NATCHEZ &045;&045; Suspended or expelled students attending Central Alternative will no longer spend their &uot;days off&uot; at home on the couch, on the streets or unsupervised.

This year, the school received a grant to put students to work during suspensions and expulsions doing community service.

&uot;I think it is going to be a help to the parents to know they are being supervised&uot; instead of being at home, said Betty Cade, Central Alternative principal.

None of the work is hard labor or done in excess. Cade said students in the program are given adequate water breaks, only work for about three hours outside and do light work.

The school and supervisors also are careful what equipment they let the students use, only allowing them to use equipment that is small and that they have been shown how to use.

Not only do students work in the community, weeding flowerbeds, weed-eating the grass, watering flowers, changing bed linens or sweeping up leaves, the students also keep up with their schoolwork.

The students spend the second half of their day, after lunch, working on classwork and reflecting on the service they have performed.

The alternative education community service grant Central Alternative received is funded federally as part of the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act from No Child Left Behind. Cade said she wrote the grant asking for $3,800 but received $26,510.21 for the program’s pilot year.

Cade said she has solicited different organizations around Natchez as sites where students can perform their community service. Some include the Stewpot, the Natchez Senior Citizen Multi-Purpose Center, Trace Haven Health and Rehabilitation Center and the Recreation Department.

&uot;We are hoping more of our community would notify the school and let us know they want to help,&uot; Cade said. &uot;Not just to work but to get into their (the students’) lives and get them focused in the right direction.&uot;

In fact, the first student to work in the community service program worked at the youth center, weedeating for the center.

The eighth grader said after his couple of days of community service, especially his day out in the heat, he is ready to behave.

&uot;I thought it was going to be easy,&uot; he said. &uot;I don’t want to get on it anymore because it’s hard work.&uot; But he is not telling his friends how hard it is, wanting them to find out for themselves.

Thursday, two students began their work, cleaning the flowerbeds and ditches and sweeping and blowing leaves at the school.

Cade said she thinks the service the students complete will help them learn life lessons as well as hopefully deter improper behavior.

&uot;They don’t get to have their cake and eat it too,&uot; Cade said.

The man that supervises the students, John Bates, said the program is a learning process for the students.

Bates, who has worked at Central in many other capacities, said he has no problems with the students. He said it is a great program, keeping suspended students from being on the streets or getting into more trouble.

&uot;I think this was an excellent idea for the kids,&uot; Bates said.