We just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for their support and enthusiasm during our second annual Inclusive Schools Week! At the elementary level, staff were provided with video links for picture books and daily lessons about different disabilities. C.H.I.L.D. provided our librarians, Mrs. Walker and Ms. Freda with two picture books for each school (“Dancing with Daddy” by Anitra Schulte and “All the Way to the Top: How One Girls’ Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything” by Annette Bay Pimentel).
At HBW, staff were provided with different YouTube videos, activities, and TEDTalks and the entire school was fortunate to hear the inspirational message of motivational speaker, Jordan Toma.
At VHS, staff were provided with a series of TEDTalks about disability that could be used to supplement their curriculum. Additionally, Ms. Kelly, Verona High School’s librarian, put together a bulletin board and did a lunchtime project with one of our art teachers, Ms. Carvajal. Ms. McKelvey-McLaughlin added a fun twist to our poster contest with one of the assignments in her digital illustration class. And in the greater community, the Verona Public Library used a few of our recommended books about inclusion last week for their preschool Storytime sessions.
Behind the scenes, we were fortunate to work with Dr. Miller, Ms. Symmons, our principals, administrative assistants, school librarians, the VHS Student Council, and some of our amazing teachers. BIG thanks to Mrs. Kleinknecht for coordinating the speaker event at HBW and to our fellow sponsors, VFEE and the HBW SCA. We’re also thankful to Mrs. Sewell (and her class) and Mrs. Mustardo for their help with the handprints and for our parent volunteers who helped put together the activities for the week.
The Inclusive Schools Week Poster Contest was also a big success with ninety-nine posters being submitted across the district! Our Board was very impressed with the quality of the artwork and the hard work and time that went into each submission. The winners were presented with a certificate and a $50 award at our Open SEPAC Meeting on March 6th. The winning posters will be on display at the Verona Public Library during the month of March. CONGRATULATIONS!!! The winners can be seen below.
“One way to understand neurodiversity is to think in terms of human operating systems – just because a PC is not running Windows doesn’t mean that it’s broken.” Steve Silberman
VERONA C.H.I.L.D 