Revere board lauds new school partnership

REVERE – The Revere School Committee discussed their new partnership with The Walker School in Needham to keep students with emotional and social disorders and issues in the district at Tuesday night?s meeting.Revere has recently partnered with The Walker School to create some special on-site classrooms in Revere for students with disabilities that otherwise would be sent elsewhere to receive an education.?We have seen tremendous success,” Assistant Superintendent Christopher Malone said. “We have been working as a team to help these students.”In these specialized classrooms there is one SPED teacher and two paraprofessionals from Revere Public Schools and one social worker and one behavioral specialist from Walker.?If you walked into the classroom, you wouldn?t be able to tell who was the teacher and who was the social worker. That is how closely everyone works together,” Malone said.Currently, there are three students enrolled in the program at Lincoln Elementary School, three in the Rumney Marsh Middle School and seven in Revere High School.The goal of the partnership is to teach the students to become self proficient so that one day they can assimilate into a regular classroom.?It is a transitional program to teach students to become independent,” Malone said. “It will teach them the life skills they will need one day.”The partnership has been met with great success especially in the high school. “There are adults there daily that they can meet with and make a connection with,” Malone said. “Students know they have support and it is having a very big effect on them academically. It has taken on a much bigger role than we thought it would.”The committee was delighted that these students got to stay in the district that they were most familiar with.?I think it is great that they can stay in their own community with the people that know them best,” School Committee member Donna Wood Pruitt said.Malone expects many more students who have gone outside Revere Public Schools for education will now come back once they hear about this opportunity.?We will keep on striving on making a better environment for these students,” Malone said.Sara Brown can be reached at [email protected].