Parents in the Cave Spring community of Southwest Roanoke County were outraged this summer when the school board approved a plan to move the division's alternative education program to Cave Spring High School.

The variety of complaints included fears of an adverse effect on neighborhood real estate values and feelings of being left out of the decision-making process.

Superintendent Lorraine Lange on Thursday evening presented an alternative solution to the Roland E. Cook Alternative School quandary at the board's meeting. It is her recommendation the program be outsourced to Salem-based Hope Tree Family Services, a move that will save the division more money while still providing a comparable program.

The board is expected to take action when it meets at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 in the school board office on Cove Road.

At the meeting Thursday, school board Chairman Drew Barrineau defended the board's initial decision.

"I am not taking criticism of the amending of the agenda," he said. "We had to act quickly to recognize these savings."

The board voted unanimously to approve the proposal at a specially called meeting in late July after amending the agenda to add the item -- an action permissible by the board's bylaws.

Housing and staffing the program at the aging Cook facility this school year would have cost more than $465,500. Shifting the program to an annex of Cave Spring would have saved about $153,500 in personnel and utility costs for a total price tag of about $312,000. Hope Tree submitted a proposal to provide the service for $135,750.

The county-operated alternative education program served about 10 students at a time who have been convicted mostly of minor drug or alcohol offenses. The second-chance curriculum is designed to temporarily remove the students from the traditional school setting, with the students returning upon successful completion of the program.

Lange said there are no students in the program so far this school year and the teachers and support personnel from Cook have been reassigned.