PEABODY — The special education program at West Memorial Elementary School will be moving to Thomas Carroll Elementary School, effective next school year, which came as a shock to some, as the program has been at the West School for more than 20 years.
The Therapeutic Learning Community program, formerly known as the Choices program, is a sub-separate special education program in grades one through five that uses “a therapeutic approach that allows students with trauma and anxiety the ability to access the curriculum while learning coping skills from teachers and a full-time counselor” with inclusion opportunities throughout the day.
It currently serves 16 students. Two of those students will be heading to Higgins Middle School this fall; the remaining 14 will move with TLC to the Carroll School.
This is not the first time a special education program has moved from one elementary school to another in Peabody. In 2023, the Milestones program moved from Captain Samuel Brown Elementary School to John E. Burke Elementary School.
“With that move, the Milestones to the Burke, people were nervous,” Superintendent Dr. Josh Vadala reflected. “‘Would they be accepted?’ ‘Is the school going to welcome them?’ You know, the whole nine yards. There were definitely some feelings and emotions with the move, and we wanted to be very thoughtful and proactive with it. Three years later, the move has been wildly successful. The families feel welcomed and part of the community. The Burke School is a School of Recognition. It’s embraced the program, and it’s been very successful, so we wanted to model that process when we were looking at moving the TLC.”
Carolyn Marisol, the school adjustment counselor at the West School, spoke on how she felt this was ultimately a bad decision.
“While I’m nervous to share my perspective so publicly, I feel a responsibility to advocate for these students because they are often unable to advocate for themselves and do not have an adult to advocate for them, making them extremely vulnerable… I’m sure the Carroll is a phenomenal school with phenomenal school staff, and we will continue to support our kids wherever they are. However, therapeutic students depend on consistency, predictability, and strong relationships to function in a school environment,” Marisol said.
She specifically noted that the Carroll School is twice the size of the West School, which would add “more noise, more transitions, more people, and significantly more overwhelm — none of which is therapeutic.” Marisol also mentioned safety as a “critical concern.”
“Some of our students are at risk for elopement when they become overwhelmed or dysregulated. In a larger building with more exits, more people, and a busier surrounding area, the risk increases significantly. What is manageable in a smaller, contained environment becomes far more difficult to monitor and respond to quickly in a larger school — especially when located in a much more active part of town,” Marisol said.
She added, “These students require a higher level of care, and their environment should reflect that. A larger, more complex setting risks undoing the very progress that this program is designed to support.”
Others, like Special Education Parent Advisory Council Board member Jenn Coughlin and West School teacher Jo Beth Nagle, echoed many of Marisol’s sentiments and questioned why this shift was happening.
“We are concerned that placing students with a trauma history, anxiety, and high behaviors in a larger and noisier school environment is not necessarily a safe and therapeutic approach,” Coughlin said, speaking for herself and SEPAC President Liz Mover.
According to Vadala, the change boils down to thinking ahead toward the future.
“The ultimate goal is this helps us to support the students and gives us flexibility for growth moving forward… If (TLC) gets bigger in a small building, it sort of restricts what our options are. And if we were to get someone who was wheelchair bound or who needed an elevator for whatever reason, there’s not one at the West School. So that was a consideration that we took in, and it is a nice benefit of the Carroll School that it is ADA compliant,” he said.
Vadala said he has and will continue to welcome individual meetings with parents of students in the TLC program to ensure that all their questions are answered and all their needs are met.
“The unknown makes people nervous, and we understand that, and we just want to be here to support them throughout that process,” he said.
He said all staffing decisions will likely be made before April break at the end of the month, as each faculty member has the choice to stay at the West, move to the Carroll with the program, or take another alternative by transferring elsewhere.
To help the students with their transition, Vadala emphasized that there will be an in-school field trip for them to visit the Carroll School before the end of the year “to get acquainted with it.” There will also be more opportunities for those students to visit over the summer, once the classrooms are set up, to really get a feel for their future learning environment.
“(The TLC students) take their lead from the adults in their life. And, as (with) any change, it’s difficult, but the students will do as well as we do as adults, and we’ll continue to support them,” Vadala said. “And the students are resilient. They’re very good with change, and we’ll make sure they have enough support along the way to make this transition as successful as possible.”
Additionally, Vadala noted that there are some ancillary benefits that come with moving the TLC program from the West School to the Carroll School. The two classrooms that are currently housing the TLC program at the West will be used to add two classrooms of pre-K to the West School, doubling its pre-K numbers there from 40 to 80 students next school year. Vadala said there have been calls for more pre-K spots on the west side of Peabody, and this would be a way to address that need. He emphasized that this was not the reason for the move, but definitely a perk.
