Lucas Camilo

We are overdue on a blog post about second grade.  The amazing problem is, there are too many fantastic things to write about.  Lucas has a wonderful, experienced, warm and welcoming teacher who is doing a phenomenal job of seeing big and small ways Lucas can be a full and celebrated member of her class.  The school just hired a new one-on-one aide for Lucas, and she is also fantastic — experienced, caring, motivated, and in grad school for special ed curriculum adaptation.  (And, Lucas would add, she gets fart jokes.)

And bigger than that for the school community — the principal is back from medical leave and the school community is more organized than ever.  Our ad-hoc group of parents we started calling the “inclusion committee” last year made some gains, and now we’re a full member of the school community.  Like almost all urban public schools, Orca is underfunded and stretched thin in too many ways, but parents and teachers fill so many gaps with love and funds.  The PTSA funds things like a garden teacher and a full time music teacher.  Parent and community volunteers make things happen like community-based service learning projects.  And recently Orca had its annual harvest festival in the beautiful school garden, complete with an apple press, lavender satchel making, and face painting.  It was a gorgeous fall day, and to top it off our friends Ben and Joe sat in the garden and played banjo and fiddle for hours (see video below).  It was one of those days that public school felt like the best place on earth to be.

You might remember Lucas’s letter asking you all to sponsor him for the school fundraiser last year.  It was called the Walk-a-thon (though in our family we called it the Walk-and-roll-a-thon).  This year the school has officially renamed it the Move-a-Thon.  It may be small, but since we’ve been asking for changes that will show that Lucas and his disabled peers are seen and included in school-wide events, this feels important.

So we’re coming to you all again asking for your sponsorship.  We’re a little behind – the move-a-thon is this Friday – so if want to donate, please do it right away! Here’s the link.