Each of the three Roanoke County students accused of throwing paint cans from a hotel roof in New York last week received a different sentence from the Roanoke County School Board on Wednesday evening.

After meeting behind closed doors for four hours -- at times with at least one of the students -- at the school administration building, the school board voted to expel one student; place one in an alternative education program; and expel the third, with that expulsion suspended pending negotiation of a contract.

Because the board identified the students only by their identification numbers and never named them, it was unclear which student received which punishment. School board members declined to comment after voting.

The students -- Tyler Moses Moore Jr., Sean McGhee and Brittany Goldberg -- were seen arriving at the school administration building separately, about an hour apart. Moore and McGhee, both 18, are seniors at Cave Spring High School; Goldberg, 17, is a junior at Hidden Valley High School.

After all of them had later been whisked out of the building by their parents, the board's vice chairman, Bill Irvin, made a motion to expel one student and negotiate a contract with one more. Irvin represents the Cave Spring magisterial district, where Moore and McGhee attend school.

The board voted unanimously on the expulsion, but Marion Roark dissented on the contract for the other student.

If a student enters into a contract, he or she is usually allowed to remain a Roanoke County student provided he or she accepts whatever provisions are requested by the school board.

Board member Drew Barrineau moved to place one student in alternative education. Barrineau represents the Windsor Hills district, which includes Goldberg's Hidden Valley High School.

Roark also dissented on that vote.

The three students were arrested the morning of May 7 after seven one-gallon paint cans were thrown from the roof of the 20-story Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel, which is across from a police precinct in Manhattan. The students were in New York on an art field trip with a group of about 35 students from Cave Spring and Hidden Valley.

The paint damaged two police cars, two police scooters and an officer's personal vehicle, for a total of more than $1,500 in damage, according to authorities. One officer was treated and released from a hospital after paint splashed into his eye.

All three students are charged with criminal mischief in the second degree, a felony; assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor; and criminal trespass in the second degree, a misdemeanor. The maximum prison sentence for a conviction on the criminal mischief charge is seven years.

A preliminary hearing is set for June 15 in New York.

The students have been suspended from school since the incident, according to school board Chairman Mike Stovall, and were originally scheduled to go before the board May 23 at its next regular meeting.

Wednesday night, each of the students met with the five-member school board, acting Superintendent Lorraine Lange, and their high school principal before the board determined their punishment. Stovall has said that in an expulsion hearing, the board tries to find out why an incident happened and whether a student is remorseful.

Moore's attorney, William Alford III, has said the students weren't trying to hurt anyone but were trying to make an artistic statement.

The student's attorneys couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday night.