Spencerport parents uncomfortable
with changes at Taylor school

The process of moving seventh through ninth grade students enrolled in the BOCES Therapeutic Day Treatment program didn't happen overnight, parent Virginia Nichols said and yet parents weren't notified of the changes taking place at Spencerport's Taylor Elementary School until the students were moved in and classes had begun.

Last month, the BOCES Therapeutic Day Treatment Program for middle school students opened in a separate facility at the Taylor School. It was a move that has upset some parents because they say they weren't notified of the district's decision prior to its taking place and, more importantly, because they say the move could potentially endanger the kindergarten through fifth grade students already housed in the building.

"We strongly support the BOCES program and the families it serves, but we don't believe there is any justification for placing students of this age group in the same school with kindergarten through fifth grade students," Nichols said.

The students from the therapeutic day program are seventh to ninth graders who have been identified as having behavioral problems and learning disabilities.

Nichols said she and a contingent of other parents attended the most recent school board meeting to express their dismay with the changes that had taken place. "We didn't just come and talk to the superintendent and the board members to complain," Nichols said. "We came armed with a solution - a solution which school officials summarily dismissed."

The solution to move the older students out of the elementary school was to move the students in the therapeutic day program to the administration building where ninth through 12 grade students in the same program are housed. "We were dismayed that solution wasn't considered by the administration," Nichols said. "Administration offices could be moved to Taylor and the therapeutic day treatment students could be moved into that space. But the board refused to acknowledge our suggestion."

School Superintendent Phillip Langton said that everyone would have preferred the program be located in a high school or middle school setting but there was no room available in those buildings. "BOCES contacted us to see if we could consider placing the program at either the Taylor or Bernabi Elementary Schools," Langton said. "They proposed to modify an area to be self contained so that it could operate independently as a 'school within in a school.' "

Langton said the decision to house the therapeutic day program was not one the district took lightly. "There will be no interaction between the day program students and the Taylor students," he said. "Arrival and dismissal times and entrances and exits to and from the building are separate and distinct for each group of students."

Nichols refuted Langton's statement that there would be no interaction between the older and younger students. "As of the second week of school we had an incident where the fifth grade students were playing on the basketball court and they were approached by 10 older students who said they wanted to use the court ... the younger children were scared," Nichols said. "We were given assurances that the older students not have interaction with the younger children and yet, it happened."

The age range is the fundamental issue parents are raising. "The age appropriateness of mixing kindergarten through fifth grade students with seventh grade and older children is one of our main concerns."

According to Nichols, the program brochure for the BOCES program states that students enrolled in the therapeutic program have "severe behavior disorders and psychiatric difficulties."

As a parent of a kindergartner Nichols is concerned about the safety of her child. "By the fact that Mr. Langton is allowing this program to be housed in our elementary school makes it perfectly clear that our children's safety is for sale," she said.

Questions were also raised on whether there has been police involvement with any of the students involved in the program in the past. Langton said that police were called to the district five times during the last school year but several of the calls involved students in the Spencerport tutoring program, not the BOCES program. "Of the remaining incidents, none of the children involved were transferred to the Taylor program," he said.

Langton also said that the BOCES program, if it grows, will not expand at Taylor. "The district's three year lease with BOCES is only for the space currently occupied," he said. "The program already has some room for growth since it can accommodate up to 24 students and 16 are currently enrolled.

Nichols said it is likely that parents will attend the October 12 board meeting to discuss the situation further.