#riverterrace

Good afternoon Council members,

 My name is Brenda Williams, I am a Ward 7 resident and my child attends Sharpe Health School.  Her name is Bre-yah Dorey, she is currently in the 4th grade and has attended Sharpe Health since kindergarten. 

 As you know Sharpe Health and Mamie D. Lee will be consolidate into the River Terrace Elementary building for the next school year.  As a parent I am very concerned about several things, I have come up with the following questions that I would like for DCPS to answer:

 We have been told by Chancellor Henderson that IEP teams at both schools will determine who attends the new site.  As of today I have not heard any more on this, I am unclear if my child will be able to attend the new site

My daughter has participated in the ESY program (Extended School Year) for 4 years.  At the moment we have not been given any information as to how the ESY program will work this summer as the school will be closed?

At the new site there are plans for a Career Technical Center, we are unclear about what students will attend this program and how they will be chosen to attend?

Will the school only serve students who currently attend Sharpe and Mamie Lee or will it be open to families from around the city?

DGS has committed to finishing the new site by mid August, in the event that the project is delayed what plan does DCPS have for families if the new site does not open on time?

Overall I am concerned with the lack of information being provided to Sharpe families about the transition.  I want to know when DCPS will let us know what to expect for the coming school year?

 I am concerned that this lack of information will force families to go to another school such as St. Coletta’s or somewhere out of the District. 

February 2014 testimony of Sharpe staff member about planned closure:

Part 1: Rethinking a bad decision                                                          2/26/14

Today I am speaking about the plan to close Sharpe Health and Mamie D Lee schools. DCPS plans to move some of the students to a newly renovated River Terrace School and will also open a vocational training program there. The recent discovery of over 200 Native American artifacts on the grounds of River Terrace School has delayed the planned opening by a year. This delay is the perfect opportunity to assess whether the isolated River Terrace site is the most appropriate location for the proposed special education programs. 

My overarching concern is that there has been a policy shift within DCPS over the last several years about how to best educate students with severe disabilities. Unfortunately, the decision has not come from a collaborative effort. Special education staff members from full-time special education schools, parents of students with special needs and staff members representing neighborhood schools should have been an integral part of this process to determine if the shift to closing special education centers and sending severely disabled students to neighborhood schools serves in the best interest of the students.

The rationale of DCPS for moving more seriously disabled students to inclusion settings is to allow the students opportunities to engage with their non-disabled peers and sometimes at a school closer to their homes.  

While there are severely disabled students who can be educated in neighborhood schools many will not thrive in this type of environment. The benefits Sharpe students receive from being educated in a full-time special education setting are many.  All staff members are trained and experienced in working with students with severe disabilities. Due to the nature of our students’ disabilities, many are nonverbal and are wheelchair bound due to being partially or fully paralyzed or have other mobility issues.

The students require a wide range of support services including tube feedings, diaper changing and other medical interventions. They are able to access a wide range of services with service providers who are at Sharpe multiple days a week.  This is important because in most schools speech, OT/PT therapists are only scheduled for a day or two at the most so when the provider misses a day or has to attend IEP meetings, students are more likely to miss services. Also, when a student is absent from school and misses a physical therapy session for example, a provider who is on site more frequently can make up that session on another day much more easily. We have specialized staff members like a life skills teacher, an adaptive PE teacher, a transition coordinator/jobs coach, etc. who are trained and experienced in working with our student population.  Additionally, if a classroom or dedicated aide is absent there are trained aides to provide assistance who the students know and trust. The fact is that having full-time special education schools allows students to access many more services. 

DCPS eliminated the early childhood program (ages 3 and 4) at Sharpe for this school year without input from staff or parents and mandated that parents send their children to School Within a School a Goding. We are told that there is no real inclusion happening there. At the River Terrace School, DCPS is now saying that it will only serve students in 3rd grade and up. Even those students who are in 3rd grade or older from Sharpe and Mamie D Lee may not be allowed to attend the new school. This decision will be based on criteria developed by central office staff. If these students are not accepted at River Terrace they will be placed in a neighborhood school.

Many parents of severely disabled students want their children in a safe environment where they don’t have to worry about their children getting bullied, teased or harmed by other students. They want a school with proper staffing, where they don’t have to worry about their children sitting in a wheelchair all day in the corner of the room with minimal interaction or sitting in a dirty diaper for hours because the aide or teacher happens to be absent or busy. 

The decision as to the most appropriate learning environment-- a full-time special education school versus  a self-contained classroom at a neighborhood school--should be made at the student’s IEP meeting in collaboration with the parent and school staff. It should not be decided by DCPS policies that fail to look at the unique needs of students on an individual basis.

It is important to point out a double standard that exists. If parents get their children into St. Coletta’s charter school which serves students with similar disabilities they have more choices. They can keep their children at St. Coletta’s until they age out. They don’t have to worry about some new DCPS policy that abruptly changes their child’s school with no recourse.

Why is DCPS forcing students with severe disabilities to be educated in their neighborhood schools, especially when many of these schools are already struggling and are stretched to the limit with huge numbers of existing students in need of significant supports?  Students with severe disabilities who require a full time special education placement should be allowed to attend a full-time special education school if that is what is determined to be the most appropriate educational setting at their IEP meeting.

  Part 2: Rethinking a bad decision

The location of River Terrace School is a major concern because of its isolation and inaccessibility. It bounded by 295, Benning Road and East Capitol Street. Sharpe is easily accessible to the Petworth Metro as well as to the major bus lines along Georgia Avenue and 14th Street. This access is critical to help increase our students’ independence and travel training. The students at Sharpe and Mamie D Lee have significant intellectual disabilities and need to practice what they learn in the classroom out in the community.  At River Terrace students will have to traverse a highway or use very narrow sidewalks which are not wide enough to safely accommodate wheelchairs to travel to Minnesota Avenue Metro and nearby businesses. The isolated location of River Terrace will greatly impact the students’ ability to take advantage of community resources. Sharpe is located in a neighborhood with many community amenities including a newly renovated public library, several schools, small businesses, restaurants and a large Safeway set to open next month. The River Terrace community unfortunately is underserved and does not have the same access to these services.

DCPS has stated that the River Terrace site was chosen because over 50% of Sharpe and Mamie D Lee students reside in Wards 7 and 8, however, nearly half of our students live closer or as close to Sharpe Health School.

 St. Coletta’s Charter School is located less than 2 miles away from River Terrace School.  There will now be a void of a full-time special education school for students with severe disabilities in upper Northeast and all of Northwest.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to maintain Sharpe at its current location in light of accessibility issues mentioned above?  Also, Sharpe has two beautiful courtyards that provide a safe contained space for our students to use in addition to a new handicap accessible playground and a totally renovated indoor pool especially designed for our student population. Sharpe’s partnerships with local community groups and programs such as our Foster Grandparent program are a vital part of our school community that would be severed with the move to River Terrace.

Decreasing the time students spend travelling by bus is a worthwhile goal but it is important to take into consideration the benefits of students attending school in a revitalized community like Petworth. The many community amenities described earlier are wonderful learning opportunities our students should have access to. We know that too many of our students live in communities that are underserved and lacking basic resources.

There are also documented concerns with the pollution levels in the River Terrace Community. The air quality in the community is so poor that a device measuring pollution and contaminants has been stationed there for years. In addition, the now closed PEPCO power plant, which had several toxic spills over the years while it was open, is located just north of the school. The levels of contamination from the plant are currently being tested and results have yet to be released. Just as worrisome, the new school will have anywhere from 30 to 50 buses dropping off and picking up students every day. This will increase the levels of air pollution in the community.

The Sharpe student population is medically fragile. Just last week a student was sent by ambulance to Children’s Hospital which is just two miles  away and takes minutes to get to from Sharpe as opposed to being 3 times further away from River Terrace. Due to our students’ significant medical needs, ambulance trips to Children’s Hospital are a frequent occurrence and sadly one or more students die every year. Why would DCPS move such medically fragile students further from Children’s Hospital in an isolated community with higher pollution levels?

Finally, there are concerns about the proposed educational program that will be offered at River Terrace. Here are some concerns:

River Terrace will house a citywide vocational program for students with severe disabilities and a full-time special education school. Some teachers with experience working with our student population believe that the size of the classrooms designed in the architectural drawings will not have enough space to accommodate multiple students in wheelchairs.

The proposed staffing levels for the new River Terrace School are not enough to appropriately serve our students’ needs. Yet one a main reason cited for the consolidation was to enhance services.

The vocational program is designed so that some students will use the Metro. This is a problem due to the isolated location of River Terrace that I cited earlier as well as the fact that there is a high level of crime reported near the Minnesota Avenue Metro.