PORT LAVACA (October 26, 2009)--A voluntary boot camp opened a decade ago in Calhoun County to support the juvenile probation system is expected to reopen next month after the program was temporarily suspended weeks before the start of the school term because of budget and referral concerns.

The likely date for reopening is Nov. 2.

The juvenile probation board suspended the boot camp because the county had discussed cutting funding.

Judge Alex Hernandez, who chairs the board, also said school officials had been referring children to the program more often than judges.

The boot camp ran a 90-day court-ordered program and a 30-day program to which school administrators referred students, in part to avoid expelling the youths.

Superintendent Larry Nichols says the school district has agreed it would no longer make its own referrals.