Allynwood Academy

Allywood Academy, formerly the Family Foundation School, was a private, co-educational, college preparatory, therapeutic boarding school located in Hancock, New York.^[1] The school, founded in 1984, drastically downsized in August 2014. It closed in late 2014.^[2][3]

History

The school was founded in the 1980s by Tony and Betty Argiros, who were recovering alcoholics following a twelve-step program. As a part of their own final step in the program, they took into their home young people who were recovering from substance abuse. They became foster parents to many of these adolescents and provided some with homeschooling education. After the number of foster children began to exceed the allowable limit for New York State, they sought and obtained legal status for their home as a licensed school.^[4]

Over time, the school grew beyond the Argiros home into a campus that includes a main school building, boys' and girls' dormitories, a chapel, food service, laundry services, art and athletic facilities.

In 2000, the Argiros children assumed control over the day-to-day operations of the school.^[5]

In October 2013, the Family Foundation School changed its name to "Allynwood Academy", which the school stated was due to a change in program structure.^[6]

Program

The Family Foundation School program is based upon three core goals: maximize academic potential; develop spiritually and emotionally through a 12-step program of recovery; grow and mature psychologically through the 12-Step program as well as group and individual therapies. Students at the school are divided into "families" of roughly 30 students and 6 staff members. The family groups eat together, during which time "Table Topics" serve as an opportunity for the group to address any negative issues presented by individual students.^[7]

The school operates year-round, with two 25-week school terms,^[8] and employs a residential behavior modification program that is chiefly based on the twelve-step approach.^[8]

The school serves high-school age (grades 9-12) children that have problems with various addictions (e.g. drugs, alcohol, food, sex, gambling or gaming)^[9] and/or other psychological challenges. Enrollment is around 80 students.^[10] Students are typically recommended for placement at the school by a social worker, school guidance counselor, or psychologist.^[9]

The Bridge is a program added circa 2012–3 for participants ages 18 to 20.^[11]

Accreditation and affiliations

The Family Foundation School is accredited as a school by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools,^[7][12] the New York State Department of Education,^[7][13] and is accredited as a behavioral health care facility by the Joint Commission,^[14] a private not-for profit quality assurance organization.

The school is a founding member of National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP)^[15]

Extracurricular programs

The Family Foundation School's extracurricular programs include sports teams, drama productions, musical programs, an art department and a wide variety of clubs.^[9] Students also participate with members of the local community through religious associations, scouting, Rotary Club, Job Corps, the Sullivan County BOCES, and various other community service projects in the Hancock, NY area.^[16]

The school's performing arts program presents full-scale musicals, drama productions, winter and spring choral concerts that are open to the public,^[9] and is a regular participant in the North American Music Festivals.^[8]

In 2004 and 2005, the school's debating team won the Seventh annual Delaware-Otsego Bar Associations Forensic Speech Tournament, a regional debating competition.^[17]

The school soccer team won the championship in the New York State Class D, Section IX Conference in 2005.^[18]

In 2009, the school's Math Team earned an honorable mention in the 2009 Moody's Mega Math Challenge, for their presentation examining the effect of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program on employment in the United States.^[19]

Faculty

The Family Foundation School employs over three-dozen educational professionals, counsellors and support staff, and maintains a 4:1 student-teacher ratio.^[8][20][21] About half of the school's faculty and staff members have been through a twelve-step recovery process.^[4]

The school's English and Philosophy instructor and middle school principal, Jan Cheripko, is the author of nine books,^[22] has won numerous national and international book awards and has been a featured speaker at the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and numerous other New York State and Northeastern U.S. regional education conferences.^[23] He has also conducted graduate teaching accredited workshops on how to reach at-risk students through writing and literature.^[24]

Alumni

From 2004 through 2008, all Family Foundation School graduates have been accepted at postsecondary institutions, with 85 percent to four-year colleges and 15 percent to two-year schools or professional training.^[8]

Family Foundation School alumnus Wells Thompson is a midfielder for the Colorado Rapids,^[25] a Major League Soccer team in the United States. He began his professional soccer career with the New England Revolution, where he played from 2007 through 2009.^[26][27]

A Family Foundation School Alumni Association was established after the school held its first alumni reunion in September 2006. More than 125 former students from around the United States attended the reunion.^[28]

Activism against

Since 2007, Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) has conducted an ongoing campaign against the Family Foundation School. In October 2009, a local newspaper reported that CAFETY had sent a letter to residents of Delaware County, claiming abusive conditions at the school, including excerpts from former student testimonials. The letter directed residents to an anti-school website for more information about the alleged abusive conditions. Delaware County law enforcement, social services officials, and the school stated that the allegations in letter were based on past issues that had been corrected by the school. CAFETY disputes this claim, saying that its concerns about alleged abuse are based on written complaints by students who attended the school as recently as 2008.^[16] CAFETY members have also taken part in rallies in other areas of the country, where experiences at the school were addressed.^[29]

Congressional hearings

The Family Foundation School was one of several residential programs for special-needs adolescents that were discussed in United States Congress Committee on Education and Labor hearings in 2007 and 2008.^[30][31]

The school responded by declaring its support for the efforts of the committee to keep children safe from harm, adding that the school had since modified its crisis-management methods to meet the standards of both the New York State Department of Education and the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) program developed by Cornell University. The school also stated that since 1999, all school faculty and staff are required to be trained in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention techniques.^[32] Following the April 24 hearing, several parents of former students, a former student, and a former staff member wrote to the committee in response to the negative testimony, providing positive reports of their own experiences with the Family Foundation School.^[33]

State inspections

Allegations of abuse prompted an unannounced inspection of the school in 2010 by several New York state agencies.^[34] The inspectors reported that they had not found any "current instances of abuse or neglect," but they continued to have concern about reports provided by former students, several of whom gave accounts of "strikingly similar and troubling experiences".^[35]

Closing

On 31-July-2014, citing financial challenges from declining enrollment,^[36] the school announced that it would be closing its doors eight days later.^[3] An outpouring of support however, prompted the school to remain open for 15 students and minimal staff through the end of 2014,^[37] while the remaining 70 employees and students were either laid off or asked to leave, respectively.^[2] In addition to financial challenges, it has been suggested lingering accusations of abuse by school staff members that plagued the school for years, played a role in the school's declining enrollment and eventual closure.^[37]

See also

• Drug rehabilitation
• Joint Commission
• Residential treatment center

Notes and references

External links

• Official website
• Family Foundation School website
• 2004 press release: Suicide at The Family School - Strugglingteens.com

Coordinates: 41°54′43″N 75°12′4″W / 41.91194°N 75.20111°W / 41.91194; -75.20111