Toronto's Catholic trustees voted last week to defer until June any ruling on the fate of the contentious Arrowsmith program, referring the decision to the board's Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC).
Scarborough/North York Trustee John Del Grande, whose motion to reinstate the cognitive exercise program to its pre-supervision levels was debated at the March 3 meeting of the board, argued that only by full Arrowsmith restoration can trustees "right the wrongs" of supervision."The fact of the matter is, if the trustees had been in charge and weren't taken over by the province, the Arrowsmith program would have continued to this day," he said. "If our mandate as trustees is student achievement, this is a program that is hitting on that goal...It is actually helping students move ahead and get over their learning disabilities so that they don't need further help in the future."The "miracle" program, which is a cognitive exercise program to assist learning disabled (LD) children in 19 areas of learning dysfunction, is based on the science of neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. In June 2008, after the board was taken over by the Ministry of Education in the midst of a spending scandal and inability to balance its budget, the provincially appointed supervisor "abruptly discontinued (Arrowsmith), despite protests and success evidence from current LD students, ex-LD students, parents and community groups; then later grandfathered it for existing students," Del Grande's motion reads.One of those parents who lobbied for the retention of Arrowsmith at the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) was John Alicandro, whose 11-year-old son Nicholas is currently in his fourth year in the program at Scarborough's Holy Spirit Catholic School, where he's a sixth grader.Alicandro was on hand at Wednesday's meeting to support Arrowsmith's reinstatement to its 2008 levels, both for his son's sake and for "all the kids who aren't in the program.""Nicholas has continued to improve as the specialized Arrowsmith training continues to fix his brain and provides him with the tools to learn - which is to read, absorb, process, and retain," he said. "Nicholas is now at- or near-grade in reading, writing, math, and is very eager to absorb as much geography and science as possible. His confidence, organizational, and self adequacy skills have also improved tremendously. He is a much happier young man who cannot stop smiling. Arrowsmith is empowering Nicholas to reach his full potential."Not all stakeholders of the board are as confident about the program, though - which is why the board has commissioned the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto to conduct a study and report back to them by late May or early June on how exactly the Arrowsmith program helps students.Veteran Toronto Trustee Barbara Poplawski, who said she was on the board 10 years ago when the Arrowsmith program was first brought into the TCDSB, advocated waiting until the results of the OISE report come in to make a decision on the future of Arrowsmith - and to ensure its fairness in a cash-strapped special education department that serves 10,000 special needs children."At last count before supervision, we had a total of 63 students out of 99,000 students right across our board in this program. It's a very specialized program - you have to qualify to get in - and we can't afford to run the tests on every special needs student within our system, and let's face it, we have about 10,000 special needs students," she argued. "So I really rely on staff for direction on this and how best to address the needs of each and every student - not just (Nicholas Alicandro) and the 62 others like him, but each and every student. SEAC needs to be fully informed on all the information we have on Arrowsmith, on the evaluations we have, including the OISE report."The motion to refer the Arrowsmith motion to SEAC (on the grounds that it's an operational matter not under the jurisdiction of the board) and defer it until June was passed on a recorded vote of 7-4. Those voting in favour of the referral and deferral were: Peter Jakovcic (Etobicoke), Ann Andrachuk (Etobicoke), Patrizia Bottoni (North York), Tobias Enverga (Scarborough), Jo-Ann Davis (Toronto), Poplawski (Toronto), and Nancy Crawford (Scarborough). Opposed were: Del Grande, Sal Piccininni (North York), Maria Rizzo (North York) and Angela Kennedy (East York/Toronto).