Monday was the first day back to class for students in Erie's Public Schools.

It also was the first day that Emerson Gridley School was open in more than a year.  It was closed in a 2017 plan to reconfigure the district and save costs.

The school is back open now as the Patrick J. DiPaolo Student Success Center at Emerson Gridley.

It brings together all district's alternative education and support programs in one location to help students who are lagging academically or who are working to turn around behavioral issues.

The goal is to get the students back on track.

Already Neal Brokman, Coordinator of Alternative Programming sees the benefit. "Putting them all together, we can concentrate all of our efforts in one location and we can provide more support for more kids," Brokman said.

Four hundred students are in the programs.  The school is available to 200 cyber-program kids grades k-12 as well.

Brokman said that two additional teachers were hired for the new middle school credit recovery program but there are cost savings in other ways. "We did reduce our force when it comes to the custodial staff and that's where there are some savings, and then on top of that the fact that we’re not paying rent in two different locations, there’s also some cost savings for the school district.

The programs are consolidated from three locations, the family center, St. Ann School and the Bayfront Maritime Center.