Parents who want their mentally or behaviorally challenged students out of Provo School District's Parkview Treatment Center and back into regular classrooms effectively persuaded the board Tuesday to shut down the special school.
"I prefer to call it a restructuring," said Ted Kelly, Parkview's facilitator, who explained that Parkview has served its purpose well over 20 years, but "we're ready for a big change.""The first thing people need to grow is opportunity," said Kelly.
Parkview is a combined effort of Provo, Alpine and Nebo school districts along with Wasatch Mental Health to provide treatment and education to students with a variety of disabilities.
Originally it was funded largely by special grants, but as years have gone by, Provo has borne an increasingly larger share of the financial burden for its maintenance and operation, Kelly said.
"But that's not why we want to change what we're doing. It's what is best for the kids," he said.
Kelly said the staff has worked with advisers from each district and from the State Office of Education to devise a plan whereby skilled professionals would follow the Parkview students into the mainstream and assist regular teachers in those students' education.
Sue Mathews, a Parkview parent and teacher, said secluding the Parkview students has cut them off from opportunities that they need.
Barbara Graves, who has worked at Parkview the past four years, said the students need a chance to play in a school orchestra, sing in a school choir, attend assemblies and games and join school clubs.
"Parkview has served a really useful purpose, but it's time to move on," said Graves. He said parents overwhelmingly support the change for their children.
Kelly said Alpine and Nebo districts will have a harder time adjusting to the change because they don't have the Parkview staff already in place to go with their students.
"They're kind of panicking," he said.
However, Kelly pointed out that some out-of-district students spend as much as an hour and 45 minutes on a bus each day getting to the Provo facility.
Kelly said Parkview currently has 75 students, 31 from Provo District.
He said the school will continue through the summer so students are not unnecessarily displaced. He also assured the board that backups already in place such as the Utah State Hospital and home tutoring services will be available to severely disturbed children.
"The impact will be minimal," he said, with eight Parkview students coming into the cluster school at Canyon Crest Elementary, seven into the middle schools and "just a few" into the high schools.
"It's not a big step. It's a right step," said Kelly. "Anytime we segregate communities, we create opportunities for discrimination."