Parents are upset and looking for answers after the Palo Alto Unified School District announced this week that classes serving students with moderate to severe disabilities at two elementary schools will be shuttered and relocated to different campuses next school year

Ohlone and Escondido elementary schools will each no longer have a moderate/severe special education class starting this fall. They will be relocated to Nixon and Barron Park elementary schools, respectively.

The decision came as a surprise to families when it was announced during a Zoom call on Feb. 6, three Ohlone parents told the Weekly. Lars Smith was in "complete and utter disbelief" when he logged onto the call and found out his son's class would no longer exist at the school next year. Yaroslava Krivokon had a similar reaction.

"(It was) extremely upsetting," Krivokon said. "I had to turn off the video on the call and mute myself. I could not hold it together."

Both Smith and Krivokon have other children who also attend Ohlone and told the Weekly that they moved to live near the school.

Director of Special Education Amanda Boyce told the Weekly that she knows the consolidation can be hard in the short term but said that it is in the students' best interest.

Escondido, Ohlone, Nixon and Barron Park each currently have one moderate/severe special education class, serving students across all grade levels. By consolidating at Nixon and Barron Park, each campus will be able to have two classrooms: one serving students in second grade and below, the other serving third through fifth graders, Boyce said.

"As a special education department, we've long been looking at wanting to consolidate the programs," Boyce said. "There's no doubt that kids will be better served in either cluster of K-2 or 3-5."

Families were told on Thursday, Feb. 9, that they weren't locked into attending Nixon or Barron Park but could request to move to one of the other three campuses with a moderate/severe program: Walter Hays, Fairmeadow and El Carmelo, according to an email that a parent shared with the Weekly. The district's other elementary schools already don't have a moderate/severe program.

Programs for students with mild to moderate disabilities will remain in operation on all elementary school campuses, Boyce said.

While some parents say that they can appreciate administrators' reasoning for the moderate/severe consolidation — grouping students with similar needs — what they don't understand is the way district staff went about it. Neither parents nor special education teachers were included in the decision-making process.

"What I want to know is why did they think that the most harsh, punitive and undemocratic way of doing this was the way to do it?" Smith said.

Ohlone parent Emily Lee similarly objected to the lack of consultation with parents.

"I'm gravely disappointed in this decision," Lee said. "It was just made without any transparency."

Boyce acknowledged that parents weren't included in the decision-making process and defended that choice.

"I'll tell you the truth — and I appreciate this as a former elementary school principal — every parent loves their community," Boyce said. "Had we gone out to those different schools, we would have heard how much every family loves their community. There's something very special and unique about every elementary school, but there's also a lot of similarities."

Special education teachers similarly weren't involved in making the consolidation decision and were informed of the change on Feb. 6, Boyce said, although she noted that teachers had long advocated for split-grade classes.

District staff instead relied on a set of guiding principles to make the decision, including looking at enrollment in different areas of the district, classroom and campus space, and minimizing classes spanning all grade levels, Boyce said.

While parents weren't involved in the decision, Boyce said that she shared the plans, without naming the affected schools, at a Jan. 23 meeting of the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education in Palo Alto, which is a volunteer group that advocates for families of students in the special education program.

Boyce also said that possible changes to special education were mentioned in an update sent to families last month from Superintendent Don Austin and that the topic has been scheduled for the school board to hear about at a Feb. 14 meeting.

Austin's mention of the topic came on Jan. 20 as part of his weekly update message. He wrote that the district was looking at consolidating some elementary school special education programs but that the district team was still in the "exploration stage." There was no reference to the moderate/severe program or specific school sites.

The board's tentative calendar of items for future meetings has included a bullet point under the Feb. 14 meeting about a "program restructuring" for elementary school special education. Further details weren't released until the full agenda was posted on Friday, Feb. 10. The item is listed on the agenda as a "staff report," with a note that no board action is required.

Parents told the Weekly that they plan to attend the meeting and object to the change. Krivokon also started a petition urging the board to reverse the decision, which had close to 200 signatures as of Friday evening, Feb. 10.

Krivokon said that having to switch schools would be a big disruption for her autistic daughter, who is in kindergarten. After enjoying preschool at Greendell School, Krivokon said that the adjustment to Ohlone was a challenge, with her daughter crying every morning before school. It was only right before winter break that things got smoother.

"Starting at Ohlone was tough. Even though she was excited to be with her brother and sister, it was hard," Krivokon said. "Now she's finally enjoying it and it's going to start all over in another six months."

Parents have also objected to the fact that two schools with choice programs are the ones impacted by the change. Choice programs have specialized offerings and require parents to apply for their children to attend.

Ohlone focuses on an "open school" philosophy, including open-ended activities and peer tutoring, as well as having a farm on campus. Escondido includes a Spanish dual-immersion choice program.

"It is very telling to me that these special education kids are being yanked from Palo Alto's choice schools," Lee said, noting that they are sometimes called the "crown jewels" of the district.

According to Boyce, the fact that both schools have choice programs wasn't a factor in the decision. She also said that all elementary schools follow consistent best practices. Instead, Boyce said that it was about geographically spreading the moderate/severe programs throughout the district.

Parents have raised particular objections to the decision to move Ohlone students to Nixon. The two schools are across the district from one another, with a roughly 3.5-mile drive in between.

"I'm sure Nixon is a wonderful school, but it's not near anything," Smith said.

Administrators considered the district in three "clusters": north, south and west, Boyce said. Currently, the district's seven moderate/severe programs are split between Walter Hays in the north; El Carmelo, Fairmeadow and Ohlone in the south; and Barron Park, Nixon and Escondido in the west. With the consolidation, there will be Walter Hays in the north; El Carmelo and Fairmeadow in the south; and Barron Park and Nixon in the west. Boyce added that all the students are offered the option to be bused from their home to school and back.

Some parents have also raised questions about whether the district's decision to stop offering the moderate/severe program at Ohlone and Escondido without parent input violates the law. The individualized education program (IEP) that guides the services each special education student receives includes information about a student's placement, Smith said, and districts are required to collaborate with parents to develop IEPs. According to Boyce, IEPs detail services, goals and programs for each student but don't require placement at a particular school.