Since the beginning of this school year, I have been part of a large contingent of parents and community members strongly voicing opposition to the Northport-East Northport School District’s plan to close Bellerose Avenue and Dickinson Avenue, send fourth graders to middle school for fifth grade, and remove children from schools they love and thrive in. I have two children in Bellerose (second and fourth grade) and one child with special needs at Dickinson (fourth grade) so the decision to “affect as few families as possible” has a deep impact on my family. They are devastated to say goodbye to friends they’ve made, teachers they love, and the special communities surrounding Bellerose and Dickinson Avenue.
This plan leaves my second-grade daughter to navigate a new elementary school with just 10 percent of her Bellerose peers and may result in my two fourth graders (one daughter of typical development; the other, my son, with special needs) attending different middle schools, which we vehemently object to. In this pandemic climate, the idea of sending three children who are just two grades apart to three different schools is simply unacceptable.
For my fourth-grade son, there is heightened concern for his adaptability in particular, as children with special needs require greater intervention in planning and preparing their day-to-day activities. One deviation from the norm could have catastrophic impacts and set my son into unnecessary trauma. He asks me daily if he will be attending middle school with his twin, which was always our expectation, what his day will look like, where will his friends be, and has expressed concern for the welfare of his current teachers, aides and therapists. I am so frustrated to have no answers to these thoughtful questions and feel even more irate when district administration says that our children are “resilient” and will be fine. CSE meetings are currently being held with all children who have IEPs (Individualized Educational Plans). On April 29, the day the Board of Education will vote on Adapted Scenario A, I will participate in my son’s CSE meeting that morning. For the first time in six years, I fully expect to leave that meeting without any idea as to what his next school year will look like – the environment, transitions, services and how those are delivered.
I do not envy the position of the Board of Education, however, I truly believe that closing these two schools will negatively impact the reputation of the district and goes against its own vision to ensure “excellence in all areas without exception.”
