By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
May 4, 2011

With his mother’s assistance, Juan Cuevas rolled his wheelchair to the front of the auditorium.

Looking directly at the Kansas City Missouri Board of Education, he said, “I don’t want you to close Delano. I don’t want to go to another school. I love this school. I love my school!”

Cuevas and nine others others pleaded with board members during the April 28 board of education meeting to keep R.J. Delano School open.

Superintendent Dr. John Covington is proposing to close the school due to non-compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and held several public meetings earlier this month regarding the issue. The alternative school, catered toward special needs students, currently serves 71 students in third through 12th grades and is the only one of its kind in the district.

One concern Delano parents voiced regarded the safety and well-being of their children if KCMSD were to transfer their children to mainstream schools.

When Delano student Courtney Jones talked about the school, she cried.

“Before I went to Delano, I was picked on and teased,” Jones said.

She paused to gain composure.

“I had to wear a helmet at schools. They would tease me…” she said. “Do ya’ll know how it feels to wear a helmet on your head and have a seizure?”

Norma Newton said the school changed her great-great grandson.

Before attending Delano, her grandson attended mainstream schools, but it didn’t work, she said.

“He sat in the corner all day,” Newton said. “You’d ask him, ‘What happened at school?’ Nothing. ‘What did you do?’ Nothing. I sat in my chair in the corner.

“When he got to Delano, it was just a turnaround in his character. He’ll get up rambling in the dark getting ready for school when he stays with me. I’ll tell him, ‘It’s too early – it’s 4 o’clock in the morning!’”

Davis Martin also witnessed his son change. Mainstream schools weren’t equipped for his son, he said.

“My son didn’t even used to talk before he got to Delano,” Martin said. “He didn’t do anything when he was at the other schools… Now, he tells you a story and you can’t get him to stop talking.”

Former Delano student Dreyon Howard, now a senior at Paseo Fine Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, said Delano was more than a school, it was a family.

If the school board sides with Dr. Convington, that “family” will soon be split apart.

Asked how Delano is out of compliance with federal law, KCMSD Chief of Staff Dr. Chace Ramey said it deals with serving students in the “least restrictive environment.” IDEA requires schools to educate children with disabilities alongside non-disabled children as much as possible.

“It’s not a matter of upgrading the facilities or changing personnel,” Ramey said. “The students are segregated from the rest of the student population (from mainstream schools), so there’s no inclusion going on. It places them where they’re not being educated in the least restrictive environment.

“The only way to really bring Delano into compliance would be to import non-disabled students into the environment.”

Board member Joseph Jackson addressed the Delano representatives, saying, “I know the challenges they (students) face on a daily basis. We need to closely evaluate any plan to close Delano. We need to evaluate this plan for the medical and physical safety of these scholars.”

Board of Education President Airick West told Northeast News the plan to close Delano has not been presented to the board, which has the final say.

Delano’s School Advisory Council will make a formal presentation during the May 4 board of education meeting.

KCMSD re-evaluates teacher contracts

When KCMSD decided not to renew 87 teacher contracts for the 2011 to 2012 school year, Kansas City’s American Federation of Teachers (KCAFT) asked KCMSD to reconsider. Convington agreed.

Andrea Flinders, president of KCAFT, asked the board if it decided to re-employ some of the teachers.

“The answer to that questions is, ‘yes,'” West said.

Ramey told Northeast News that after re-evaluating the contracts, KCMSD re-hired four teachers.

Asked why the teachers were let go, Ramey said it’s part of the district’s transformation and reorganization plan.

Phase II of that plan calls for non-renewing a “significant portion” of teachers and rebuilding capacity, he said.

Part of the reasoning is based off of a report released by the National Center on Teacher Quality.

“It suggested you should let go a certain percentage of non-tenured teachers every year,” Ramey said.

KCMSD followed that advice in an effort to employ a “highly effective teacher” in every classroom.

“We want to do everything we can to ensure that happens,” Ramey said.

Currently, KCMSD is operating under provisional accreditation for failing to meet state Annual Performance Reports (APR) for multiple years. Although KCMSD class size ratios are lower than state averages, KCMSD students’ test scores are below 25 percent proficient or advanced in communication arts and below 32 percent proficient or advanced in mathematics.

KCMSD’s transformation plan states, “instructional delivery is not meeting all students’ needs.”

Distance labs – another form of learning

To further enhance learning, KCMSD will install distance learning labs in its high schools. Distance learning labs will allow the district to utilize its staff efficiently and connect to other schools or students abroad.

“It requires less resources, but the positive impact on our students will be greater,” Covington said. “Right now, with the exception of Lincoln Prep High School, we’re just not doing a good job of providing students in other high schools with high quality and sufficient number of AP courses.”

Distance learning labs will allow schools to share teachers across the district by using a central location. A video feed will be in the central location and then transmitted to other schools.

Not only will students be able to connect with other KCMSD students, they’ll be able to connect with students living abroad, Covington said.

For example, if a class is studying China, students could connect with teachers or other students living in China through technology like Skype.

KCMSD expects to install several distance learning labs by fall.