D205 Parents Hold to the Hope that Special Needs Students Won't Be Moved

Parents of special needs children in Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 are calling for administrators to reconsider the pending move of instructional classrooms from Field Elementary School to Emerson Elementary School.

An online petition to reevaluate the move has collected more than 1,000 signatures in about four weeks.

The petition’s creator, Katie Marsico, and parents posting on social media are encouraging the community to attend the District 205 Board of Education meeting at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12 in the District 205 Building, 162 S. York Road in Elmhurst.

A note from Kathleen Kosteck, assistant superintendent for Student Services, sent home in students’ backpacks in November stated teachers Michele Cappel and Maureen Loughery will move with their instructional classrooms to Emerson for the 2016-17 school year.

The note cited a projected increase in enrollment at Field, which may require additional grade level classrooms.

“Emerson School has the capacity to house these two district-wide programs, as it has available classroom space based upon projected enrollment for minimally the next five years,” the letter states.

Shawn Bowen, whose son, Matthew, attends an instructional class at Field, said the school district’s decision to move the classes wasn’t transparent or data driven.

“If they are treating the most vulnerable kids in your community in this manner, what else are they capable of?” she asked. “It’s worth coming to a meeting to put your support on transparency and to put your support on knowing what’s going on.”

Bowen said her research shows the transition would go more smoothly if the two instructional classes were allowed to move from Field in two phases, first with the younger kindergarten through second grade class followed in a later year by the third through fifth grade class.

During a Nov. 10 school board meeting when the move was discussed, Frank Schuh, director of Buildings and Grounds, said the move could be staggered because Field has a year or two before enrollment gets close to capacity, “but it seems like it works out best for both in the same year, and that also leaves those teachers together in the same building,” he said.

Dianne Falco, whose son Mark is in second grade with Loughery’s class this year, said she hasn’t been given a satisfactory answer about why the classes are being moved.

• See also: Parent Questions Pending Relocation of D205 Special Education Students

She believes her son and other students may regress if they must move to an unfamiliar school.

“We’re worried about Mark losing his friends, that’s the number one issue,” she said. “We’re also concerned that he’s going to have to learn new faces and friends and a new building. There might be behavioral problems attached to that challenge.”

Falco said she and other parents had one-on-one meetings with Kosteck, but the parents didn’t get the answers they were looking for about the decision to move their children. She said some of the parents left their meetings in tears.

Bowen said in her meeting, Kosteck wouldn’t discuss the decision, only the transition.

The online petition is filled with comments pointing to a lack of transparency in the district, requests for reconsideration and stories of how a move would affect all students.

Susan Larrick of Elmhurst signed the online petition with a comment about how her daughter, who attends Field not in an instructional class, would be effected by the move.

“My oldest daughter is a part of the Peer Buddy Program, where she has participated directly with some of her peers in the Instructional Program, and she has not just enjoyed it but has learned so much from it. As she has helped her peers work with their special needs, she has learned compassion, understanding, patience, acceptance of differences and built on her own self esteem to be able to positively affect another person like this.”

Other petition comments from family members, former students and taxpayers affirm the idea that all Field students benefit from the presence of the instructional classes.

Photo via Facebook.