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In this week's Rivertowns Enterprise —
So there you have it. Kids with dyslexia barred from the dance. By a principal with a "background" in special ed.
So I guess this is what makes Kathleen Matusiak a bigshot superintendent, and me a lowly taxpaying, debt-servicing mom whose idea of a positive contribution is writing a blooki filled to bursting with "inflammatory language." (official district view of ktm) I would have said that this child's need was to attend her first school dance with her friends here in Irvington, her home.
Well, what did these parents expect? We're talking about parents who, according to the article, "have lived and paid taxes in the school district for 20 years as well as more than $36,000 annually for Phoebe to attend Windward because they found the district's special education program 'deficient.'" (Have I mentioned we appear to have 6 families who've been forced to spend $36,000 annually out of pocket for Windward School to teach their kids to read?) (Have I mentioned we appear to use balanced literacy as our reading program?) (Have I mentioned that our widely-respected reading teacher has taken a job in another district?) (Have I mentioned we appear to have a K-3 teacher who has failed in some cases to refer non-reading children for services as the school is legally required to do?) (Have I mentioned we have at least one hero teacher who appears to have taken risks to stand up for these children?) (And has anyone in this district stopped to ask himself what is happening to children whose parents can't put their hands on 40K a year to make sure their children learn to read fluently and with comprehension? Because, let me tell you, the parents in this situation have asked themselves what is happening to these children.) So what did they expect, these not-currently-enrolled parents? After all, if we insider parents, we parents of the currently enrolled, have to be strip-searched before we enter the premises and even then it's dicey, how were they thinking that their 6th grader, a child who does not have medical records currently on file, whose needs are unknown,* who could "potentially" behave in unpredictable ways for which a principal with a background in special education and the schools of Albany would be unprepared — in short, a child so not-currently-enrolled she could put the entire student body at risk — How were they thinking it would be OK for their child to attend her first dance with her friends here in Irvington, her home?
Well, at least Dr. Matusiak is an equal opportunity excluder of Irvington children. They didn't let Phoebe's neighbor go to the dance, either. That child has transferred to the Masters School.
addendum Last year, when homeschooling was still an option, I asked Christopher's guidance counselor whether Christopher could participate in school sports while being taught at home. After all, while I would be doing all the teaching, I would still be paying my taxes and servicing the debt. No. No sports if you're homeschooled. District policy. ** They're all heart, these folks.
update I'm wondering how much we paid the district's lawyer to advise Dr. Matusiak that we do not in fact have a "district policy" barring outsider children from school dances, but, rather, a "long-standing practice." Also, while we're on the subject of "long-standing practice," I wonder how long this particular practice has been standing?
"a matter of security"
* The concept being, I gather, that her needs have changed since a couple of years ago when she was currently enrolled? ** I didn't ask to see it in writing.
-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Nov 2006 Back to: Main Page.
In this week's Rivertowns Enterprise —
On Phoebe Rubenstein's 12th birthday, what she wanted most was to attend the dance all her friends were going to. The only problem: Phoebe, who is not enrolled at Irvington Middle School, which hosted the student mixer Oct. 27, was told by administrators that, although she lives in the district and attended the public schools previously, she would not be allowed into the dance because she was not a current student. "I was really upset, I thought it was really mean and they shouldn't have done that," said Phoebe, a sixth-grader at the Windward School in White Plains, who cried when she found out she would be barred from attending the Irvington dance. Phoebe's parents, Jane and Marc Rubenstein, withdrew her from Dows Lane Elementary School after second grade and sent her instead to Windward, a private day school they say is better equipped to deal with their daughter's dyslexia.
So there you have it. Kids with dyslexia barred from the dance. By a principal with a "background" in special ed.
[Father] Marc Rubinstein also spoke with IMS School Principal Joe Witazek. "I told Mr. Rubenstein that it was district policy that she wouldn't be able to attend," said Witazek, who succeeded former principal Scott Fried on July 1 of this year. But Phoebe's father said that after several attempts, he still had not gotten a return call from Schools Superintendent Kathleen Matusiak. He said he wanted to see in writing the "school policy" cited by Witazek [ed: I'm still waiting to find out what "show your work" means] and that he and his wife had spoken to a member of the school board about the situation. When contacted by the Enterprise on Monday, Matusiak said she had been away at a conference when Marc Rubenstein left messages with her secretary. Matusiak said that after discussing the matter with Witazek, the two had concurred. "The principal didn't feel it was appropriate for students that are not ours, and I agreed with him," Matusiak said. [ed.: "the principal"? not "Joe"?] The superintendent added that the issue had not been brought up to her by anyone on the school board. [snip] Matusiak said that although it wasn't an official school board policy, the rule barring outside students from Irvington school dances was a "long-standing practice" and that in the three years she has served as the district's top administrator, [ed.: two years to go!] the policy had not been questioned before. She added that it was a matter of security and the district had to limit dances to students they knew so they could be closely chaperoned by staff. "We have to be able to properly supervise and monitor them," Matusiak said. "We don't know what their [outside students'] needs are, or what could potentially happen," she added.
source:
Private school student barred from dance
by Colleen Michele Jones
THE RIVERTOWNS ENTERPRISE
November 10, 2006 p. 10, 24
So I guess this is what makes Kathleen Matusiak a bigshot superintendent, and me a lowly taxpaying, debt-servicing mom whose idea of a positive contribution is writing a blooki filled to bursting with "inflammatory language." (official district view of ktm) I would have said that this child's need was to attend her first school dance with her friends here in Irvington, her home.
Well, what did these parents expect? We're talking about parents who, according to the article, "have lived and paid taxes in the school district for 20 years as well as more than $36,000 annually for Phoebe to attend Windward because they found the district's special education program 'deficient.'" (Have I mentioned we appear to have 6 families who've been forced to spend $36,000 annually out of pocket for Windward School to teach their kids to read?) (Have I mentioned we appear to use balanced literacy as our reading program?) (Have I mentioned that our widely-respected reading teacher has taken a job in another district?) (Have I mentioned we appear to have a K-3 teacher who has failed in some cases to refer non-reading children for services as the school is legally required to do?) (Have I mentioned we have at least one hero teacher who appears to have taken risks to stand up for these children?) (And has anyone in this district stopped to ask himself what is happening to children whose parents can't put their hands on 40K a year to make sure their children learn to read fluently and with comprehension? Because, let me tell you, the parents in this situation have asked themselves what is happening to these children.) So what did they expect, these not-currently-enrolled parents? After all, if we insider parents, we parents of the currently enrolled, have to be strip-searched before we enter the premises and even then it's dicey, how were they thinking that their 6th grader, a child who does not have medical records currently on file, whose needs are unknown,* who could "potentially" behave in unpredictable ways for which a principal with a background in special education and the schools of Albany would be unprepared — in short, a child so not-currently-enrolled she could put the entire student body at risk — How were they thinking it would be OK for their child to attend her first dance with her friends here in Irvington, her home?
Well, at least Dr. Matusiak is an equal opportunity excluder of Irvington children. They didn't let Phoebe's neighbor go to the dance, either. That child has transferred to the Masters School.
addendum Last year, when homeschooling was still an option, I asked Christopher's guidance counselor whether Christopher could participate in school sports while being taught at home. After all, while I would be doing all the teaching, I would still be paying my taxes and servicing the debt. No. No sports if you're homeschooled. District policy. ** They're all heart, these folks.
update I'm wondering how much we paid the district's lawyer to advise Dr. Matusiak that we do not in fact have a "district policy" barring outsider children from school dances, but, rather, a "long-standing practice." Also, while we're on the subject of "long-standing practice," I wonder how long this particular practice has been standing?
"a matter of security"
* The concept being, I gather, that her needs have changed since a couple of years ago when she was currently enrolled? ** I didn't ask to see it in writing.
-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Nov 2006 Back to: Main Page.