Special Education Programs To Move To Reed Intermediate School

By Larissa Lytwyn

The Board of Education has unanimously approved moving Project Succeed, an Education Connection-run special education program for medically fragile students, and the PROBE program, designed for preschool-aged students with special needs, to Reed Intermediate School for the 2004-05 school year. The action came at the board’s June 1 meeting.

Project Succeed has been housed in a 1,000-square-foot area in Danbury Hospital for the past five or six years, said Education Connection’s Special Services Director John Mongeau during the meeting.

The combination of soaring rental rates and a space he described as “clinical,” and not “an ideal location for children’s education,” made the need to move the program increasingly imperative.

At the school board’s May 18 meeting, Newtown’s Pupil Personnel Services Director Michael Regan presented his proposal to move Project Succeed to Reed Intermediate School’s room 258.

Although offering a slightly smaller space of 823 square feet, the location would be ideal for the program’s three Newtown students. A fourth Newtown student may join the program this fall, bringing the number of students involved in the program to nine.

The recommended maximum number of students for the program is only ten, but Dr Regan said he sees no potential candidates for the program “in the foreseeable future.”

He assured board members that Newtown students would have preferred placement in the regional program.

“We always strive to keep the child as close to their home as possible,” he said.

In addition, keeping Project Succeed in Newtown would cost the school board only $159,405.

The $247,356 tuition cost for all Project Succeed students would be offset by Education Connection’s $30,701 one-year rental fee, as well as a $119,170 excess cost grant provided by the state. Transportation would cost approximately $61,920, due to the special equipment, such as wheelchair lifts, necessary for transport.

“If we began our own medically fragile program for special needs students, it would cost $275,119,” Dr Regan said. “So staying with Education Connection is obviously a more cost-effective solution.”

The out-of-district cost to students currently attending Project Succeed is $198,135.

While officially acquiring the location on July 1, Mr Mongeau said the specific move-in and program start dates could be “flexible.”

Several members of the Newtown community with special needs students attended the June 1 Board of Education meeting to encourage the board to approve moving the PROBE preschool special education program to Reed Intermediate School’s rooms 137a and 137b at a spacious 1,960 square feet.

PROBE is currently housed at Middle Gate Elementary School in a space one parent condemned “a closet.”

“Newtown is continuing to grow,” said Dr Regan. “We currently have two PROBE sessions totaling 22 students.”

PROBE works by pairing each of the district’s 11 special education preschoolers with a nonspecial needs peer. In addition, there are 71 students currently involved in a preschool speech therapy program not related to PROBE.

The number of students now involved in PROBE is expected to increase from 22 to 44 for the 2004-05 school year. Board Vice Chair Lisa Schwartz expressed concern over the dramatic increase.

Dr Regan explained that the jump was caused to the special education department’s ambitious efforts to identify children with special needs in compliance with the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act.

“We placed ads in the paper asking parents concerned with the speech and social development of their preschool-aged children to contact us,” Dr Regan said. “We really reached out to the community.”

He assured the board that he did not expect any more dramatic increases beyond the 44-student figure. However, he expressed concern about Newtown’s growth.

Although Reed’s population was expected to remain the same during the 2004-05 school year, he warned of increases in the years beyond.

PROBE’s move to Reed, he said, would only be for a year.

“We would then see at this time next year what our projections were,” he said. He added that he was already looking into new locations for the 2005-06 school year and planned to present them during the board’s next budget cycle.

Parents of special needs students expressed their support of the PROBE program, and its potential move, with passion.

Elda Smith lauded the PROBE program for turning her preschool aged son into a verbal, active child. “He’s like a completely different child,” she declared.

Several other parents echoed this sentiment.

Ann Rose emphasized the importance of keeping the “team together” with the move to Reed instead of seeking alternatives that could divide the program between Middle Gate and Hawley Elementary School.

Another option was moving the program to two basement-level classrooms in Newtown Middle School, rooms that were not guaranteed to be next to each other.

“My daughter requires a child-sized walker,” said Michelle McPartland, “as do several other students. The current space at Middle Gate can barely accommodate them.” She added that her family and families like her pay the same amount in taxes as the families of healthy children do.

“Our children deserve to have the space and the windows of the other classrooms,” she said. “They need the sunshine, too.”

She paused.

“When I look around this room [school board meetings take place in Reed Intermediate Room 122], all I can think about was how much space there could be for my daughter to walk in,” she remarked.

Board Secretary Andy Buzzi immediately moved to approve the PROBE program’s move to Reed Intermediate School.

The motion was seconded in unison by board members David Nanavaty, Paul Mangiafico, and Tom Gissen.

After its unanimous approval, several parents mouthed “Thank you” to board members and left smiling for the first time since arriving at the meeting.