Exceptional Children News and Updates 

McIver Project 

Guilford County Schools is in the process of building two new sites for students who are currently attending McIver Education Center. Students and staff will move into the sites for the 2013-2014 school year.

We created this web page to ensure our staff, parents, students and members of the community have the most up-to-date information about the construction, as well as plans to move students into the new buildings. We will continue updating this page throughout the process; please keep checking back for more details.

One site is a new wing attached to Ragsdale High School and the other is a standalone building on the campus of Falkener Elementary/Hairston Middle schools. The buildings are coming along on schedule and will offer our students classrooms geared toward their needs.

Here’s how we got here: Voters approved plans for three sites as part of the 2008 School Construction Bonds. In 2009, the Board of Education approved a plan to build two sites, instead of three.

In the original plan, each of the two sites would serve children in kindergarten through grade 12. On Tuesday, Dec. 18, the Board of Education approved a recommendation from GCS staff.The recommendation called for students to be assigned to each site by age: students in kindergarten through eighth grade will attend the Falkener/Hairston site and high school-aged students will be at the Ragsdale site.

Click here to see the materials for the Dec. 18 Board meeting.

The project advisory team reviewed the best way to deliver services to the students. After hearing input from parents and autism professionals, the team concluded that serving students based on age would allow teachers and other staff to provide the most appropriate services, based on each child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

GCS is working with the transportation department to provide the most efficient routes for our students.

McIver staff will also continue working with all families to ensure appropriate plans are in place for each student before he or she moves to the new sites. Student placements will still be driven by IEPs and staff will meet personally with each family to develop transition plans.

History of the McIver Project:

• In 2008, a School Construction Bond referendum was approved by the voters and included the construction of three autism wings to serve approximately 48 children each. 
• At that time, the Board had four primary goals:
  • To provide services closer to home for students with autism who have the most intense needs;
  • To reduce the travel time/bus transportation required;
  • To provide better quality facilities to support autism services and therapies; and
  • To ensure that Guilford County Schools was prepared to meet the anticipated growth in the number of students with autism particularly those with the most intensive needs. 
• In November 2009, Guilford County Schools considered changes to the proposed autism wings that were part of the 2008 School Bond referendum.
  • A Building Advisory Team (BAT) composed of parent and community representatives, staff members, and Board members reviewed a variety of data, including where the students with the most intensive needs resided within the county and the costs associated with the Autism wings.  Afterwards, the Building Advisory Team recommended reducing the number of autism wings from three to two, increasing the size of each wing to accommodate more children, and placing one of the wings at Ragsdale High and the other at a location to be determined.
• In 2010, the Building Advisory Team recommended locating the second autism wing on the Falkener Elementary and Hairston Middle campus after reviewing results of architect reports from that site and the Dudley High and McIver Education Center campuses. This recommendation was made only after each of the aforementioned sites was evaluated on criteria including the ability for the site to accommodate building requirements, ease of creating bus and vehicle drop-off areas, and opportunities for students with autism to be included in activities with students in regular classrooms. The Falkener/ Hairston site was recommended due to the opportunities for the inclusion of students with the neighboring schools, minimal site grading requirements, and the ability of the site to accommodate the building requirements.  

  ---

Additional Information about the McIver Project:

• The facility located at Ragsdale High is designed by Moseley Architects.
• The Hairston/Falkener facility is designed by Efird Sutphin Pearce Architects.