Negley Elementary Navigator Preston Henry, with the smiling assistance of “paraprofessional extraordinaire” Lisa Whitehead, beams his clear approval of the latest addition to the Negley playground, Hays CISD’s second “inclusive playscape,” allowing all Navigators full navigation access of playground equipment. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
by JIM CULLEN
When we wrote last year about Tobias students—all Tobias students, Special Ed and general education—enjoying their new “inclusive playscape,” we cited the joyful reaction of Hays CISD Special Education Director Gloria Beare. “Having an inclusive playscape where regular and special education students could play together has been a dream of mine for a long time,” she said, adding that there are few districts that have such a playground.
Score one for the district with that special addition in 2010. Score one more with the addition of the district’s second such playscape, installed last month and now in constant daily use at Negley Elementary.
Navigator Lifeskills teacher Nancy Cato and Negley staff hosted a fun-filled roll-out of the new equipment on campus the first week of school and from all appearances, the addition to the existing playground was immediately absorbed into the life of every Navigator present. Happily, that included those in leg braces and wheelchairs.
At the Tobias playground roll-out a year ago, Beare explained that the campus had been chosen for the grand experiment because it hosts a Preschool Academic, Language, and Social Skills (PALS) class, as well as a Lifeskills class. Both provide loving and dedicated services to children with special needs. Among those needs are physical recreation and the stimulation of inclusion with fellow students from across the campus.
In the fall of 2010, because of their identical PALS-Lifeskills program pairings, Beare pointed to Negley and Camino Real elementary schools as sites for duplicating the Tobias accomplishment. A year later, with the requisite $130,000 in funding, the visionary director has secured the second phase of the dream she savors for her students. The dream now also includes such a site for Ralph Pfluger Elementary.
At Negley, as at Tobias and every campus across the district, efforts are constant and ongoing to provide a high degree of inclusion for all students. As Negley Principal Will Webber describes it, the process is a “blurring of the lines” and, as a result, all students are just students and all Navigators are just Navigators.
Nancy Cato describes her campus as exactly meeting that intent.
“Before the playscape was built,” she says, “our able-bodied friends would comment that they were sad that the kids in wheelchairs had to stay on the side. When I told them that we were getting a playground we could share they were so happy.”
In a testament to the power of inclusion, Cato says she sees the students at Negley “growing more and more compassionate—growing into better human beings, for the rich experience of growing up with students different than themselves. Kindergarten students start out looking curiously and asking questions. By the 5th-grade, they are completely integrated with each other in mutually accepting, nurturing, and beneficial relationships. It’s a beautiful and awesome sight to behold.”
Gloria Beare says she observes that many students in general education “often like our playscapes better than the ones with which they are accustomed.” And in affirming her advocacy for the special projects she notes, “It is an equal opportunity for our students to finally have what other students take for granted.”
