Thu
Nov 15 2007
10:54 am
Asperger Support Group this Monday - Good Time to discuss saving KAEC
By: djuggler

Meeting Announcement

The upcoming meeting dates for the Knoxville Asperger Support Group are:

  • Novemeber 19, 2007
  • December 17, 2007

The support group has a Yahoo Group which can be found on http://groups.yahoo.com/ by searching for Knoxville_Aspie_Support. It meets the third Monday of every month unless there is a conflict or holiday at the West Branch of the Knoxville Public Library (map) at 100 Golfclub Rd from 6pm to 7:30pm.

The Knoxville Asperger Support Group is a no charge, open discussion on the subject of Asperger Syndrome. Typically attendees are caregivers of children teens, and adults although folks with Asperger's often attend to provide input, ask questions, or seek out others with Asperger's. All are welcome!

Potential Special Topic

Dr. Dan Murphy of the School Board has proposed turning KAEC into a middle school to serve the Sequoyah Hills areas. He is making the rounds to several PTOs (will be at Rocky Hill Elementary on Dec 10 at 6:30pm) to garnish support for his proposal. When asked directly as to what would become of the KAEC students, Dr. Murphy gave an ambiguous answer. In my mind that means they either have no plan or will bus the children to Karns. As a parent of a child with Asperger's, you stand a chance that your child will spend some time at KAEC. This is a topic that needs to be discussed immediately.

Topics:
KC's picture

Is the KAEC building

Submitted by KC on Thu, 2007/11/15 - 11:18am.

Is the KAEC building the building that used to be the old Bearden Junior High School up until 1977? Or is it another one of the buildings up there?

Turning that school into a middle school without any definitive plan to relocate KAEC is irresponsible. The school serves a purpose for the students who may have to go there and for the students at other schools who may benefit from some of the KAEC students who may pose a danger to others in a regular classroom.

djuggler's picture

That is the school. There is

Submitted by djuggler on Thu, 2007/11/15 - 3:08pm.

That is the school. There is an elementary school beside it that serves a small community. Although it hasn't been directly stated, I cannot imagine converting just KAEC to a middle school without absorbing the elementary school too. Does the property even have adequate parking to support a middle school? Would the public park behind it be sacrificed?

My oldest son attended there for a number of years with the school under Dan Murphy's watch. My son never had text books. It took a concerned mother and the actions of NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) to get books in the school and convert the school from an institutional feel to an educational facility.

The track and field were leased out from under the school to a private soccer organization who then chained off the field. As I understand it, and I'm trying to validate this information, a grant had been written, approved, and plans drawn up to build a playground and renovate that track and field for the students who probably needed it more than any other group of students in Knox County. I say that because while my son was there, he took medications which caused severe weight gain. Walking a track would have been good. Some students there have anger management and depressive issues and we all know that exercise helps with both of those. And don't get me wrong, I think all students need physical education.

For those trying to get a bearing on this, it is the school across from Sonic on Kingston Pike east of Papermill but west of the old Goodwill. Shoot. I almost forgot this is the Internet: map

Doug McCaughan
(link...)

KC's picture

That really doesn't make

Submitted by KC on Thu, 2007/11/15 - 3:45pm.

That really doesn't make much sense to want to change it back to a middle school, even if it wasn't for the fact that there doesn't seem to be a plan for a new location of KAEC.

Of course, living in West Knoxville I assmue the universe revolves around me, but I would think that KAEC's location now is pretty centrally located.

And although I'm not completely knowledgeable of KAEC's population characteristics, having worked in juvenile and alternative centers, I've always believed it's a bad idea to mix those who suffer from emotional and psychological problems with those who just get into trouble because of bad decision making and negative attitudes concerning classroom authority.

djuggler's picture

Not sure if this is about

Submitted by djuggler on Fri, 2007/11/16 - 10:01am.

Not sure if this is about making sense or about someone's personal agenda. (the conspiracy minded person in my wants to think Dan Murphy is trying to raise the property value of his house) The long and short is that through his visits to the PTOs, he has managed to pitch the concept to many people who are flood Karen Carsen's support emails (even though she is only one of nine votes). I have to believe those folks have only listened to Dan Murphy's presentation, not questioning his information, nor looked into alternatives.

Those of us who have problems with this proposal need to be drumming up as much opposition otherwise another bad move will get voted through. We need an email campaign to inform all school board members that we are not in support of converting KAEC to a middle school without a plan for the current KAEC students. Additionally, I would like to see evidence that this is even a wise and viable move.

Doug McCaughan
(link...)

Carole Borges's picture

We need schools for children who cannot succeed

Submitted by Carole Borges on Sat, 2007/11/17 - 8:51am.

Mainstreaming all children with special needs is not the solution. Though any child who can succeed in a regular classroom setting certainly deserves a chance to do so, some children need a very special setting and teachers highly skilled at inspiring and teaching students with special learning problems.

Though I'm also not totally informed about the quality of the KAEC or its vital need, I strongly support schools that know how to teach amnd nurture children who can't be mainstreamed.

Speaking from experience, both as the mother of a child who had special needs and an educator, I believe the notion of mainstreaming all children with special needs can be a very bad idea. It was a nightmare when my child was mainstreamed, but he flourished in a classroom designed to give him the ability to concentrate and to bolster his talents.

If there is any chance the students attending KAEC would be pushed aside for invalid reasons, I hope you will keep us informed about this.

djuggler's picture

Each special needs child is

Submitted by djuggler on Sun, 2007/11/18 - 4:21pm.

Each special needs child is unique. I know mine excelled in mainstreamed classes and deteriorated when kept in CDC settings (and worse at KAEC).

I do not think Dan Murphy's proposal would have KAEC students mainstreamed. I think he will probably propose busing the students to Ridgedale/Karns which mixes two different types of behavior issues and that's a bad idea.

Please visit (link...) and share your thoughts there also!

Doug McCaughan
(link...)

StaceyDiamond's picture

school

Submitted by StaceyDiamond on Thu, 2007/11/15 - 4:00pm.

Would this be part of the effort to accomodate people with children moving downtown? I'd heard recently downtown has been changed to be zoned from the schools around Magnolia to Sequoyah, but I wasn't sure if that was true.

djuggler's picture

StaceyDiamond, that's a good

Submitted by djuggler on Sun, 2007/11/18 - 4:16pm.

StaceyDiamond, that's a good question and it needs to be posed. Personally, I think this is a strategic move on Dan Murphy's part to setup the middle/elementary school rezonings to go the way he wants. I fear we are walking the same path as with the high school rezonings. 9 people are forming opinions and going to make long term choices without consulting the public, experts, UT, or other brain trusts like those at ORNL. During the high school rezonings one of the board, Murphy I think, stated "Look how much difficulty 9 of us had making these decisions. How could you expect us to do this with a larger committee?" Well, other very successful school boards have gathered better than 100 people to make sure their zonings and planning was sound.

The high school rezonings will have to be redone in 4.5 years and the school board knows this. We should have been able to make decisions that kept rezoning unnecessary for much longer than that.

The requested budget by the school board proposes 4 new schools at the elementary/middle level (I'm drawing from memory here..could be specifically for elementary or specifically for middle). Perhaps one of those new schools is to accommodate downtown.

Be sure to pose these questions on (link...)

Doug McCaughan
(link...)

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

TN Progressive

TN Politics

Knox TN Today

Local TV News

News Sentinel

    State News

    Wire Reports

    Lost Medicaid Funding

    To date, the failure to expand Medicaid/TennCare has cost the State of Tennessee ? in lost federal funding. (Source)

    Search and Archives