USD 257 Superintendent of Schools Stacey Fager earmarked a few minutes at the end of Monday’s school board meeting to recognize retiring board member Tony Leavitt.
Fager drew attention to the many accomplishments dotting Leavitt’s eight years of service to USD 257, including his advocacy and continued support for the LaHarpe-based Regional Rural Technical Center as well as his leadership efforts in the 2014 bond campaign, which, though ultimately unsuccessful, observed Fager, laid the groundwork for the community-led bond proposal currently underway. “[During] his tenure,” continued the superintendent, “[Leavitt] has been an untiring advocate for students, teachers, staff and administration. As a district, we are better for his service.”
JEFFERSON Elementary Principal Lori Maxwell is asking the board to continue abiding by those high standards. After treating members to a bright slideshow of recent first- and second-grade activities at the elementary — art projects, music programs, parents’ day fun, reading exercises — Maxwell drew the board’s attention to an issue of more acute importance.
“I hesitated to bring this up,” began Maxwell, “but it’s a big concern for me.” The issue centers on the sustained health of special education at the elementary school. ANW Co-op, the district’s special education collective, is planning to transfer Jefferson’s Resource Room instructor Lisa Wallace to Humboldt’s ANW office to spearhead a program for middle schoolers whose lives are marked by intellectual disabilities and behavioral challenges. “Currently,” explained Maxwell, “[Wallace] handles the students that are possibly autistic or those kids who need a lot of behavioral support. … My concern is that there is no resource teacher hired to replace her and we’re about a week away from semester, so there’s not been a chance to make a transition between the old and the new teacher.” Additionally, said Maxwell, “there are three [paraprofessionals] in the program that have quite a bit of experience working with students with those kinds of needs, and they are all planning to transfer to the Humboldt program. Hopefully, it will happen in stages; hopefully everybody won’t leave at once.”
Maxwell drew out for the board the potential on-the-ground effects that could follow from such a move: “See, these students’ needs are very specific. They need very structured settings, and I’m worried about what will happen if you pull all of the support for the teacher that they’re used to having, the paras that they’re used to having, and if all of the incentives that motivate them are being pulled at one time…. I’m very concerned about what the beginning of the year is going to look like at Jefferson.”
Maxwell pointed out that the long holiday break separating semesters is already a potentially disruptive adjustment for many of these more sensitive children. Adding a new change into the mix, particularly one of this magnitude, won’t help. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to [Doug Dunlap, the district’s special education liaison,] more than one time, and I wasn’t really consulted on my opinion on making that change in the middle of the year. And I think that it’s not in the best interest of the students that we’re talking about. So, hopefully,” said Maxwell, concluding her polite but ardent plea on behalf of her special ed students, “I can have a positive attitude and everything will go smoothly, and it won’t be as scary as it seems like it might be. I asked Mr. Fager just to be aware at this point, because I do want to give it a chance to work. But I just want you to be aware, too, that it could possibly not work.”
ANW Co-op director Doug Tressler, speaking by phone this morning, explained that the co-op’s pending program will offer local students — who are currently being transported to McCune to have their specific intellectual and behavioral challenges attended to — a local solution. Besides offering those students easier access to their schooling, the program promises to save participating districts thousands of dollars.
Mrs. Wallace, explained Tressler, possesses a unique suite of talents, which makes her an ideal fit for the upcoming program. But Tressler’s highest priority at the moment is to see that Jefferson suffers “minimal impact” from the new choreography of personnel.
To this end, Tressler is committed to not moving the retinue of paras from Jefferson to Humboldt en masse. He will move them, he says, as qualified replacements become available.
And though his desire is still to see Wallace begin her work on the new program in Humboldt by the start of 2018, even that is a negotiable item if a qualified substitute does not make him or herself available.
“I have to keep all of our students in mind,” said Tressler. “We have to do what is appropriate, what is affordable and what is right.”
This morning, Fager expressed both a sympathy with Maxwell’s position and a confidence that the co-op would, in the end, find the correct balance for addressing the needs of the district’s students, which he called the most important goal for everyone involved.
ANW representative Dunlap, on Monday, promised to pursue the topic at length at the next co-op meeting. The group meets on Wednesday.
In other news:
— Iola High School guidance counselor Melissa Stiffler briefed the board on the successes that have greeted the district’s “Career Cruising” program. The program’s mission is to help students chart a path from high school into either college or the workforce in a way that best takes into account a student’s interests and aptitude. In endeavoring to serve every type of student — not merely the college-bound — the new regional tech center, explained Stiffler, has proved a vital addition to the district’s career planning arsenal.
— The board accepted the resignations of nursing director Jackie Chase and Jefferson custodian Tracy Thompson.
PHOTO: Outgoing USD 257 Board of Education member Tony Leavitt, right, receives a plaque from Board President Dan Willis Monday, the final meeting of Leavitt’s tenure. REGISTER/RICK DANLEY
