Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Joseph Peña is anxiously waiting to begin school this year.
The 7-year-old, who has cerebral palsy and attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, cannot attend Dean Highland Elementary School in the Waco Independent School District, where he was enrolled last year, because the campus faces overcrowding issues.
In fact, Joseph and his younger sisters Emily, 6, and Ashley, 5, are caught in limbo as the district sorts out where to place them, while the school year already has started.
“He asked me this morning, ‘Are we going to go to school today, Grandma?’ ” said Lupe Peña, the children’s grandmother. “I just told him that it hasn’t started yet.”
Jennifer Peña, the children’s mother, said registering her kids for school has been confusing and frustrating. Her applications to enroll her kids at Dean Highland, which is about three blocks from her parents’ house, where she and the children live, were stamped Aug. 7 by the school, the district’s enrollment deadline.
Peña said when she took her children to the school Aug. 20 for a meet-your-teacher open house, the family was told that Dean Highland had no room for them and that the children were to be sent to Crestview Elementary School, located on New Road.
“Joseph just started crying,” said Peña, a stay-at-home mom who also has a 2-year-old daughter. “He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t going to be able to go back to his school, and he just thought it was some big joke on him. He kept saying, ‘You’re joking. You’re breaking my heart, Mom.’ ”
On Friday, Peña called Crestview to check on the kids’ teachers and found that the school had no record of them. When she returned home, a yellow door hanger from WISD said the kids were being assigned to Brook Avenue Elementary School, which is located on 7th Street downtown. Yet on Monday, the first day of school, Peña took her children to Brook Avenue and found that they were not enrolled there, either, she said. “I sat there with (an administrator) and went through all the papers, a box full of papers for the children who were registered for school, and there were no Peñas in there,” Peña said. “She said, ‘There’s nothing here on them.’ ”
Peña said the decision to move the children was particularly surprising given that Dean Highland was to begin implementing recommendations from an Admission, Review and Dismissal meeting held on Joseph last year, which is used to determine if a student needs special services. Joseph was to repeat the first grade, and the school was to provide a slanted desk that would better accommodate problems using his left arm, which is affected by the cerebral palsy.
Dr. Harvey Spark of Waco Pediatric Health Associates, who has been treating Joseph for ADHD for a few years, participated in the ARD meeting at Peña’s request to discuss Joseph’s academic progress. He had recommended that Joseph repeat the first grade and be placed in special education classes to improve math skills and reading comprehension. The school instead said Joseph would remain in a regular class but be accompanied by a special education teacher to guide him through lessons, Spark said.
“Properly teaching kids with learning disabilities, to me, is such a major issue that needs to be taken care of,” Spark said. “It was my recommendation to have Joseph repeat the first grade because his mother and the school felt he had missed so much that he would not be able to function at the second-grade level.”
Peña said she thinks that Dean Highland administrators simply want to be rid of the responsibility of dealing with her son’s physical and learning disorders. She said Joseph’s teacher last year complained because the medicine he takes for ADHD causes him to have random tics.
However, WISD Spokesman Dale Caffey said Dean Highland already had assigned its 66 first-grade slots — 44 for regular students and 22 for bilingual students — by the time the Peñas’ registration forms were turned in. He dismissed the notion that discrimination was at play.
“(Dean Highland) Principal Yolanda Williams said she was surprised that it took this parent so long to register her child since she lives basically down the street from the school,” Caffey said. “But there was basically there was nothing she could do. I mean, how do you kick out one student for another student to make room when all 44 students enrolled in the first grade live in the area, too?”
Caffey said Dean Highland has had to place 38 students in other schools because the enrollment would exceed the state’s 22-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio and require the campus to request a waiver from the state to add more students. The problem has plagued the school for several years and helped make the case for the school to build a new, larger campus, he said. Construction will begin in 2010, Caffey said.
“We try not to ask the state for a waiver and instead find a way to place students at other schools in the district,” Caffey said. “Obviously, Crestview was a lot closer, but they did not have room there, either, and rather than split the kids into different schools, we moved them to Brook Avenue.”
Caffey said the Peñas’ enrollment information was sent to Brook Avenue on Tuesday morning and that the children would be able to attend there. Peña said she called the school Tuesday afternoon and was told that the registration papers had not been processed yet, and it was not clear whether the kids would be able to attend today.
Peña said she would rather not have her children attend Brook Avenue and is trying to get the district to place her kids at a closer school. She does not have a car, and getting her kids to school every day or taking Joseph to physical therapy twice a week by bus will be difficult.
Spark has reached out to WISD board president Pat Atkins, who declined comment for this story until he could do more research on the Peñas’ situation.
“I’d rather he remain at Dean Highland, unless he can get into a better school like Lake Waco Montessori School, Mountainview or Viking Hills,” Spark said. “I think he needs to be in school before the end of this week, because he will already be behind a few days. The only saving grace is that he is repeating the first grade.”
rdennis@wacotrib.com
757-5755
Comments
By Dusty
Aug 27, 2009 12:13 AM | Link to this
My daughter had a similar problem with my Grandchild with China Spring ISD...It took half a year to do the testing...then she moved (not that she wanted to) but then records weren't forwarded to the new school district in Waco. Testing has to be done again for the new school? Your talking about another half of the school year before the child gets the proper help? Sheesh!
By Brenda Franklin
Aug 26, 2009 11:32 PM | Link to this
This conduct by WISD does not surprise me in the least! In 1975, at the age of 6, my sister was hit by a car, was comatose for weeks, and to this day, has residual physical and developmental limitations caused by the accident. Leah missed a year of school. When she was ready to go back to school, Waco ISD had no place for her. Oh, they did...Kirk-Wilson Special school was the name, and it was the school where all "special needs" children were required to attend...if their parents even bothered to send them to school. Well, that wasn't good enough for my mom. She was working 3 jobs to us afloat, I was teaching my sister to walk again, talk again, potty train again...you see, the accident robbed Leah of every memory, every learned behavior. Leah was doing her part, I was doing my part (I was 12) and my mom was doing hers. The school district couldn't be bothered. But my mom never stopped, and helped get a law passed guaranteeing that access to an education be made available. Leah Cagle was the one of the 1st "special" kids to be mainstreamed into the Waco Independent Schools. Every day was a battle. But not with her classmates, but with teachers. There was one ARD meeting wherein, an employee of WISD stood up, pointed her finger at my sister and said "She doesn't belong here; she doesn't belong anywhere." If memory serves, they promoted this woman.
Ms. Pena, you have more support on this than you know.
Every school year we had to be ever vigilant in making sure that Leah had what she needed to do the best she could in her studies. One of the proudest nights of my life was the night my sister, Leah Cagle, maneuvered her walker accross the stage to take her diploma. Her graduating classmates stood and gave her a standing ovation. There were many road blocks thrown in our way, and a lessor family would have bent. I pray that this young mother will not bend, and be steadfast in demanding what is best for her son.
By inquirer
Aug 26, 2009 11:09 PM | Link to this
Are these taxpaying US citizens?
By Tonya
Aug 26, 2009 10:49 PM | Link to this
I am sorry to hear this! But we are talking about Waco Schools! This child should have been on top of the list as a returning student, no matter when the paperwork was done! As for how long it took the mom to do the paperwork, you must not have 4 small children with no transportation. The comment you made was out of profession! From the comments read in this, you can tell they did not want Joseph back! I think they should be forced to let him back in the school!
By wacomom
Aug 26, 2009 10:27 PM | Link to this
Joseph's family needs to realize that WISD's special education department is deliberately keeping him out of Dean Highland. This school district has been trying to consolidate their special education students that require more supervision/teacher intervention into only a few schools in order to save the $$ they receive from the federal government for these students. Also, I suspect that they are having trouble keeping themselves in compliance with the No Child Left Behind regulations that stipulate that all special education students must be taught by "highly-qualified" teachers in their subject areas. This dishonest behavior of trying to force special education students off of their home campus (and even some students who were attending the magnet schools) to sub-par classrooms so that they can use their federal special education $$ to pay for the WISD administrators obscene salaries is disgusting.
By Gene
Aug 26, 2009 9:35 PM | Link to this
The children would have been pre-registered from attending Dean Highland, last year. Dean-Highland is a Recognized campus and the children should not have to attend a lesser rated campus.
Her special needs child, could well be entitled to door to door transportation by WISD, it just needs to be included in the ARD......
Never-the-less.....WISD will have to provide transporation for all the children unless they go
to Dean-Highland. WISD just bought the entire south side of the 3300 block of Maple......they need to put in some portable classrooms and serve ALL the children in the Dean-Highland attendance zone. Then again, what do you expect, a few years ago they wanted to close Dean-Highland, too few students....the school board hasn't a clue what is going on and with the "out-of-town" adminstrators they hire, they sure are not getting accurate advice. Why are they waiting until 2010 to start construction? They seem to have a major problem "muti-tasking".
By Q
Aug 26, 2009 9:06 PM | Link to this
This is not the first time DH has not had "room" for a special ed student...
By Taco
Aug 26, 2009 8:42 PM | Link to this
M's Mom get those kids out of WISD as fast as you can....
By qzy
Aug 26, 2009 8:07 PM | Link to this
M's Mom, First of all, welcome to Waco if you're new to the area. Don't pay attention to the careless posts of some people. They are narrow minded people who are so pathetic that they have to condemn others so they can feel good about themselves. It's only a matter of time before Fred's helper gets banned from posting just like Fred did. Vicious rants tend to get censored and soon the poster will be banned alltogether. No where is it stated, or hinted that the children or parents are illegal. I suspect that they are here legally, or else they wouldn't be wanting to draw attention to themselves. Nor is it mentioned or hinted that the mother is living off the taxpayer, so posts of that nature are completely out of line.
By Lindy
Aug 26, 2009 7:26 PM | Link to this
This sounds like this entire ring around the rosy saga has been a sad and stressful episode in the life of young Joseph (the student with no classroom, school, or teacher); along with his mother and family. Time sometimes escapes us all; causing us to scramble to get in under the bell (meeting deadlines); however, that is no reason for WISD to continue to drop the ball, leaving his mother running around through a bureaucratic maze, from school to school. Hopefully Joseph will soon find a school to call his own that will help him rise to his full potential.
Transportation is definitely an issue for all students (especially those in elementary schools) that find themselves displaced from their nearby neighborhood schools due to overcrowding (teacher to student ratios). In my opinion, the only fair way to handle this would be ...when students must attend a school that is not within walking distance from their home, due to overcrowding at their neighborhood school campus, WISD should provide a bus to pick up these displaced students from their neighborhood school campus, transporting them to the alternative school campus (that is a great distance from them), then transport them back to their neighborhood school at the end of the day. Parents without the ways/means to transport their children to schools far from their neighborhood school could simply bring their children to the neighborhood school in the morning, returning to pick them up at the end of the school day from their neighborhood school as well. If I remember back that far, Dean Highland students that attended Alta Vista Montessori were transported back and forth from Dean Highland campus by WISD.
In speaking up for Dean Highland; my son is now a Junior at Waco High; but, he was once a Dean Highland student. I always found the principle, teachers he had at Dean Highland, the school secretary, school nurse, and other staff there to be caring, conscientious, and devoted to the students in attendance ... while there, my son excelled acidemically (as he does to this day) due to the primary educational building blocks Dean Highland provided. Furthermore, the parents of those at Dean Highland were hard working, honest, and family oriented people; many of whom I got to know while my son attended this school. I'm not saying that there may well not have been a bad apple (teacher) there in at some point of time, but if there was I never ran across one while my son was there.
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