Parents upset, students plan strike as special education classes moved from Sacramento school

Some Sacramento-area students are planning a strike Thursday, protesting the decision to move some special needs classes at A.M. Winn Elementary School to other campuses.

A.M. Winn, a Waldorf inspired K-8 public school that serves nearly 400 students, is part of the Sacramento City Unified School District. The district’s decision to move some of the classes, which will affect a handful of students in first, second and third grades, was made to balance staffing with student enrollment.

But on Wednesday, more than 50 parents and students stood outside the school objecting to the decision, saying the district is splitting apart a school community. Some parents and children held signs that read, “Waldorf is for everyone,” and “We aren’t a school without special ed.”

One A.M. Winn teacher, Bethany Cox, started a petition, collecting more than 500 signatures to ask the school district to continue special education classes at the school. Cox said that enrollment in the special day classes is low because the pandemic delayed testing new special education students.

“Now, on top of everything, (teacher Taylor Cavin) is being asked to ‘pick up and move along,’” read a statement from Cox on the petition website. “Never mind that he just transferred his own children to attend the school where he works. Never mind that we, as a staff, depend on our educator connections, our social collaborators. Never mind that our school community is built like a spider’s web, or that we learn from each other, or that we heal and grow together. Never mind that this last year and a half has already left our webs in tatters.”

The district says that special education is not ending at A.M. Winn, and some services will continue to be offered at the school.

District officials said that the students moving to another school site will be taking part in an “equivalent program with appropriately credentialed teachers.” Sacramento City Unified will provide transportation for the students.

“The district monitors enrollment over the summer and tries to plan teacher and student class assignments in advance of the school year starting based on anticipated student enrollment,” read a statement from the district. “The district sometimes has to make these types of changes once students show up for the fall semester and we verify our actual student enrollment. This process of balancing student and teacher ratios is called leveling, and all districts do this for traditional and special education staffing.”