Roslindale school could go K-8 despite years of assertions by BPS that Roslindale schools were too small for that

Hi Adam! This is really an idea generated by the Haley School community which we enthusiastically support. Check out the video produced by teachers and families about their idea to become a fully-inclusive K-8 program, which they presented to the School Committee a few weeks ago. The key here is that students with disabilities want and deserve a way to remain in inclusive settings all the way through high school. It's the right way to go academically for all students -- those with special needs and those in general education settings. We're working to do expand these types of programs and options for students all across the city and as we do, we are continuing to work with the Irving to strengthen the pathway that's working well. Here's the video:
http://blip.tv/bpstelevision/haley-elementary-scho...

In reality, this goes well beyond Roslindale to a larger issue and injustice for the families of Roxbury, Dorchester, and throughout Boston that were promised K-8 and priority status for their schools to receive much needed repairs, supplies (etc) on March 13, 2013 when the Boston School Committee (BSC) members voted to approve the new “Home Based A” model for school assignment and then, five days later, at the March 18th Budget Hearing were told by BPS officials that actually there would be no K-8 conversion for their schools due to lack of funding (despite the $30 million additional money promised by Mayor Menino to BPS to help with Level 3 schools which the Haley is not).

The six schools which were promised K-8 conversion are:
Blackstone Elementary
Mattahunt Elementary
Condon Elementary
Tynan Elementary
Hennigan Elementary
Trotter Elementary

What wasn't said at the March 18th meeting was that BPS was also scrambling to place over 300 students with special needs at the Kindergarten (0-2) levels and therefore also needed to find 70 additional classrooms. This action was taken due to a lawsuit by families of young children with special needs when BPS failed to evaluate them per state and federal special education “child-find” laws.

To date the budget has not been infused with any more money. BPS has only found 35 of the 70 classrooms needed to convert for Kindergarten - taking away rooms used for art, science, music, libraries, etc from elementary schools across the city in order to create them.

A bit of background: the Roslindale Pathway was formed because all the Roslindale schools and families (encompassing the entire West Zone) who had been lobbying for a K-8 in Roslindale for quite a few years were told that none of the schools could be converted to K-8 due to facilities issues, money and loss of seats for children throughout the city. Instead the Roslindale K-8 Pathway was formed which was a reasonable and fair solution that would allow our children a cohesive elementary - middle school experience. This solution would not satisfy parents from one school only, but hopefully parents from all six schools, as long as they worked together.

Fourteen parents, the Roslindale Pathway Advisory Group (RPAG), came together in the spring of 2009 and did something incredible. They changed the assignment priorities for the first time since busing. Since then we have worked with very little support from Court Street to build something wonderful in our community. We have met more than FIFTY times over the course of the past four-plus years. We have met with principals, administrators and parents throughout not only Roslindale, but the entire city to explain the pathway and what we were doing. We spent countless hours planning Pathway expansion, promotion and events and have worked tirelessly as cheerleaders at our elementary schools to encourage families to make the Irving their first choice for 6th grade. We have been successful. We do this on our own time, year-round, as parents and community members to strengthen the quality of education in Boston's public schools for all of the students. We took what we were told was the ONLY solution and have made it work. The enrollment numbers have grown and changed at the Irving over the past 4 years, we are no longer blotter-fodder for the papers either. Our Pathway was held up as a model for the new assignment process which was approved by the BSC also, so pathways are part of the new assignment model.

A few months ago Haley Pilot School parents (part of the Roslindale K-8 Pathway) started lobbying BPS to convert to a K-8 as an "inclusion model" school. The RPAG members and the Irving staff were told that BPS would not be approving the Haley’s request for several reasons: the two mentioned above as well as the fact that though the Haley and BPS state that the school is an inclusion model, they actually do not fit the criteria of a true inclusion school as they only take children with minimal special education needs who won’t need much out-of-class time at all (less than 20%) so can more easily become part of the general education classroom (the Mozart has the same population of SWD and one teacher per class with no extra teachers or sub-separate programming except our PDD-NOS strand, and combine push-in aka inclusion and pull-out services for students - yet they are not designated as "inclusive"). Yes, the Hayley has a few classrooms with two teachers, one who is dual-certified in special education, in them, but this does not equate to a true inclusion model school – if that is the case, then Urban Science Academy (USA) High School MUST be an inclusion school also (USA has two teachers in EVERY 9th and 10th grade classroom with at least one who is special education certified, but no, it is not an inclusion school anymore than the Haley is). BPS encouraged the Haley community to work with Arthur Unobskey (Irving principal), the BPS staff, myself and some of the top specialists in the field whom I would pull in (pro-bono as favors to me personally) to create an inclusion strand at the Irving. Unfortunately, the Haley parents and principal said that the only way they would accept “inclusion” was if we got rid of all of our ELL, sub-separate programs for SWD, and AWC classes at the Irving. As that is not inclusive in any way that the Irving, RPAG or I want to be associated with, we declined to do so, but continued to attempt to work with the Haley and offered other ideas.

Instead, the Haley parents who were advocating for the K-8 and the principal, Angel Charles, filmed a video (which is partially shot at the Irving, FYI) and presented it at school committee two weeks ago begging to be converted to a K-8. As the mother of three children with special needs myself, one of whom is autistic with other co-morbid diagnosis, I understand and sympathize with these parents worry since there were no programs at all for my son (now 24) who went through BPS prior to inclusion, ABA and other great programs, but I don’t understand the unwillingness to work with those who want to create something beneficial for all of the children, not just their own or a select few.

There are several injustices here:

1) How is the Haley (a top tier school) able to jump the line before not only all the schools that are under-performing which were promised conversion, but also all the schools with facilities still waiting for repairs, supplies etc? This means those students we were told the External Advisory Committee (EAC) and BSC were trying to ensure were at the front of the line for improvements are once again being run over;

2) As they will lose seats, conversion will mean even LESS seats for the lower grades = even less access to a quality school than before for families and further perpetuating the issue of other schools across the city giving up their “elective” classrooms; considering that BPS is scrambling for seats for Kindergarten - 2nd grade students, how is this justified?;

3) Where is the money coming from for this - and no, not from the Haley board – and why isn't it being used as promised for those who have waited much longer?

It will be interesting to see how this all comes out as word of this spreads to all the other school communities and families affected by this decision by BPS to allow a school to jump the line. The assumption is that BSC will schedule a vote on the proposal to convert the Haley to a K-8, which is the actual procedure that should be followed (proposal at one meeting, vote at a later meeting after discussion, community input and suggestions are heard), for their July 31, 2013 school committee meeting. I wonder how many emails, letters, and people will show up for that meeting?

I'm a sixth grade student at the Washington Irving. When I first started at the Irving I'll admit it was a bit overwhelming. But really the Irving is a good school that offers lots of opportunities for students to find their voice or find something they are good at. At the Irving you have Monday-Thursday a nine hour school day. The school day goes from 7:25-4:05.

I know that these hours are a lot but only half of the days is academics. There are six blocks a day. Each day you have math, ELA, and Science or History(these are only half a year) and then you have a specialty. At the Irving they have Theater, dance, visual arts, gym, and avid. There is also ESL and a way to have extra help with ELA or math during this time. Next year there will also be wood shop.

That's your normal day but after those four classes you have fifth and sixth block. IN fifth block you have academic league. In Academic League you have study hall, and play school related games. Then for sixth block you get to chose a class that you want to take. You can choose a sport like Basketball, Rugby, football, baseball, softball, or swimming. You can also choose a class like Mock Trial, or acting. There are so many different types of enrichment at the Irving that everyone has a chance to find something they're interested in.

And then the best part is Friday. It's just one word but everyone loves Fridays-especially when you get out at 11:40. And if you aren't sure how you feel about your kid just hanging out in the square on Fridays the Irving has intramural sports on Friday.

The Irving really is a great school. Despite the 80 minute classes I think that I got to do a lot of stuff I wouldn't have been able to do other wise. I learned how to play tennis and I don't think you'll be able to do that at the haley. The Irving offers a change in environment, a chance to meet new friends, and a chance to try something new that you wouldn't be able to try other wise. On top of all that I have learned more in those eighty minute classes than I would learn in any forty five minute class. And with the Haley being a K-8 school how do you plan to get all of your students? Most people are fine with sending their kids to the Irving despite the untrue rumors.