Schools

Letter to the Editor: Changes at Monterey Hills

Monterey Hills teacher Dawn Tull says the combining of specialized classes will hinder children's social skills.

I am writing to express my immense disappointment at a recent program change made at —the combining of the two special day classes (SDC) into one K-5 class. This decision was made because someone at the district office said enrollment numbers for grade 4/5 SDC seemed low. However, that person failed to consider that the numbers on a page don’t accurately represent the number of students actually served by the unique Monterey Hills SDC program.

Five years ago, Sharon Stearn and I developed a co-teaching program between the 4th/5th SDC and my general education 4th/5th grades. One of my many goals for this program included fostering an environment of acceptance and scholarship  for all students in both classes. During this time, we’ve practiced daily reverse inclusion and mainstreaming grouping students by either grade level or need. Some special day class students are in the larger class most of the day benefiting from whole group instruction while some of my general education students receive specialized academic instruction (SAI) in the smaller group environment. Ten students grades 3-5 who are either on IEPs or identified at riskbenefited daily from SAI in the SDC classroom. These students don’t show up on the SDC enrollment form. I attribute a portion of the test score gains at Monterey Hills last year amongst students with disabilities to this highly effective program.

Ms. Stearn and I also developed an extremely successful social skills program in which we work with small groups to target specific social skills and strategies. All students have benefited greatly from this program, and most are able to then generalize these skills in both the classroom and on the playground.

Find out what's happening in South Pasadenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This program will not work with a single K-5 class as it is currently proposed. I certainly will mainstream any SDC child-based on IEP goals, but gone will be the successes I’ve noted above. The highly effective social skills program can’t exist with the new configuration nor will the intervention/SAI groupings. I firmly believe that test scores will be affected as well.

The devastation of this proven successful program is proposed because of a number on an enrollment form. This may save money in terms of one classroom being removed, but the cost to the kids and the school environment can’t be measured. I invite each and every member of the school board to please come up to Monterey Hills before the end of the school year to see what will be lost.

Find out what's happening in South Pasadenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

During the last five years, I’ve been told by several of you what a great program we have, but none have ever come to see it in action. It is demoralizing to have worked so hard to create something so successful and wonderful for kids, and then see it dissolved because of money. I know times are tight and something has to give, but I read the agendas every time there is a meeting and I see the consultants and new assistants being hired. They do not directly benefit kids on a daily basis; this collaborative SDC/general education co-teaching program did.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Dawn Tull


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from South Pasadena