Local Folks - Any Ideas?
Sharon November 5th, 2008
Well, the good news is that the Bush regime is on its way out, and maybe later I’ll write more about that, but for now, I’m hoping to use the tremendous knowledge of my readers just one more time.
You see yesterday, Eli’s school was inexplicably closed. And in the afternoon, we got a phone call from Eli’s third grade teacher, in tears. A water main broke at the school, and flooded the building. The building is badly damaged, and won’t be safe for kids until major repairs are made.
Eli attends the Crossroads Center for Children, in Glenville, New York. It is a program for kids on the autism spectrum from 2-12. We’ve been very lucky to have him there - it is a wonderful program, serving kids from every school district in the greater Albany area. This year, Eli’s wonderful teacher is really pushing him, and he’s responding beautifully - he loves to go to school, and is happy every morning to get on the bus.
Now we’ve been operating for a long time on the assumption that at some point, disruptions in the system might require us to homeschool Eli - and of course, we have the luxury of one of us being home with the other kids all the time, so for us, this is a tough situation (because Eli loves school, is losing services and time, and because disruptions in his routine are not Eli’s favorite thing) but pretty doable (and a good reminder that preparedness isn’t just for Zombie attacks ;-)). But for single parents, two parent working families and kids who are less mellow than Eli, or who really need their PT, this is a complete disaser. There are more than sixty kids in Eli’s school, including the little guys - and for a lot of them, this is a really bad situation - and tremendously tough on their families and the children.
When Eli’s teacher called, she said they were desperately looking for somewhere else to reopen - and as soon as possible. But that means finding a facility somewhere in the region that can handle a large influx of kids, including disabled kids. I have one idea, but I know those of my readers who live in the area are tied into networks I don’t have any access to - so I’m asking for your help. If you live out this way, and you have any ideas for a facility that could handle temporary accomodations for a large number of kids who really need a place to learn, I’d be tremendously grateful to you, and so would everyone in the Crossroads Community.
It doesn’t have to have a cafeteria, and I think the location is somewhat fungible (because the school mostly serves kids whose school districts have no placement for them, they are bused from all over), but it would need to be safe, ideally have some kind of contained outdoor or indoor playspace (this might be something that could be done without if they had to), and be able to handle 8-10 classrooms and some associated services. People would be willing to cram, I suspect, and make do - but they do need some space.
If you have any ideas, please post them here or email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com. Again, Eli won’t love this, but he’ll be fine - we can integrate him into our homeschool. But I’m really worried about the kids whose parents face losing jobs while they take time off to care for them, the kids who will radically regress or suffer physical consequences, and the loss of structure, familiarity and stability with people who love and respect them for all the kids. I’d be really grateful for any help, and so would a lot of other parents.
Sharon