day week, thereby allowing students who might have missed a day to make it up on Friday.

The new schedule will require students to attend Monday through Thursday for three months. The students will have an optional month off before returning to normal classes for another three months. Students who choose to not take the break will be able to continue working at the school.

Board member Terry Rambler said he thought it was a good idea to go year-round due to the needs of the academy’s students. He said their priorities were in finishing up what they needed to do to move forward with their education.

In other School Board news, the board approved a proposal from GN Construction to be the general contractor for its industrial trades building project.

GN Construction estimated the cost of the building to be approximately $1.2 million. The company was previously contracted by the district to build the Bylas Learning Center and remodel the district offices in Fort Thomas.