Supporters of the Integration Station are again mobilizing against a plan to shut down the specialized program for young students with intellectual disabilities.
About 20 proponents of the program used the School Board’s Sept. 24 public-comment period to ask Board members to rescue the program from planned elimination. The mood among many speakers, most with direct connections to the program, was testy.
“It’s a crime that for the past several years, Integration Station has been on the chopping block,” said Thierry Servius. “I don’t think balancing a budget should be done on the backs of some of the most vulnerable in our community.”
Servius is the father of a daughter who attends Integration Station, a program for students ages 2 to 5 funded by the school system but operated by The Children’s School.
The program “has been an absolute life-saver for me and my family,” Servius said. “My daughter has blossomed exponentially since she has attended the school.”
Superintendent Francisco Durán originally proposed ending the program and returning students to their neighborhood schools in early 2025. After public outcry, the School Board rescinded that recommendation.
But just weeks ago, leaders of The Children’s School were notified by APS leadership that plans to shutter the program have returned — a decision that left parents of current and former students outraged, with many believing this may have been the plan all along.
“You don’t have the courage to be transparent and honest with us,” resident Kevin Muse told School Board members.
The first speaker of the night, Melissa Dokurno, called the move “underhanded and deceptive.”
“Families have spent the last two years engaged in good faith,” working with the school system, Dokurno said.
“At every turn, the School Board has actively misled parents,” she said, predicting that neighborhood schools would be ill-equipped to handle the students previously taught at Integration Station.
“The plan is clearly to eliminate the only credible program offering services to this vulnerable population, just so the School Board no longer has to answer questions about why they can’t do better [through neighborhood schools],” Dokurno said.
Another speaker, Reade Bush — a former APS student — agreed that neighborhood elementary schools may not be equipped to provide instructional services necessary to meet students’ unique needs.
“If neighborhood schools cannot meet those children’s needs, then how does closing Integration Station solve the problem?” he said.
Sarah Shifrin asked School Board members to think back to the testimony the last time they considered closing the initiative.
“We heard story after story of how the unique combination of teachers and environment yielded breakthroughs that were not achieved elsewhere,” she said.
Unlike County Board public-comment sessions, when Board members typically reply — often at length — to comments made, School Board members do not ordinarily reply from their dais.
“We will work with the superintendent to coordinate any necessary follow-up,” said School Board Chair Miranda Turner, using boilerplate language that typically concludes each public-comment session.
The Children’s School is a nonprofit founded by APS employees with the goal of providing quality childcare and early-childhood education. It operates at 4770 Langston Blvd.
