DESCRIBER: A title: "Making It Work: Supportive Administrators."
DAVID TRETHAWAY (Superintendent of Schools, Manchester Township School District): WeÕve had students before whoÕve had some limitationsÑsome who did not hear very well, some sight impaired. But I think AvaÕs the first one that weÕve had in a long time that has both of those things.
OLIVER LOKERSON (Director of Special Services, Manchester Township School District): The mother was able to give a great deal of in-depth information about the child and about the disability in general. Many times parents become the experts, even more so than educators at times when you have a specific disability. But you could see immediately, number one, how proud she was of her daughter and that she was going to advocate for her to make sure that she had the most appropriate program.
CARLY FREDERICKS (AvaÕs Mom): So I really kind of sat down and one of the steps that I took was to develop, I guess you would say itÕs like a resume for Ava. I broke down all the supports that she was receiving and provided them the contact information of her direct service providers.
OLIVER: The mom put us in contact with everybody and told us, even gave us individual names that we should contact, which really was a good thing because sometimes even the supervisors arenÕt real sure of the specifics regarding all of the cases because they have so many cases. But because the mom gave us specific names, and whether it be a school or whether it be supportive services or whatever, we could contact them directly, and they were really helpful in helping us understand what needed to be done to make sure she received the appropriate program.
DAVID: Her parents have been super. TheyÕve done a great job of kind of guiding us in some of the areas that we werenÕt too sure of. TheyÕve been very supportive, very positive, and itÕs really been a tremendous experience.
LINDA WALDRON (Principal, Manchester Township Elementary School): Her mom came in right away, explained that she wanted to do professional development for our staff; we welcomed that and encouraged that. So on our first day, our opening day, I invited all of our teachers, all of our lunch aids, and all of our paraprofessionals. Now normally theyÕre not all here for that; they wanted to be here. So everybody was part of that training. And I have to tell you, it ran lateÉnot one person complained. Everybody was so mesmerized by what she had to say and so excited to get to meet her.
JILL MOORE (Vice Principal, Manchester Township Elementary School): ItÕs funny because when you see Ava, you wouldnÕt know necessarily that there was anything going on. So it was important to us that all our staff, across the board, know the challenges that she had and how to best help her.
LINDA: We also then had her mobility specialist come in and do another in-service training during what we call PD meetings, early in the morning, like at 8:00. And so she came in and she did a special training on the cane and how to walk up and down the stairs, how everybody had to stay one side going up and the other side going down. And then we spread the message to the rest of the students in the school to make sure that everybody was following that.
DAVID: WeÕve made the accommodation of having yellow reflective strips on the steps for Ava. And weÕve had a number of students come up to us and say, ÒThatÕs a great idea; this is great for us.Ó So things like that that happenÑmaybe itÕs good for Ava but itÕs maybe good for the entire school district. We have a diverse population just like most schools. Whatever that diversity is, I think itÕs important for students to learn at an early age to be able to accept people who have different qualities, and I think to a degree, weÕre all kind of unique. So to look through whatever the disability is or whatever the characteristic. We go through a lot of peer mediation, we go through a lot of HIB prevention (bullying and so forth) to be able to be aware of some of the differences that the students have. And I think the parents have been very supportive in that regard to teach the children at an early age that we have a diverse population and everybody has a right to express their uniqueness and be able to be individuals.
LINDA: Here at MTES weÕre a family. So Ava fit in right away. SheÕs an amazing young lady. What I really love about her is that she doesnÕt want to be treated any differently; she just wants to be one of the kids, which is a great thing.
JILL: And I have to say, the students really donÕt treat her any differently.
OLIVER: The one unusual thing is that she happens to be a fifth grader, which means sheÕs going to be transitioning over to our middle school. So by the time we really get to know her, sheÕll be leaving us. Now once she gets into the middle school, thatÕs a three-year experience.
LINDA: She already made a transition this year; we want to make it as seamless as we possibly can for next year.
JILL: One thing weÕve done is that her future case manager at the middle school has been attending all her IEP meetings at the elementary level, so thatÕs one way weÕre including them in the transition. Ava and Mrs. Fredericks will have the opportunity to do a sensitivity training with those other fifth grade classesÉ
LINDA: Which will be great.
JILL: Yeah, so by the time they come in with her in sixth grade, they will already have met her, they will already know about her. And that should take care of all those questions for Ava right off the bat, so those will be a few things. And then the other will just be to allow her access to the middle school over the summer, and just as we brought the mobility expert in here to look around, theyÕll have those same opportunities. But just as excited as our teachers were here, we expect the middle school teachers to be equally as excited to include her as part of our middle school family.
One of the things that Mrs. Fredericks did early on that sort of helped all this was sheÉone of the things she put out to us right away was, I donÕt expect you to know everything, that this is a learning process and thereÕs no way you could know everything, and I donÕt expect everything in place todayÑimmediately, but I just hope that youÕre open. And I think that that was really a nice way to put it because it eased our mind a little bit that we werenÕt afraidÑwhat were we doing wrong. She took that fear right off the table.
LINDA: This experience has been wonderful. WeÕve both learned so much; our entire school has learned so much.
JILL: Parents are very much their childÕs strongest and first advocates, so it really was helpful to have the Fredericks come in and advocate for their child. But that would be what we would do for anybody and what we would hope that any parent would do when they brought a child in. So listening really is so important because nobody knows that child better than their parents do. So if you can take that information in as a school district and use it to help you to better provide services for the child, thatÕs only beneficial.