From the Washtenaw Intermediate School District:

Join us next week on May 19 from 5:30-7:00 pm for a community-wide Open House for our renovated High Point School!

Come see this beautiful gem: take a tour, check out the brand new fully accessible playground, and see how High Point benefits our community!

This unique school facility is home to WISD's High Point program, which serves students ages 3-26 with severe and multiple disabilities from across Washtenaw, along with WISD's Deaf & Hard of Hearing program, Honey Creek Community School, and Gretchen's House.

The renovated school was made possible thanks to voters.

Washtenaw Intermediate School District
May 19th, 2022
5:30 - 7:00 PM
1735 Wagner Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

2017 Election results: Washtenaw County millages supporting special ed and Community Mental Health win and other news

Both Washtenaw County millages won by a wide margin in yesterday’s election.

In other news, the Michigan legislature seems to be losing its mind depending on how you feel about guns in schools and protecting wildlife.

According to a Detroit Free Press article, “Michigan bills would allow concealed guns in schools, churches” by Kathleen Gray, 11/7/17:

“In the wake of mass shootings in Las Vegas and Texas that left dozens of people dead or injured, a Michigan Senate committee approved bills Tuesday that will allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons in gun-free zones such as schools, churches, day care centers, bars, dorms and stadiums.”

…”The bills taken up in the Senate Government Operations Committee passed on a party-line vote with Republicans supporting the three-bill package and Democrats opposing it. The bills would also close the open-carry loophole, effectively barring gun owners from openly carrying their weapons in gun-free zones.” This was a concession to school districts that claim that seeing people carrying weapons in school upsets students, parents, and staff to the point where they sometimes have to shut down.

Emily Durbin, Michigan chapter president of Moms Demand Action, responded:

”Two days after the latest shooting, we’re here not having a conversation about keeping guns away from domestic abusers, increasing background checks or banning bump stocks," she said. "Instead, we're urgently discussing what the gun lobby wants and that's a desire to have more guns in more places, no questions asked."

Governor Rick Snyder vetoed a similar bill in 2012, four days after a gunman slaughtered 20 children in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

“SB 584-586 — could come up for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday, and will likely pass the chamber, where Republicans hold a 27-11 majority.” 

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In addition,..."The state House of Representatives, in a voice vote and without debate, …passed a resolution urging the state Natural Resources Commission to establish a sandhill crane hunting season in Michigan." ---“‘Ribeye of the sky?' House recommends sandhill crane hunt in Michigan”, by Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press, 10/18/17.

This has little to do with developmental disabilities, but a lot to do with how government fails to address important issues and sometimes seems to just want to aggravate the opposition for no particular reason. I doubt there has been a groundswell of support from hungry citizens who can’t wait to sample sandhill crane breast meat.

The Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Audubon Sanctuary near Jackson, Michigan has documented the successful repopulation of Sandhill Cranes in Michigan from near extinction to abundance throughout the Mississippi flyway. Since 2009, however, the fall population count has leveled off in Michigan and the birds reproduce in low numbers. The birds are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but farmers can apply to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for special permits to eradicate birds damaging their crops.

Is a Sandhill Crane hunt necessary, or could we all show a little restraint in the protection of native bird species?

Elections Matter: VOTE November 7th, 2017

Washtenaw County, Michigan, has two important issues on the ballot affecting people with disabilities and people with mental illness.

Voting Information

The Ann Arbor League of Women Voters website can provide you with the information you need to vote. Enter your address and zip code and follow the links to check on your voter registration, the exact wording of ballot issues, and more.

Millage Elections

A mill is a property tax of one tenth of a cent ($0.001) or one-thousandth of a dollar of taxable value. A tax rate of one mill raises $1 per $1,000 of taxable value. The taxable value cannot be higher than 50% of the State equalized value (true cash value) of the property.

[For easily distractible people, who need to know more about this now, here  is a link to a paper from the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency.]

Washtenaw Intermediate Special Education Millage 

This is a proposal to renew a special education millage for another 8 years. See the Ann Arbor News report on the millage election:

“The millage would provide about $15.2 million in 2018 to fund special education services provided by Washtenaw County's public schools. Because this is a renewal of the existing millage, there is no additional cost to taxpayers.

“In all, Washtenaw County schools spend $124 million each year on special education services for more than 6,500 students, according to a presentation on the millage request from the WISD.”…

Washtenaw County Community Mental Health and Public Safety Preservation Millage

This is an NPR program by Jorge Avellan on 11/2/17 about the CMH millage: “Washtenaw County Voters To Decide Community Mental Health And Public Safety Proposal On Nov. 7th”

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), Washtenaw County supports the CMH Millage

NAMI Washtenaw County supports the Community Mental Health and Public Safety Preservation Millage on the November 7, 2017 ballot. NAMI WC focuses on mental health issues and their intersection with public safety, but we also support the complete millage, including the need for reliable funding for public safety operations and the need to rebate funds to communities which have their own public safety agencies.

Washtenaw County faces several crises among people with mental illnesses who are not eligible for Medicaid and who are unserved as a result of state budget cuts. State funding for Community Mental Health (CMH) has dropped by 60%, from $6.5 million to $2.7 million. CMH has lost 70 staff members. CMH has discharged 350 people and has turned away others seeking help. CMH cannot use other funds to make up for the cuts.

Here are the results from these cuts to the CMH budget:

1. CMH cannot respond to the demands from the deadly and growing mental health crisis from suicides and opioid use.

2. Lack of CMH services has resulted in costly hospital stays. Other services in the community have been stressed because they cannot serve such serious problems.

3. We see its effects of budget cuts on the homeless population.

4. People with mental illnesses are being incarcerated in the County Jail unnecessarily.

The millage will raise $5.86 million to fund:

1. Better coordination with the Sheriff’s Office and services which will divert people with mental illness from unnecessary jailing and harm.

2. Four specific types of service

• Crisis services: including the suicide and opioid epidemics 
• Stabilization services: for those who do not currently qualify for services— 
• Prevention services: including mental health awareness, prevention, and early intervention programming with community partners, including schools, law enforcement and other first responders, and health care providers. 
• Jail Services: Including mental health and substance abuse assessment and treatment inclusive of counseling and psychiatric services and prisoner re-entry. 

....Call or email NAMI WC at 734-994-6611, office@namiwc.org. Our website: namiwc.org

Support for Kids with Autism: Panel discussion in Ann Arbor

This is an announcement from the Washtenaw County Special Education E-Information Listserv:

Panel Discussion: Support For Kids With Autism

Monday, November 21, 2011

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

In the multi-purpose room in the downtown library

Ann Arbor District Library

343 S. Fifth Ave.

Ann Arbor, MI 

A panel of teacher consultants at Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD), including Walter Kwik, Pamela McClure, Marla Sebu and Katrina Stewart, will talk about Autism Spectrum Disorder, what it is and how to help people/children with it in Washtenaw County feel more comfortable and successful in their daily lives. They will also discuss the START project, which gives professionals and parents the knowledge and skills to support individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in reaching their greatest potential. 

The STatewide Autism Resources and Training (START) project is committed to creating a sustainable structure of support for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders within each region of Michigan by provide training and technical assistance to educators and families that support students on the autism spectrum. 

The START project has been in place for 10 years through the funding and support of the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Early Intervention Services. The rapid increase in the number of students with ASD entering public schools in Michigan has created a critical need for more in-depth training for educators in the use of evidence based practices. Additionally, the START Project has served a key role in meeting this need through innovative activities such as Regional Collaborative Networks, training and coaching models, and resource material development. 

For more information on this event, call the Library at 327-4555 or visit the Website

Ira Lax

Outreach and Neighborhood Services

Washtenaw Library for the Blind & Physically Disabled

Ann Arbor District Library

734-327-8365

FYI: State of the WISD - Special Ed Washtenaw County

Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD)

Parent Advisory Committee (PAC)
invites you to our next meeting:

Tuesday, September 20, 2011                           

6:30 p.m.

Featuring:

The “State of the WISD” presented by WISD Superintendent Scott Menzel
Meeting Location: Seminar 1

Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD)

Teaching and Learning Center

1819 S. Wagner Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI  48106
734-994-8100

For directions please see the WISD website:  http://www.wash.k12.mi.us/about/wisddirections.cfm

Ian the Graduate: For he's a jolly good fellow...

Ian graduated from school on June 8th this year. For special education students who make it through the 25 - 26 years they are allotted by Michigan's Special Education law, graduation is a bittersweet moment. Ian has many fans at High Point School among the teachers and support staff who will miss him dearly, almost as much as he will miss them. He will probably see his best friend David only on special occasions. We are working out things for him to do with his time, but the truth is it will be hard to match the program he is leaving.

High Point School is the only center-based program remaining in the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD). It serves 60 - 70 students with multiple disabling conditions, including severe medical, physical, intellectual, and behavioral disabilities. The program shares a building with Honey Creek School, a charter school sponsored by the WISD. For the parents of High Point students, the High Point Program is generally valued most for the skill and experience of its staff and an environment that is caring and supportive of both students and families. The benefit of sharing a building with the charter school for kindergarten through 8th-graders is frosting on the cake.

The inclusion movement, whose proponents insist that all children should be educated together in the same classrooms, has led to the closure of many center-based programs over the last twenty years. High Point avoided closure by bringing regular education students into the special education building. Opportunities for both groups of students to spend time together are informal and relaxed and neither group has had to give up anything to accomplish this.

I am grateful for the teachers and support staff at High Point School who are so good at what they do that even parents can forget just how difficult their jobs are. Students with tracheostomies and feeding tubes, seizures, difficult behaviors, exotic syndromes, and frequent medical emergencies don't seem to faze them. What you see as an observer walking through the halls are purposeful activities and happy and engaged students.
 
When I think of Ian's friend David, I will always remember him in his favorite spot in the corner of the classroom where he can see and hear everything that goes on. Although he does not talk, I'm almost certain he manages to communicate to his mother everything that went on at the end of the day. He loves to listen in on conversations and stares daggers through anyone who comes between him and his favorite video playing on the TV screen. He has a sign up on the wall that a teacher's assistant found for him that says:

 
I'd like to think that Ian may do the same some day and boy, will we get an earful.

Michigan special education for students 22 -26

The Michigan budget process for the 2012 fiscal year is underway with significant cuts to education on the table. In times of financial stress, special education programs that serve students from 22 -26 years old become an easy target for budget slashers, especially those who know next-to-nothing about the students served and how highly these programs are valued by both students and their families.

Special education for disabled students over 21 years old who cannot complete a regular high school curriculum has been mandated in Michigan since 1971 in a law that pre-dates the 1975 federal special education law now known as IDEA. Most of these students (there were about 3200 of them statewide in the 2009 school headcount) have moderate to severe disabilities and, were they not in school, would require intensive services from the community mental health system and other agencies. There are higher functioning students who also fall into this category for a variety of reasons, but the vast majority have moderate to profound developmental disabilities.

It is true that no other state extends special education beyond the age of 21, but if these programs were significantly reduced or eliminated, it is difficult to believe that the cost and disruption to students and their families would be worth the savings, if any, to the state. There have been some assertions that these programs impede the transition of students to their communities and the services they will need later in life. These programs, however, are not compulsory and for those who participate there are built-in protections in special education rules to assure the right to appropriate services for individual students.

The Washtenaw Intermmediate School District (WISD) offers a variety of programs for students at all levels, many of them based in local communities and focused on skills needed by individuals to move on with their lives. Students like my son Ian who will graduate in June from the program at High Point School in Ann Arbor, have benefited over the years from the remarkable skill with which the teachers, aides, and other professionals work with students with even the most profound physical and mental disabilities. 

The transition from school to our chronically under-funded and fragmented system of services for disabled adults is described by many families as similar to "jumping off a cliff". The experience would be no less painful when your child is 21or 22 than when he or she reaches the age of 26.

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As far as I know, there is no bill in the state legislature yet that proposes to eliminate or change these programs, but that does not mean that it couldn't happen. There is one written proposal to significantly change educational programs for this age group that comes from the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education (MAASE). I will comment on this later.

Now is the time to take action!

The legislative Spring Break starts March 28 and lasts to April 11, 2011. It is important that each of us contact our legislators this week. 

• Tell them about what services are important to you and why. 
• Remind them that persons with Developmental Disabilities are among the most vulnerable in the State. 
• Tell them you are counting on them to protect programs

In addition, ask that your legislators keep you informed of any proposal to change state law and request that there be public hearings to allow students and families to make their views known if any changes are proposed.

You have the most influence with your own State Representative and State Senator. Find out who they are, if you do not already know. Click here for information on Washtenaw County state legislators.

Additional suggestions to get your message across to your legislator: Find out who in the legislator's office handles special education and other disability issues. Talk directly to that person and send written comments to relay to your legislator. Find out if there are events for constituents during the Spring Break and meet your legislator in person. Follow up later with a phone call to ask if there is any new information on legislation or hearings on these important issues.

Former WISD teacher's aide receives probation for mistreatment of autistic student

A former teacher's aide for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, Michael Beasley, was sentenced to probation for slapping a special education student in a WISD program for autistic students at Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor. He had already been convicted of another misdemeanor in a related case.

At first, when reports surfaced in 2008 that students had been mistreated by the aide, the WISD investigated and then transferred the aide to High Point School in Ann Arbor. Parents, dissatisfied with the WISD response to the charges, contacted the police who did their own investigation that led to criminal charges against the aide. The Director of Special Education for the WISD at the time resigned and other administrators were reassigned. The aide was fired based on a reinvestigation of the case by the WISD.

As reported by AnnArbor.com on September 8, 2010, the aide pleaded no contest to the charge of slapping a special education student in exchange for dropping a felony charge against him. He was later sentenced to one year of probation for a misdemeanor charge of assault.

According to AnnArbor.com, the mother of the autistic student said her son was hit so hard his face had a red mark for 15 minutes and that allegations from other parents showed a pattern of abuse. She said, "...My son could not communicate this abuse, and you cannot imagine how that made me feel.”

The aide's attorney said the sentence was redundant because Beasley is already on probation through the 15th District Court for a separate but related conviction.

For background information on this case see previous blog entries with links to reports from the Ann Arbor News.

WISD millage opponents funded by Ann Arbor real estate company

According to an article in AnnArbor.com, the opponents of the WISD millage proposal are outspending proponents by nearly $30,000. Most of the money has come from McKinley, an Ann Arbor real estate company.

Albert Berriz is the treasurer of Citizens for Responsible Washtenaw, an organization opposing the millage that would raise operational funds for local school districts. He is also CEO and president of McKinley.

Berriz was one of two community members on AnnArbor.com's editorial board, but resigned the position due to his involvement in the school enhancement millage campaign. AnnArbor.com.

AnnArbor.com came out against the millage on October 25, 2009.

The Washtenaw Intermediate School District millage election is on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009.

WISD Millage Proposal on the Ballot 11/3/09

On Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009, voters will be asked to approve a millage increase proposal for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD). Although a large part of what the WISD does is related to special education, the purpose of this millage is to enhance operational expenses for all students in the 10 school districts in Washtenaw County. All funds raised will be passed on to local school districts. Neither the WISD nor the state will receive funding from this millage.

For a thorough report on the proposed millage, the reasons for it, the pros and cons, and background information on state and local funding for K-12 education, I recommend the article in the Ann Arbor Chronicle by Mary Morgan entitled Does It Take a Millage?, October 19, 2009. It includes links to more detailed information and websites supporting and opposing the millage.

AnnArbor.com also provides coverage of the issue here.

According to the Ann Arbor Chronicle article:

• The proposal on the ballot calls for collecting 2 mills countywide, each year for five years. A mill is $1 for every $1,000 in a property’s taxable value (about half the market value). For a home in Ann Arbor with a market value of $200,000, an increase of 2 mills would add about $200 to the $1700 now paid in school taxes. The increase would raise $30 million to be distributed among the county’s 10 school districts based on the number of pupils in each district.
• State control of education funding: In 1994 with the passage of Proposal A, the state, with the approval of the voters, took away much of the local control of school funding in exchange for easing escalating local property taxes and creating more equitable funding across the state. Proposal A put a cap of 18 mills on local property taxes for schools, although school districts can raise additional local millages for building construction, repairs, and maintenance.
• Plugging holes in the state School Aid Fund (SAF): The School Aid Fund is made up of pooled revenues from property taxes, sales, income taxes, and other sources. The state pays a per-pupil-allotment out of this fund which is a variable rate set by the legislature. With declining revenues for the SAF, the fund has been shrinking. The amount available for the current fiscal year is still in dispute and it is possible that as state revenues fall, further cuts could be made later in the year. In the past, money from the state’s General Fund has been used to plug holes in the SAF, but the General Fund revenues are declining sharply. Federal stimulus money has also been used, but is not expected to be available beyond the 2010-11 fiscal year.
• Local school districts: School districts are still uncertain about how much money they have available this year and are even less certain about what happens next year. The state caps the amount that can be raised from local taxes for operating expenses, but the Washtenaw Intermediate School District is authorized to levy enhancement millages for operating expenses. The millage increase is being proposed to fill the gaps in state and local funding to maintain quality education and to provide some stability in funding over the next 5 years.
• Pros & Cons: Opponents of the millage contend that the schools have not made sufficient changes to lower their spending and that residents are in no shape to absorb additional taxes. Supporters of the millage say that the schools have been cutting expenses and consolidating services as well as getting some concessions from the unions. They also point to the importance of maintaining quality education to promoting economic development in the county.

Everyone agrees that changes are needed at the state level. Among those changes suggested are moving to a graduated income tax, expanding the state sales tax to services, controlling retirement costs, and considering changing term limits for legislators, all of which would help in the state’s overall financial crisis.

Information on elections in Washtenaw County here.

Information on polling locations here.

Jill Barker
Friends of the Developmentally Disabled
jillrbarker@sbcglobal.net