The Trenton Times published the following article on April 22, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Trenton school board takes steps to improve Life Skills program
By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton
on April 22, 2013 at 9:38 PMTRENTON — Two weeks after a teacher’s aide complained that the school district’s Life Skills program did little more than baby-sit special-education students at Daylight/Twilight High School, the school board took steps tonight to improve the program.
Teachers and administrators will write a new curriculum, visit three local life schools with model Life Skills programs and pay $3,300 to the nation’s largest special-education professional organization to provide training to teachers, under resolutions approved by the board tonight.
The moves come as the state Department of Education confirmed it is investigating the program amid allegations raised about it in recent weeks by paraprofessional Deborah Downing Fortson.
In an article in The Times last week, Downing Fortson revealed what she called the troubling evolution of a special-education program created to help district students with disabilities learn independent living and job skills. According to Fortson, the 35 to 45 students enrolled in the program and taught on the fifth floor of the Daylight/Twilight alternative school spent most of their days copying answers teachers wrote in textbooks.
Teachers had few formal lesson plans, instructed students to color or set up Facebook accounts during class and even made several students, known for their disruptive behavior, clean and mop the school on Fridays.
Tonight, Superintendent Francisco Duran said the school and DOE had launched parallel investigations into Fortson’s claims, but said Fortson never approached him or tried to contact him with any concerns.
“She never made any allegations here at the district,” he said. “For it to get that big, to the state level and not having come to my level was shocking.”
Fortson said she has tried to tip off several administrators, including Duran and past superintendents, about the program’s failing, but was often ignored.
During a walk-through of Daylight/Twilight in March, Duran said he observed the Life Skills program, which is supposed to help students with moderate to severe developmental disabilities such as autism, fetal alcohol syndrome or Down syndrome transition from school to adulthood.
“What I observed, we saw a lot of things happening for students, I was very impressed with some things happening,” Duran said. “But I questioned whether we were meeting the needs of all students. What came out of it is we need to see how we can broaden the life skills activities really, increase the levels of activities for students in the program who have significant disabilities. We want to make sure we’re providing them with all the opportunities we can post-high school.”
Life Skills teachers, district interim special education director Eniola Ajayi and Daylight/Twilight Principal Hope Grant will visit three Life Skills programs in the Mercer County Special Services, Burlington Special Services and Lenape school districts in May. Several teachers will be tasked with writing a new curriculum — Fortson alleged no curriculum existed — and the Council for Exceptional Children, the creators of the Life Center Career Education Curriculum the district’s Life Skills program was originally based off, will provide instruction and curriculum assistance to teachers.
Duran said he had no comment on other allegations made by Fortson, including those involving the students made to sweep and mop floors to keep them from disrupting class.
It was an emotional night for school board members, who clapped in delight after student performances from Joyce Kilmer and Hedgepeth-Williams elementary schools, and choked up while saying goodbye to board member Nicola Tatum and the board president, the Rev. Toby Sanders, who were not reappointed to the board by Mayor Tony Mack. Tonight was their last meeting as board members. They will be replaced by Mack appointees Patrice Daley and Roslyn Reaves-Council.
“I really appreciate you and Nicola,” board member Jane Rosenbaum said. “People have no idea that for Toby Sanders this was a full-time job. You must have spent 100 hours a month on this.”
Sanders, who’s served two years as board president and presided over difficult votes on everything from privatization to the renovation of the dilapidated Trenton Central High School, said he was deeply humbled by his time on the board and his immersion in Trenton’s education community.
“I’ve never served with a better group of people more dedicated, more diligent, more thoughtful, more courageous, more fun to disagree with, more noble to represent,” he said.
At the end of his remarks, Sanders began singing, in a soaring voice, Quincy Jones’ song “Everything Must Change.”
“Everything must change/ nothing stays the same/ everyone will change/ no one stays the same,” he sang. “The young become the old/ And mysteries do unfold/ Cause that’s the way of time/ Nothing and no one goes unchanged.”