A mini update

No news on the looping status though. They passed the budget with no increase, but we’re not sure on the status of all the BOE cuts. So much for last year’s surplus *sigh*.

We will be seeing a new therapist on the 18th, so we can hopefully get some of the recent behavioral issues under control. Listening is still doing well, although it’s so hard to tell sometimes which therapy is helping which issue, but we keep plugging along. I have seen what happens when we stop, and it was not a pretty sight! She is back to doing well after we decreased her meds. Upping them caused more issues focusing (very strange, I know!) and a lot of distracting off label side effects, like her nervous habit of picking her fingernails. That has gone back to her “normal” level and isn’t interfering as much with her work as it was.

We are headed to FL and Disneyworld for 10 or so days, so I’m not sure how feasable her listening schedule will be. I am going to try to make it as consistent as possible, or at least once a day. I’m hoping that it will be better than nothing.

Of course we are having the usual referal run around, now that we are trying to switch back to her original Physical Therapist. That, combined with the new roadblock tricare has set up, is really slowing us down. Now they are pushing school systems to cover more, so they can cover less, and only will approve the referrals with an IEP proving that she is not getting enough services from school and her doctor wants to see her getting more. Of course, since we only have a 504, this makes it even more complicated. Ugh!

So, not much news, and a whole lot of waiting. What else is new though, right?

The looping dilemna

Well, we’ve gotten some not-so-great news about the looping program G is in at school. It’s on the chopping block, due to some really ridiculous budget cuts. I’m furious, and I’m not the only one. They may stop the program right in the middle of G’s rotation, and send her teacher to the middle school. We’ve been promising these kids since last summer that they would have the same teacher, classmates, and classroom, and now we’re just not sure. Don’t these people understand how important this is??? The transition from 1st to 2nd grade was supposed to be our best transitional experience ever.

I’m very anxious to find out what is happening. For a sneak peak at some of the asinine things going on around here, here’s some clips from emails sent to us:

“When you look at the PDF that is referenced on the school system’s website, you’ll see that a 2nd grade class is being eliminated at West Vine, and a 4th grade class is being eliminated at West Broad.  One issue you may not have realized is that there are currently five sections of second grade at WVSS; next year, these students will be combined into FOUR classes at WBSS…this isn’t technically a “cut” because there are only four teachers for third grade this year…it’s a little tricky, isn’t it??

One of our parents did a little more research and found out what the projected class sizes are for our two schools next year.

For your information, I share the following about projected class size for next school year (2009-2010):
If your child is entering kindergarten, there will be four classes with an average of 18.3 students per class.
If your child is entering first grade, there will be four classes with an average of 18.3 students per class.
If your child is entering second grade, there will be three classes with an average of 24.3 students per class.
If your child is entering third grade, there will be four classes with an average of 22 students per class.
If your child is entering fourth grade, there will be three classes with an average of 25.3 students per class.”

“What happened at last week’s BOF meeting?

The Board of Education presented the proposed school budget to the Board of Finance last Wednesday night.   The BOF is attempting to maintain a flat budget with no tax increase which they feel is necessary in order to provide a budget that is approvable by taxpayers. Their goal is to keep the current mil rate of 15.1 unchanged.  The BOF has made no announcements of further reductions yet, but to keep the mil rate the same, they will need to cut an additional $1.8 million from the town wide budget.  They will be deliberating at their next meeting to decide exactly how much funding from each particular portion of the entire town budget to cut.  Many different areas will be affected throughout the town, most likely including the school budget, unless the BOF is convinced otherwise.

The BOF discussed using approximately $500,000 from a debt reserve fund and $400,000 of unused Capital Improvement Plan funds to help defray cuts in town and school services.  However, they refused to spend any of the $9 million surplus fund that equals more than 17% of the total town budget.  Municipal bond rating services recommend towns having a reserve fund of somewhere between 5% and 15%.

So far, $902,358 of programs and services that are in the current school budget have been eliminated for next year.  More will likely be cut by the BOF:

Board of Finance meeting
on the budget
Wednesday, March 18
7:30 pm
Pawcatuck Middle School

Please attend to show your support for the school budget.

Unfortunately, public comment will not be allowed.

Send an e-mail (see below for contact info):
If you haven’t yet sent an e-mail to the BOF and BOE, please state your support for our schools.  If you have sent an e-mail in the recent past, feel free to do so again.  The more voices they hear demanding a quality education for our children the better chance we have of not losing any more services for our students.

Remember:
The BOF doesn’t control the specific line item cuts to the school budget; that is the job of the BOE.  But the BOF does control how much more money may be cut from the school budget portion of the town budget.  So if you have a particular program, teacher, club, extracurricular activity, etc. that you would like to make a remark about, address your comments to the BOE.  But if you have general comments about the entire town budget or the school budget as a whole, direct your comments to the BOF.  Back up your comments with convincing details, facts, and statistics if possible.

It would also be helpful to provide constructive suggestions for options of budget cuts besides the education budget.  Offer your ideas as to what you are willing to go without and what you absolutely want to remain intact in the budget.  What town wide services are necessary in our town and what are the most important to you and your family and why?  If you think no further reductions should be made, state your case.

Proposed School Budget

Item
Amount
Employee

Salaries
$ 20,332,918
Benefits
4,894,803
Operations

Purchase services
636,996
Utilities/Repairs
1,315,265
Transportation
3,197,512
Fuel and Supplies
1,398,251
Equipment and Fees
276,143

The total minus the amount already cut is $31,149,530.

In their deliberations, the BOF will take into consideration the needs of the entire town, including funding for police and emergency services, human services, town hall employees such as building officials, the highway department employees who provide maintenance services throughout town, the operation of the transfer station, and capital improvements projects.

The school budget is the single biggest portion of the town budget, mainly because it has the most employees, but that is no justification to reduce that portion of the budget by the greatest amount every year.  The total enrollment of our schools is 2,500 children, that’s a lot of residents out of a total population of approximately 18,000.  Yet burdening the school system with such large cuts is disproportionate to the amount of people it harms with a loss of services compared to the rest of the town.

Meanwhile:
The teachers union has agreed to discuss reopening the contract.  Discussions are expected to focus on teachers forgoing their raises or some portion of their pay increases for next year.  The raises total $833,000; if the BOE and union representatives reach an agreement, the amount would be restored to the school budget.  Unfortunately with the large amount of reductions the BOF has expected, that amount while helpful, would only cover a portion of the required amount.  So assuming we gain anything from negotiations with the unions, we will still be facing a significant loss of services in our schools.

Consider:
If you disagree with the cuts made thus far and are inclined to send a message by voting “no”, the situation will only get worse, additional cuts will be made upon disapproval of the town budget at referendum.

Adequate funding for our public schools whether or not you have a child currently attending will allow our town to:
Maintain good property values by giving Stonington a reputation of a desirable place to live
Attract and retain quality teachers by paying them respectable wages and treating them fairly
Educate all of our children to the best of their abilities so they all reach their full potential and have successful futures
Provide quality programs and services to meet the needs of all students

View:
To see the Stonington Public Schools budget reductions for next year, click here:  http://www.stonington.org/Admin/ReductionsListing0910.pdf

Watch:
The first episode of Stonington Public Schools: On the Air will be on Wednesday at 8:30 pm on Comcast’s public access channel 19.  A new episode will air each month, repeated every Wednesday.  The format will be an educational program at one of the schools featuring faculty and students, and a question and answer period with the superintendent.  Questions are asked to be mailed in for the second taping.  The first broadcast will have a discussion on how schools have changed along with the rest of the world plus information about the 2009-10 budget.

If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to reply to this message.”

Still plugged in, plugging along…

Not much to report around here. OT once a week, alternating with her OT and the assistant. Still waiting on the PT referral (again, sigh. I waste so much time waiting for these things!) She is going back to her original PT, armed with new exercises and routines. We own the discs that we liked now, so G gets to pick every other week what we switch to. She really prefers the Mozart, so she likes to alternate between the 2 discs we have. I might encourage her to move on to some Baroque or Back next week when we switch.

Med changes have been the only thing we’ve done lately. We made the switch from Concerta to Vyvanse when the Concerta seemed to wear off too soon, esp. considering it’s long acting. The Vyvanse has been great. We tried to up her dose, but it seemed to make her off label side effects go out of control and actually interfere with her work, so we went back down to her original dose. So far so good! Only one day of nail picking since then.

We’re also experimenting with weighted animals (much more her style than a weighted vest of plain animal). At school she has a cat, and we are getting a dog for home. Her teacher is very good with communication, so I really feel like everyone is on the same page.

Our glowing report!

I wish I had copies of the initial forms, for comparison. Every week after her session G’s PT was really really impressed with the progress she made from just the week before. TLP has really helped her, in so many ways.

Here’s a blurb from last week’s report:

G was most cooperative. She has been using her CDs at home. She liked the Grape Jam CD. She stated it helped her focus. Her mother will be ordering the CDs next week.

Her visual tracking through midline is consistent in all directions. She seemed to have no difficulty when using her eyes together. As her ocular vestibular reactions improved, the tracking improved as well.

Her functional skills have also improved. Her balance skills for walking a line forward and backward were much more fluid and even. Her one leg standing has improved to 8 to 10 seconds. She continues to need to use arches in her shoes to help her develop the strength at her ankles. With consideration of her need for joint protection, I will discuss this need with her mother again.

She continues to need to build her strength especially of her upper trunk and both upper extremities. She enjoyed weighted ball exercises for a bowling game. When pulling or pushing she does not know how to use joint stability at the end of the range with both elbows as well.

Core muscle strength will be measured next week. Continue with weekly PT and therapeutic listening.

This was great for us! In the beginning, her tracking was so bad the PT suggested we have a comprehensive eye exam (we did have one before, and she was ok).  Also, for the first time ever, it was suggested that we could go to a 6 weeks on/6 weeks off PT schedule for joint protection! That means she is catching up to her age level!!!!! This is a huge weight off me, because we went to PT twice a week for 2 years, then once a week for a couple months. The prospect of taking 6 whole weeks off, then going back for only once a week for 6 weeks, is incredible.

Now I really have to get on ordering those CDs! G likes mozart the best, so we’ll probably get 2 different Mozart ones to go in the mix.

Graduation day, but far from the end!

G went to her last session with this PT tonight. I know she is sad, because her PT was a ton of fun, and has ALL the cool equipment (not to mention change is sooo hard on her) but I am a bit relieved. Tuesdays have been so hard on all of us. We get her from school (usually she takes the bus) and race to PT 20/25 min away. I keep S happy for her appt, then we race back to town so she can make the second half of dance. I keep S happy in that waiting room too (well, I try! LOL) and we scramble for food/homework/bath/bedtime.  It’s also S’s school day, so he is wiped from the start. It makes for one very very long day.

She did well saying goodbye, although she was extra goofy/distractible during her session, and really acted out when it was time to go, which got S going too. *sigh* I’ll admit that over vacation, we were NOT on top of her listening, and I am really noticing the negative impact on her behavior. I made sure today that if we tried a break in the future, we could get right back to it if we encounter this again. Talk about a kick in the ass to get back on top of things! Yikes!

I think that her PT telling her that she would come see us at work (indoor play place) really helped the transition. It def. made a “see you later” out of a goodbye.

We were sent home with a great progress note (more on that in a bit) and lots of recommendations for her new (well, really her original) PT, and some great shopping links I am feeling really confident about all this. Now I just have to survive until our discs get here!

Did I mention this listening stuff takes a ton of time?

LOL

Well, it’s not *that* time consuming, but combined with everything else like school, PT, OT, the holidays, and buying into a local business, blogging kinda gets the shaft! Sowwie!

Here I am now though

The rundown: We’ve gone through about 5 discs now, and the PT is confident that G is articulate enough to dictate what she likes/what works best for her, and we should follow her lead. We’ve been going to weekly sessions now, at the Health center about 20 min away. We are 100% hooked on TLP, and even G is in love. All she can talk about is how much it helps her pay attention and “feel better”. I am sending our order in tomorrow to Vital Sounds so we can buy the discs we liked ourselves.

Our golden headphones have shipped!

Well, they should be golden, as fricken pricey as they are! Yikes! We also have the tune belt coming. Now I just need to get to the store and pick out a CD player that will hopefully last us awhile. We’ll start out borrowing CDs from the PT so we can figure out what ones work, and that G likes the best. We won’t see her until the week after next, because she is soo booked. We’ll see her psychologist on Monday, so hopefully that will hold her over a bit. Even OT was cancelled at the last minute (should have been this afternoon). I do admit, I am selfishly glad I don’t have to drag out my sniffly and very tired toddler to go get her from school in the pouring rain and then sit outside in the truck for her sesson.

New gear for me, um, the kids!

but I don’t think the hubby is. Neither was the checkcard *insert whistle and innocent face here*

Even the bank called to verify the activity *blush*

We have sooo much cool stuff coming our way now! I placed orders at the Adaptive Child and Beyond Play. Big stuff, little stuff, smelly stuff, chewy stuff, swingy stuff. Oh yeah, our house is going to be one kick ass place to play I think some of the stuff ( a couple games, and a glider) will be saved for Christmas. The rest will come out now. Of course, I have no real plan on where the heck I am going to store this stuff, but I can always worry about that later The most important things coming at the moment are the net swing and study board (so she can do her homework and listen to the program in it) and her chewy grabbers. I even splurged and got the scented ones, to cover 2 bases. She has been begging for something to chew on. I haven’t showed her the links to what is coming, because I don’t think I could handle almost 2 weeks of “Is it here yet? Is today the day?” so it should be a huge surprise.

I know S is going to have a great time with the Rainy Day Indoor Playground stuff, especially as we get into winter.  Heck, even *I* can’t wait to play with some of this stuff! If we can’t get PT and OT locally that has all these goodies, then at the very least we can have the temp. PT teach us how to use it all and use it here at home! I am so excited about the prospects for peace at home that this stuff holds. Seriously some of the coolest catalogs ever!

Soaking it all in…

I have to say, this new PT is everything G’s psychologist raved about and MORE! Incredible! What a great eval! She discovered a little of what we already knew, and a little of what we didn’t. She picked up on a lot of details that haven’t been mentioned in over 2 years of regular PT. I am in awe this evening, trying to process this all. Poor Shaune, I know I haven’t even been able to tell him half of it because there was just so much to take in. We got the order form for the headphones and belt, and we will start by borrowing a few cds to see what works. When we are done seeing her we should know what cds are best for us, and will know which ones to purchase.

She wants to do some Craniosacral stuff on her, and to work with some jaw tightness and weird head tilt/shoulder raising she has going on. She wants to get her to lose some of the anxiety through the music first, before she starts that. She should have more of a plan for treatment and other considerations by the time we go back, in a couple weeks.

I can’t wait to chat with the psychologist about all this and see what he has to say!

Now I am actually getting a little nervous

Ok, well I suppose anxious is a better word. Tomorrow is G’s eval. It’s not like this is our first eval, and it’s not like I don’t know what to expect. I have just waited so long for this to get here, and now it is. I just want to get our order in for what we need so we can get started. I suppose I also want to just pay this large chunk of money so I can recover from the shock LOL.

G isn’t very thrilled. This is all old news for her, and I am sure it’s getting tedious. Plus, she’s a bit miffed with me for having to pick her up early from school to go. That means no library time this week, and an extra day she misses riding the bus home with her BFF. She already misses Friday bus rides home because she has OT. Hopefully we can get her some PT appts. that don’t mean early dismissal from school. I don’t mind picking her up (her bus gets home 35 min after dismissal) but I don’t like her missing class time.

So, not much I can do today I suppose, except twiddle my thumbs and wait for tomorrow