Liese Klein Photo
Kim Pearce (at left) at Tuesday’s meeting.
Where is my kid going to school next year?
That simple question has gone unanswered for dozens of parents of Hamden special-education students as the town moves toward a district-wide school reorganization plan.
“We don’t know which building he’s going to be in for kindergarten, we don’t know the people, we don’t know the environment – we can’t plan,” said Valen Grandelski of her special-needs child, now in pre‑K at Helen Street School. Not knowing where her son will be for next year is bad enough, Grandelski said; she also anticipates that her child will be moved again for first grade due to Hamden policies that frequently transfer kids in independent learning classrooms, a type of intensive special ed.
“Any child with disabilities is always going to take longer to adapt,” said Grandelski. “Right now they get the least amount of time to do that, the least time to prepare and the least consistency and stability.”
Parents Speak Out
Valen Grandelski: “We can’t plan.”
Grandelski was one of about 20 parents of children in Hamden special-education programs who turned out to meet with school officials on Tuesday afternoon in the rust-streaked cafeteria at Alice Peck School. Peck is slated to be renovated under an $81 million plan to reorganize the town’s schools, including moving many special-ed classrooms to what is now Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School.
District officials are still awaiting approval and funding of the full initiative, but work is slated to begin on June 18 to convert Wintergreen into a campus suitable for special-needs kids.
In occasionally tense exchanges with school brass, parents expressed frustration both with current Hamden special-education policies and with future plans that some portrayed as further isolating vulnerable students.
“It is an opportunity for all of us to be together at one time and express our concerns,” said Jacqueline Beirne, a co-founder of Hamden’s Special Education PTA (SEPTA). “I’m speaking as the mother of a child who has been negatively affected year after year with the lack of cohesion of our Board of Education and our Hamden public schools.”
District officials missed opportunities to inform and engage parents, said Tilsia Rosado, who received only a brief letter to tell her that her child would be moved to Wintergreen.
“That’s not good enough,” she said.
“We’re here to help, we’re not here to fight you,” said Christopher Melillo, assistant superintendent for Hamden Public Schools.
After urging parents to “keep it cordial,” he outlined the background for the new plan, explaining that declining school enrollment and the difficulty of securing funding for special-ed construction projects led to the decision to consolidate programs in one location.
“We can address a lot of the issues we’re having by having us move to Wintergreen in the future,” Melillo said.
That future lies at least two years away, however, school officials said. Aside from immediate transfers from soon-to-be-renovated Alice Peck, most special education students will stay in their current schools until the 2021 school year.
In the near term, town special-education chief Kim Pearce promised parents that all families will be notified of their school placements by the end of June and joined with Melillo to commit to reducing student transfers.
“We recognize how difficult it is and we recognize the challenges that exist with the current model,” Pearce said. “We’re working to make it better for next year.”
Seeking Inclusion
Tilsia Rosado: Brief letter “not enough.”
Parents also expressed frustration with the currently limited opportunities for their kids to mingle with their typical peers – a situation that could potentially worsen if special-needs programs are clustered at Wintergreen.
“While it’s great to have all of the resources of our district all centralized, it’s still a BandAid,” Beirne said. “I would like to see Hamden really progressing toward [an inclusive] model instead of spending a pot load of money to send our kids across town.”
Melillo promised to meet with parents on a regular basis over the summer to answer questions and address concerns about current policies and the upcoming changes.
“If it’s broke, we want to fix it,” Melillo said.
Grandelski and several other parents said they weren’t satisfied with the administrators’ promises to cut back on transfers and keep them informed.
“I want to see action. I appreciate the acknowledgement of the problem but the fact is that we’ve known about the problem long enough and spent too long saying that we’re working on it,” Grandelski said. “Children with disabilities have the least amount of time to waste.”
