Summer's gone...

Well the summer is gone. September came along with the beginning of school (work). The classroom I worked in last year at the high school was originally started to accommodate children with physical disabilities and those medically fragile students. Two of the students we had (Cl and J) are wheelchair bound but attend mainstream classes. Two others, N and C are wheelchair bound and medically fragile. Two students graduated out of the program. The three younger boys, (T, E, and K) were actually 6th graders with no program available at the middle school. The district administrators looked at the incoming groups for the next 5+ years. They decided with no medically fragile children coming up through the program, our classroom was no longer needed. So our classroom was disbanded. C and N were added to another SPED teacher's caseload and given an  adjoining room next to hers. Another aide and myself were kept to work with them.  CL and J were added to her caseload as well.  The three younger boys were moved down to the middle school to be with their peers. Two of our aides moved with them.  This has created some issues of concern for the aides working with them. We do not have enough staff to work with all the children who require one-on-one service. Not to mention that if my student or my co-worker's student were to have a seizure, there would be a problem. We don't have any backup  help to tend to the other student while two of us deal with the seizure. The district admin. doesn't seem to understand the possible complications that the lack of staffing creates. We don't have enough protocol trained substitutes either, which creates huge problems as well. On top of all this we have a brand-new-to-the-area supervising teacher. She's having enough issues dealing with some of the students behaviors in her classes on top of staffing issues. Needless to say it's been a rough beginning to the year.