The Pinnacle Schools: What Are We Waiting For?

Last year, the Huntsville City Schools outsourced its alternative schooling to The Pinnacle Schools at a cost of $1,596,000, entering a 19-month contract.

You want to find out more?

Don’t bother looking in the Student-Parent Handbook. No mention of the Pinnacle Schools.

Don’t bother looking in the HCS Policy Manual. No mention of the Pinnacle Schools.

Don’t bother searching the HCS website.

(There is one mention of the Pinnacle Schools on the website. Here it is, in its entirety: “A student that is attending the Seldon Center or Pinnacle is only eligible to represent the Seldon Center or Pinnacle. A student attending the Seldon Center or Pinnacle cannot participate at any other school.”)

I have been writing about this since last December. See categories: Pinnacle.

My biggest fear has been the potential for abuse at the Elk River Treatment wilderness camp where Col. Casey Wardynski, superintendent, sends kids that Pinnacle can’t handle. There they are held incommunicado for an indefinite stay — as long as it suits Wardynski [one censored letter home a week. No calls. No visits. No legal representation].

Frankly, even I didn’t expect this at the Huntsville City Pinnacle Schools campus:

Read about it here and here.

If what we see above is what is being done to kids who go home at night, just imagine what is going on at W’s private prison.

I’ll say it again:

If what we see above is what is being done to kids who go home at night, just imagine what is going on at W’s private prison.

I looked to see who licensed the Pinnacle Schools, but on its website no mention of a licensing agency is provided. I wonder if the Board knows. (Elk River is licensed as a detention facility by the State of Alabama, for what’s that’s worth.)

I wonder if anyone down at Merts, like the play-dead Board maybe, knows what standards are used to employ personnel for this cash cow. The CEO’s (Ms. Karen Lee’s) only qualification for running the place is that she has two sons who have run afoul of the law. She has no credentials in education or mental health services. Well, hell, we have an unqualified superintendent, so what? We do know that she saw fit to employ one of her sons who is awaiting trial for drug trafficking as a counselor at the Elk River detention camp, but when this was publicized, she moved him to Pinnacle instead.

What are the qualifications of the thug who beat this kid?

How many other kids have been beaten at Pinnacle Schools Huntsville campus and have been afraid to speak out because doing so could well mean that they risk being disappeared to the teepees until the Colonel decides they have been neutralized.

Even without the smacking in the ribs, planking or face-down restraint — and yes, I realize no mechanical restraints were employed to keep the kid in this position, unless you count risk of a beating about the ribs as a mechanical restraint (I would) — has been outlawed in more progressive states and has been at the core of a number of suits related to deaths in treatment facilities.

You can read about it here, here, here, here, and here.

Guess that’s what the citizens of Huntsville are waiting on for their wake-up call: a death.

Then there can be tears and hand-wringing, candlelight vigils, messages from pulpits, all the usual useless brouhaha to assuage a community’s guilt at just not giving a damn.

I never wanted to be in the I Told You So position because it would come only when someone’s child had suffered.

Haven’t you had enough? If not, what would be enough?

 

 

“Temporary Transfer” or Making Up Policy On the Fly

In its own right, what happened to the young girl in the bathroom at Butler High on September 17, 2012 is bad enough.

The aftermath reveals that there are huge cracks in accountability in the Huntsville City Schools, and it shows that the superintendent, Colonel Wardynski, is a loose cannon, out of control of the Board, all five of whom have collectively decided to lay down and play dead.

Only after being embarrassed in the media did Wardynski throw a bone to the victim’s mother who had for ten days requested a transfer out of Butler for her daughter.

Through a spokesperson, Wardynski notified WAFF that:

“’Until the investigation is complete, Huntsville City Schools will grant an immediate temporary transfer for the student to [withheld here but initially not by HCS] High if her mother has concerns for her safety,’ said Dr. Casey Wardynski on Thursday, according to a school spokesperson.”

Problem 1: There’s no mention of “temporary transfers” in the HCS Policy Manual.

Just not there. Have a look for yourself. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems clear Wardynski just made up this special category on the fly because he is determined not to allow this child to get on with her life.

He doubled this by identifying her destination. You won’t find it in WAFF’s current article, which was revised, probably when their legal team reviewed it after the public asked what the hell the Supe thought he was doing by sharing a bullying and assault victim’s future plan for safe schooling with the world.

Problem 2: The transfer policies specifically exclude temporary transfers [provision i, Duration]:

“Only in exceptional circumstances as determined by the
Superintendent or Delegate Assistant Superintendent will consideration be given for the student to transfer to a different school during the school year if a transfer has already been given for or within that year.”

Oh, but wait. This must be an “exceptional circumstance,” right? This is just one of dozens of “policies” that the Supe or his appointed minion can over-ride at will. In other words, he can do as he pleases. Period.

Problem 3: Transfer policies in the HCS manual neglect to include Ala Code 290-3-1-02, which reads:

“A student who becomes a victim of a violent criminal offense committed on school property during school hours or at school-sponsored activities shall be given an opportunity to transfer to a safe public school within the local education agency. The school shall notify the student’s parent/guardian of the right to transfer within 10 calendar days from the date of a final determination by the school board that a violent criminal offense has occurred. Alabama students who attend a school deemed persistently dangerous by the State Department criteria will be offered a transfer option to another school.  A persistently dangerous school is one in which for 3 consecutive years the school has expelled 1% of the student population or 5 students (whichever is greater) for violent criminal offenses committed on school property during school hours or committed at school-sponsored activities. (Ala Code 290-3-1-02).”

Moreover, the HCS policy manual seems to defy Alabama State Statutes since it insists  “and only applications for the following reasons will be accepted” — and Ala Code 290-3-1-02 isn’t there. There is, however, provision h:

“Transfers for other reasons may be approved as prescribed by the Superintendent.”

Sound familiar? Provision h is followed by provision i, quoted earlier, which also reserves for the Colonel the right to over-ride the HCS stated policies.

Are you beginning to get an idea of how this man has ensured that he can do as he damn well pleases?

Well done, Board. Well done indeed.

 

Horse Sense. Federal Law Trumps HCS Policy.

When I first came across the passage on miniature horses in the new Huntsville City Schools Policy Manual, I thought it absurd. As I continued hunting through the manual for the policies governing how a student could land in a teepee at the Elk River Treatment Program for as long as the supe desires, and found nary a word, I was outraged. Now my thinking is that devoting four pages to service animal policies (Section 4.14, of the HCS document) is arrogant and lazy.

Why?

Simple: It’s just a cut and paste job. I hope whoever was paid to develop this manual didn’t charge by the page.

The Huntsville City Schools doesn’t need a policy on service animals, including miniature horses. It simply needs to comply with federal law, here the Americans with Disabilities Act, 28 CFR Part 35, the source for the four pages of service animal policies, Section 4.14, of the HCS document.

In lieu of the four pages in its new policy manual, one sentence would have sufficed:

HCS complies with Federal laws related to the use of service animals.

This itself should evoke a “well, duh” response: of course the HCS complies with Federal law, right?

If more detail were needed, the specifics could have been placed in an appendix to distinguish them as not originating with or specific to HCS.

I can think of guidelines pertaining to service animals that may have been appropriately placed in the body of the HCS Policy Manual. These would be policies that are not stated in the Federal law and are not in conflict with it. For example:

On pep rally days, and other grand occasions as dictated by the supe, all service animals shall show their school spirit by wearing the school colors in bows in their tails.

See the difference? Fairly easy, right?

Seriously, Folks. More on Miniature Horses and the ADA.

In my previous post, I told you that the new policy manual for the Huntsville City Schools includes a passage on rules regarding miniature horses used as service animals in the schools.

I’m astounded that these guidelines are in place, when there is no mention of policies governing who can be sent and why to the Elk River Treatment Program, cut off from contact with the outside world, for indefinite stays of months and months.

But back to what is there — the horses. Miniature horses are used as service animals for the disabled. Service animals are allowed where others animals of the same species — and usually we’re talking dogs — are not, as provided for under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 28 CFR Part 35, the source for the four pages of service animal policies, Section 4.14, of the HCS document.

I’m all for service animals, make no mistake.

But why — why so much on service animals when other matters are entirely ignored?

Just a bit of googling later, I may have an answer. Remember last October when Board member Jennie Robinson told Russ Winn “that she knew that the system was meeting the requirements of the IEPs because the system isn’t being sued”?

A jaw-dropper, that. True, the HCS hasn’t been sued about the IEP negligence — yet — but, no, all is not well. Individual Educational Plans, also an ADA matter, like service animals, weren’t met last fall, or last spring, and there’s no reason to expect they will be this fall.

Meanwhile, up in good old Fairfax County, Virginia, in 2011, 12-year-old Andrew Stevens was finally allowed “after a grueling battle with his school district” to bring his service dog Alaya to school with him. Andrew has epilepsy.  He used to have as many as 20 seizures daily, but with Alaya’s help in detecting and preventing these, Andrew is averaging 5-10 a day. Once his parents finally raised the $18,000 needed to provide him with Alaya,  “Angelo and Nancy Stevens assumed that Fairfax County school officials would follow federal and state laws and allow Alaya to accompany Andrew to his sixth-grade classes at Fort Belvoir Elementary School – a role service dogs perform for many disabled children across the country,” but instead the Fairfax County Schools did all they could to keep Alaya out of his school.

Finally, when the story was reported in the Washington Post and became the subject of petitions on the internationally watched site change.org, Fairfax officials decided to comply with the law.

I wonder who wrote this policy manual, and so does geekpalaver.

Curiouser and curiouser, neigh?

HCS Policy Manual: Miniature Horses: 156 words. Pinnacle School: 0 words.

Can someone explain to me why the 2012 – 2013 Huntsville City Schools Policy Manual includes a 156-word policy on miniature horses and not a single word about its new private sector alternative school, The Pinnacle School and its Elk River Treatment Program, which Frank Spinelli, chief financial officer for the school system, estimates will cost Huntsville taxpayers “about $1.2 million” next year alone?

4.14.4 Miniature Horses – The school district will make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures to permit the use of a miniature horse by an individual with a disability if the miniature horse has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of the individual with a disability. In determining whether reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures can be made to allow a miniature horse into a specific facility, the school district must consider the following factors:

a. The type, size, and weight of the miniature horse and whether the facility can accommodate these features;

b. Whether the handler has sufficient control of the miniature horse;

c. Whether the miniature horse is housebroken; and

d. Whether the miniature horse’s presence in a specific facility compromises legitimate safety requirements that are necessary for safe operation.

All additional requirements outlined in this policy, which apply to service animals, shall apply to miniature horses.

I had no idea unhousebroken miniature horses were such a problem in Huntsville’s schools.

I’ll leave the horse manure jokes to someone who still finds these clowns amusing.