If you take nothing else from this message today, please take these two facts:

1. St. Johnsbury Academy accepts each and every publicly-tuitioned student who comes through our doors, unless they are a danger to themselves or others, asking nothing about their academic ability, existing or potential disability, or history

2. When students with disabilities choose to attend the Academy, we provide extraordinary Special Education (SPED) services, programs and supports that serve them powerfully and help them toward success.

There should be no doubt or confusion in our community that this is what we do. We do not discriminate, we do not pick and choose students—we do not exclude anyone.

Not only do we accept all comers, we welcome and take joy in every student’s potential and progress.  We work hard to include students with significant disabilities in all aspects of Academy life, and to open our wide range of opportunities to all, regardless of what support they might need. 

If you have doubts, I would invite you to visit our school on a typical day so you can see the tremendous diversity of our student body, and feel (as I do) the ways that our campus community reflects the larger world in all its rich pluralism. That includes everyone.

There are families who can share stories of their children beginning at the Academy on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), with strong support in place to help them overcome obstacles and challenges. In some of those stories, students continue on IEPs and thrive with those specific supports. In others, students move into different supportive arrangements such as 504 plans, our Literacy and Math Labs, or our Learning Center. In still others, students reach grade-level reading and writing and find themselves able to use our universal accommodations in general education classes. 

That’s called a “Multi-Tiered System of Support,” and SJA has one because we’ve worked for years to implement it.

In 2021, we imagined a group of specialists—in literacy and numeracy, life skills, academic support, and in-house testing for academic disabilities—and then hired those specialists to run a set of programs and services that would address COVID gaps across learning areas. Our SPED leadership insisted on many of our teachers being trained in the “Orton-Gillingham” literacy teaching method, and we have since provided training for local teachers at no charge. 

Our SPED program leaders have produced such remarkable results that I’ve lost count of the number of legislators, state officials and educators who have visited St. Johnsbury Academy in the last few years just to see them in action. Our work and advice informed literacy legislation Vermont-wide.

Those in the know about recent legislation will appreciate that St. Johnsbury Academy is doing what “Act 173”—a 2018 act related to student support and non-discrimination—was meant to do. We have improved “the effectiveness, availability, and equity of services provided to students who require additional support” in the Northeast Kingdom.  We’re doing our part.

Those who want evidence that we accept, treasure, and serve children without prejudice at SJA may appreciate some stories.

After we set up our Reading and Writing Lab in 2021, a student came to us on an IEP.  This student was what our Literacy Specialist Lorna Holcombe called a “non-reader.” That is, “they had extreme difficulty articulating speech sounds, and struggled to write on their own.” Over the course of a year working with Holcombe, the student became more confident, and “began to see themselves as a student and a learner–and their phonological accuracy (critical to reading and spelling) increased to 61%.” As the student made gains through sophomore year, they were able to leave paraeducator academic support and start engaging directly with classmates and teachers—eventually writing a paper for English class about the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Another student on an IEP began a CTE welding class accompanied by a paraeducator for safety reasons. In less than a semester, the student was able to weld independently, and completed a Capstone project in welding.

In “Unified Basketball,” students with special needs are paired up with players from the Varsity or JV Basketball teams, so that they can play with a little boost. Teams include students with Down Syndrome and other developmental conditions, some of whom make huge social-emotional gains by playing on a team. More than one student has learned to pass to teammates, help others get a shot, and even help an opponent to score.

I’m not sure I have ever heard our students cheer as hard for any team as they do for Unified Basketball.  Except perhaps the audience for chorus concerts when every singer is included, each backing the other up so everyone can experience making beautiful music.

No school is perfect, and we are not immune to the distresses and divisions of the world we live in. And there are certainly times when things don’t go the way we hope.

But I often marvel at the capacity of St. Johnsbury Academy to include everyone—and to find sheer joy in those connections. Some would say this is a crucial part of our public mission—which since we opened in 1842 has included “to serve the youth of St. Johnsbury and surrounding towns.”

We serve our students by teaching them to respect each other, to be kind to each other, and to find common ground where we can all be human. And we don’t leave anyone behind.