Teachers at the Grabiarz School of Excellence say they are outraged at the Buffalo School District's plans to add more special education classes at their school. WBFO's Focus on Education reporter Eileen Buckley explains why the teachers believe it will disruptive and why the district needs to make the changes.
"When someone from the outside says comes in and says this is what we are coming to do and there's no reason why we're going to do it, it becomes a disruption," said Maria Pluchino, Grabiarz math teacher.
Pluchino is responding to the district's Special Education Department directive. An email informed teachers the district will be adding two 8-1-1 classes in the next school year. That's eight students to one teacher and one teacher aid. Sixteen new students special education students will arrive next season.
The District will also remove one of Grabiarz's 15-to-1 special education classes. That's 15 students to one special education teacher.
"Even though it looks like we don't have behavior problems, we know how to deal with it and the expectations in the building are set," noted Pluchino.
In 2011, Grabiarz was placed on the State Education Department's list of "lowest performing" schools in Buffalo. But that's all about to change. On Wednesday, July 1, Grabriaz is expected to appear on the State Education Departments list of "schools in good standing."
Principal Greg Mott tells WBFO News his school should be used as a model for the entire district. Mott is upset the district will be adding more students with behavioral issues just as the school is showing improvement.
"It's concerning because the work is being done at the schoolhouse and anytime change is made, conversations should be had with leadership, with teachers, with the school community to determine how it would be impactful, especially when we are drafting our own individual school comprehensive education plans," said Mott.
"I couldn't disagree more with Mr. Mott," stated Donald Ogilvie, the District's outgoing interim superintendent. Ogilvie says he is not pleased the school is responding so negatively.
"I think Mr. Mott is taking a very localized issue and trying to build a case that there is something wrong or that there is something inequitable," stated Ogilivie.
But the district said Mott has no choice but to accept the new students.
"I'm the Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and I personally went to the school with the director of Special Education and she and I had a meeting with Mr. Mott and three of his team members," said Dr. Mary Pauly, Assistant Superintendent in charge of Special Education.
Pauly explained why the must make these changes.
"What I tried to show Mr. Mott was the breakdown of schools that are similar to his and, I guess, if you had a group of principals here, they probably look at the data and they say 'Who has the lighter load?' and they would look at Mr. Mott's school and they'd say 'This past year, Mr. Mott had the lighter load' because the 15-to-1 typically does not contain a lot of students with behavior problems," said Pauly.
Still Grabiarz teachers gathered around a conference table at the school, each describing their concerns with adding 8-1-1 classes. Some accusing Pauly of trying to "destroy" their success.
"The district should be replicating what is happening here instead of trying to disrupt what is happening here," said Mary Cimato, 7th grade 15-to-1 Special Education Teacher.
Teachers say they consider it a form of punishment.
"Now, because we are doing well, it's almost like we are being reprimanded for doing what we were supposed to be doing," noted Cimato.
"We're also getting students now who have probably been jumping around from building to building and now students that we have had in our building for consistent amount of years will have nowhere to go in our building and will be forced to leave our building to continue to get their services," said Katie Klauk, a third grade Special Education teacher.
One of the teachers deals with all the students at the school. Jan Dylewski is an art teacher at Grabiarz.
"If we're starting from square one, [it's a] major disruption. I will be so sad to see some of the students that we've built that relationship -- they see other teachers in the hallway -- they can't go back and rely on them," said Dylewski.
Fourth grade teacher Jessica Mandell and eight grade instructor Amanda Sperrazza are conducting integrated co-teaching.
"When you have teams of professionals that work well together, why split them up, break them up, make them transition every year because, you know, to set up a new classroom and learn a new grade level is a lot of work in itself," said Mandell.
"I think it's all just a numbers game. They're trying to cut numbers down, combine things together and they're not taking children into account. They don't care about them. I'm sorry, I'm going to be very frank. I've been with the district for 29 years and I think they're just trying to save money, they're trying to save face and save their jobs and they don't care about us or the kids," said Sperrazza.
Teachers are accusing the district of sabotaging their efforts. Amy Flynn is a fifth grade 15-to-1 Special Education Teacher and also a union representative.
"What we are expecting to see from these new classrooms are more physical behaviors that none of us are trained to deal with. In order to train to deal with these you need SCIP (Strategies for Crisis Intervention and Prevention) training and no one in this building is currently SCIP trained," stated Flynn.
Flynn has contacted Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore to see if this can be prevented.
But Dr. Pauly insists the changes must be accomplish in order to address the ever-growing numbers of special education children in Buffalo.
"These kids are all our kids and that's really what Mr. Mott needs to remember. These are all our children and we care about all our kids," stated Paul.
