If you are new to Natick, are sending your child to one of the elementary schools for the first time, or are in need of a special program, like English Language Learners (ELL) instruction or Special Education, you will want to know what the Natick elementary schools have to offer. The five elementary schools in Natick include Bennett Hemenway Elementary (Ben-Hem), Brown Elementary, Johnson Elementary, Lilja Elementary and Memorial Elementary.
“Each of the five elementary schools has a slightly different ‘personality’ comprised of the values and demographics of its immediate neighborhoods and families,” Amy Mistrot, Chair of the Natick School Committee, said. “However, the education a student receives at each school should deliver the same baseline of educational standards and expectations.”
Anna Nolin, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, emphasized, “The elementary schools are all equipped to handle all needs that arise.”
While all of the elementary schools offer special education services for students on Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), individualized plans for students receiving special education, some elementary schools have additional support staff to meet students’ needs. Some programs are only offered at specific schools due to neighborhood demographics.
ELL Instruction
Currently, all of the district’s elementary ELL attend Brown Elementary School, and next year, ELL instruction will expand to Memorial as well, a decision which Nolin said is based on the “feeder population.” Currently, the majority of students who need ELL instruction live in the Brown school district, and those who don’t must attend Brown in order to receive ELL Instruction.
Special Education
Services
Even though the district’s elementary behavioral program is situated at Ben-Hem, Nolin explained that the need originally arose from students needing those services who lived in the Ben-Hem district: “We try to keep kids in neighborhood schools as much as possible . . . we try to forecast what we know about our special education population, and we shape and reshape programs as kids come through the ranks.”
“For Special Education services, there are differing levels of services that the district can deliver when required by an IEP, Mistrot said. “Some services can be delivered in a general education classroom, some require services to be delivered in the Learning Center, some services require a sub-separate program largely delivered outside of the classroom . . . to deliver these sub-separate services in the most economically feasible manner and to keep students in school in Natick, the district has chosen to develop programs in our neighborhood schools. We have programs at Lilja, Brown and Ben-Hem that provide services for students in Natick so they are close to home, yet they also receive the specialized educational support that they require to make appropriate progress.”
All Natick elementary schools have a Learning Center, though Ben-Hem has significantly more Learning Center staff than the other four elementary schools. Ben-Hem’s website lists seven Learning Center teachers, while Brown has four, Memorial and Lilja have three, and Johnson has two.
Nolin said that when more elementary school children needed the resources created at Ben-Hem, it made sense to put them in a program that was already established, but she stressed, “Every school could be equipped to handle any scenario.” When making programmatic decisions, Nolin said, the school system considers questions like, “Where is the critical mass?”
For example, Lila is the only elementary school that has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Classroom. Lilja’s website says, “The ASD Classroom provides highly individualized and modified curriculum to students with low incidence special needs who need more support and academic modifications than the general education classroom can provide . . . students typically are unable to keep pace with the mainstream classroom and require a smaller setting to allow for improved development of foundation skills . . . this classroom is also supported by highly qualified Special Educators, highly skilled paraprofessionals, a Speech and Language therapist, school psychologist and a BCBA. (Board Certified Behavior Analyst).”
Johnson is the only elementary school whose website lists a Title I teacher. Title I is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and it helps to close the achievement gap between low-income and other students.
Transparency
versus Privacy
Rosanna Pasquale, the parent of a second grader at Ben-Hem, said she has talked to other parents about each school’s’ “specialty.” Pasquale noted, “I’ve heard that Ben-Hem is very good if you have an IEP, and Johnson is good if you want small class sizes.”
Mistrot explained out why programmatic differences aren’t clearer to the public. “In each budget process, the Special Education expenses are included in the budget documents in a manner that balances the need for clear transparency, yet also protects the privacy of the students for whom these services are provided.”
Though parents sometimes desire more transparency, Nolin and Mistrot are adamant about providing quality education at all five elementary schools. In fact, Dr. Sanchioni, Superintendent of the Natick Public Schools, has made one of the strategic goals “to have a guaranteed and viable curriculum and experience at each elementary school.”
Neither Nolin nor Mistrot want parents to doubt the high quality education that children receive at each of the elementary schools. Nolin said, “No school is defined by any special population in it.”
Issue Date:
January, 2017
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