Members of the Upside-Down-T are working with the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD)to welcome a new and valuable program which will move into the Edison School Campus by October. Let's talk about how we can provide them with needed resources and volunteer our time to make this work.
PUSD P.A.L.S Meeting with Upside-down-T
ReplyDeleteSaturday September 26, 2009 10 AM
Attending from PUSD
Jamie-Beth S. Munro, Oak Knoll/Edison Complex Principal
Kathy Inouye (started at Audubon) Exec director Elementary
Alice Petrossian, Director Special Education
Upside-down-T
Barbara Boekenoogen
Glenn Boekenoogen
Elliot Gold
Shirley Gold
Rodney Goodwin
Dorothy Neal
Jon Young
Background on PUSD and the new P.A.L.S. Program & the use of the Edison Campus
In summary, the PUSD plans to use the front (Palm side) of the Edison campus for three activities:
1. P.A.L.S—“Pasadena Adult Learning Skills” (Maximum of 50 students)
2. “Adult Education—Teacher training, which will be training for PUSD staff upstairs at Edison main campus (Maximum of 100- 130 adults for adult training)
3. Community meetings, such as the Upside-Down-T meetings and annual parties (Edison has a kitchen and an auditorium)
P.A.L.S Background
In total, there are now 19,000 students in the PUSD, and P.A.L.S. will focus on approximately 50 of those students.
• The students are adults
• The students can be in the program till they are 22 years old
• At Edison, they will start with three (3) classrooms of eight (8) students each
• Will grow to a maximum of 15 per classroom, or about 50 in total
• Students will only be on the campus about 20-40% of their time once the full program is in place.
Characteristics of the P.A.L.S. Students
• They could be mild retardation, to Down syndrome, to autism, to syndromes that are atypical
• Age range 18-22
• A student in the PUSD
• Not graduated from high school yet
Questions raised by the Upside-Down-T
1. How will students arrive and depart the campus?
• Most will arrive by school bus at 8 a.m., and the staff will be waiting outside for them.
• Some will arrive and go home via public transit, others may arrive by other means. But the majority arrives and returns home on a school bus.
2. Characteristics of the students?
• They are more docile than those held in a group home. P.A.L.S will evaluate the students, and only accept ones who are docile etc. and are able to learn to work in the community.
3. How do we identify the students?
• Each student will carry a card that gives them steps what to do if they’re lost.
• Some students will have cell phones they will be learning to use
• If a student gets lost on our block, ask them for their “card”
4. Will the students be allowed to go outside and around the neighborhood?
• Some students will be trained how to go to local stores, given instructions how to get there and how to return. (They carry cards and possibly cell phones.) They will also be walking to the bus stop to take the bus to day jobs.
5. Where will P.A.L.S. staff, as well as those who come to the Edison campus for training, park?
• Parking will be exclusively in the upper playground. An area has been cleared for the number of cars expected and adults driving to the school will be directed to park there.
6. Will there be evening or weekend PUSD events at the school?
• The P.A.L.S. students and their families may plan to have school events on evenings or weekends. The school will be conscientious and neighborly during these events that may take place periodically.
• The PUSD events that happen regularly at Edison will be adult professional development which may be taking place into the early evening and occasionally on the weekend. Parking will be highly encouraged and advertised to be on the playground regularly.
P.A.L.S. wants to work with the Upside-down-T and would like two things:
1. Volunteers
• We are working on a list of things volunteers can do
2. Resources
• Jamie will come up with a list of resources which we will distribute to the “T”
Questions:
Best to send them to elliot@telespan.com, or call Elliot at 626-791-1747.
Also, see our new BLOG posting regarding P.A.L.S.:
(http://upside-down-t.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html)