D-11 hearing-impaired program needs a home

More than 8,000 students will change schools in Colorado Springs School District 11 this fall because of a board decision in February to close schools.

But it hasn't been decided where 17 students in the district's elementary Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program will attend class.

The vote to close schools included moving the program to Stratton Elementary School when Jefferson Elementary is closed at the end of this school year.

But after parents and staff at Stratton questioned whether the school had room for the program, the board directed the D-11 administration to take another look at the issue.

On Wednesday, administrators brought forward three options but again recommended that the program move to Stratton.

After nearly two hours of discussion, it was unclear how the board will vote when the issue comes before it again on May 20, although at least three board members clearly oppose moving the program to Stratton.

Brenda LeBrasse, an executive director in D-11, said the program would work best at Stratton because of its proximity to Mann Middle School, which also has a program for hearing impaired students.

The schools share a campus and could share teachers and interpreters, maximizing efficiency, she said.

The other two schools under consideration, Bates and Edison elementary schools, are farther away.

Kim Lovelace, who oversees the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, said parents would love for their children to attend an elementary school where they would go with their hearing peers to middle school, as they would at Stratton.

Administrators said there was enough room for the program at the Stratton.

But board member Bob Null disagreed and presented his own slide show of crowded conditions at the school.

Board member John Gudvangen countered that the school has space issues because of leadership issues - chiefly, turnover in the position of principal.

However, he said he believes Stratton is the best facility for the hearing-impaired and said that with the right leadership - which he chided the administration to get - the program will work there.

Board members Null, Charles Bobbitt and Tami Hasling all said the program should go to Edison or Bates.

In other action Wednesday, the board voted 5-2 to transfer title of Buena Vista Elementary School to the city of Colorado Springs, with Null and Bobbitt casting the opposing votes. It will move the West Center for Intergenerational Learning to the school if the City Council signs off on the deal on May 12.

The move would allow D-11 to use the center's space at West Middle School for the consolidation of elementary schools at that location.