Sutter Park
A SPECIAL PRESCHOOL FOR ALL CHILDREN

By CANDY BROOKS ThisWeek Staff Writer

Illustration: Photo

Sutter Park looks much like any other preschool in the community.

Its classrooms are filled with giggling children, learning as they play.

In Megan Valentino's classroom of 4- and 5-year olds, winter is the theme this month.

So as Ben and Jennifer "skate" across a homemade cardboard pond, Eddie struggles to write his name and paste a picture of a teddy bear beneath a drawing of a mitten.

Meanwhile, Dylan sits in the math corner, confidently matching and naming numbers as a teacher makes notes of his progress.

What sets this scene apart from other preschool classes is that this is a public school, and most -- but not all -- of its students have special needs.

The Worthington City Schools has offered preschool classes since 1991, a year after the federal government began mandating free education for special needs children 3 and older.

Since that first year with one classroom at Bluffsview Elementary School, the program has grown to 11 classrooms -- some half day, some full day.

All of the classrooms -- all 196 students -- are this year housed at Sutter Park Elementary School.

Last year's Sutter Park kindergarten through grade six students have moved across the parking lot to Liberty Elementary School, a move made necessary and possible through declining enrollment.

After they left, the school was "downsized," literally. Big chairs were replaced with little chairs, hefty jungle gyms with toddler-sized swings and tricycles.

Now the school is filled with the district's smallest students who are learning to recognize names and numbers, paint at an easel, sing songs, and follow directions.

Most classrooms are made up of a maximum of eight children with special needs, and four who are called, to be politically correct, "typically developing."

The curriculum is that of the Worthington schools, with everyone expected to leave the preschool ready to enter a Worthington kindergarten.

Those identified with special needs get extra help along the way. Besides benefiting from small teacher-pupil rations - approximately 11-to-1 -- therapists work in the classrooms, directly with their young charges.

There are speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and an adaptive physical education teacher.

There is also a sensory room for physical therapy, and a close look at classrooms reveals special cushions and and weighted vests designed to give input to immature sensory systems, symbolic cues to assist those with language deficits, and other adaptive equipment to help the special needs children.

Mostly, though, Sutter Park is just a preschool, a happy place, said director Laura Detweiler.

"They don't even know they are learning," she said. "They're just having fun."

Both she and special education director Lynne Hamelberg said that having all of the preschool classes in one building has benefited students and the district.

While the district is required to provide transportation to all of the special needs students (typically developing students are transported by parents), the district saves from no longer having to duplicate equipment, materials or services, Hamelberg said.

And everyone benefits from all preschool teachers and therapists operating under one roof. This way, they can share information and provide each other with ideas and support, Detweiler said.

"The teachers are seeing what works, what excites kids," she said. "They're benefiting from being together."

The preschool is free to students who have been identified with one severe or two moderate discrepancies in developmental areas such as speech, hearing, vision, behavior, motor skills, or cognitive skills.

For typically developing students, the cost is $120 a month for the half-day program.

The blended classrooms meet the state requirement that special needs students be educated in a classroom that is as close to a regular classroom as possible, Hamelberg explained.

The "typical" students are meant to be models for the special needs students, though in reality they are often models for each other, she said.

Children who qualify for special education can enroll in the school on their third birthdays, which means there are often new students entering the school.

For typical students, though, there is a waiting list. Parents of those children like the program because of the small class size and Worthington curriculum and because they want their children to be exposed to diversity and learn to live with people of different needs, Hamelberg said.

Caption: (1) By Tim Norman/ThisWeek
A red cushion sits on a student's chair in Megan Valentino's class at Sutter Park School, 1850 Sutter Parkway. The cushions are used for students who need extra sensory stimulation when sitting.
(2) Photos by Tim Norman/ThisWeek
(Above) Sutter Park preschooler Owen Heath climbs through equipment in the school's gym.
(3) (Below) The new playground equipment at the school is adapted to fit the guidelines for preschoolers.
(4) (Above) Sutter Park School is now welcoming preschoolers into the building instead of elementary school students.
(5) (Above right) Sutter Park preschool teacher Jamie Mowery reacts as Connor Watson pulls out pipe cleaners as they work on a project.
(6) (At left) Alex Contreras, right, and Sara Johansen play a marshmallow counting path game in teacher Megan Valentino's room at the school.

This story ran on page 01A NEWS of ThisWeek, Worthington edition on 01/26/2006.