Speech therapist Christy Wait explained what it means to say
someone has a
”
heart of gold
”
to a group of four elementary students on a recent
Wednesday.
Morgan Hill
Speech therapist Christy Wait explained what it means to say someone has a “heart of gold” to a group of four elementary students on a recent Wednesday.
The Los Paseos Elementary School children spit out phrases that some of them later used to describe Wait: kind, caring, happy.
“She is so much helping me, she is like so nice,” second grader Owen Kelley said emphatically. “She helps me remember some of my words, like, sometimes I mess up on my S’s.”
Owen Kelley described a board game during which he was awarded “pretend” candy for using proper speech.
“Each turn I get, the more speech. It helps. It does,” he said with careful, near-perfect diction.
Owen’s mother Alison Kelley said Wait was a “wonderful person and a great teacher.” When Owen began second grade this fall, he was two reading levels behind and was afraid to read aloud in class. Now, he’s caught up to his peers.
“He’s definitely more confident now,” Kelley said. “He’s happy to talk to people.”
Wait’s sunshiny presence is as bright as her blonde wavy hair. She sat smiling at four students on a recent afternoon as they made pretend phone calls to each other, practicing how to order pizza or invite a friend for a sleepover.
Wait is one of eight speech therapists in the district. The therapists will see their caseloads increase as 29 preschoolers will be ushered into their classes from El Toro Elementary School, where a preschool program was run by two contracted therapists since 2000. Those therapists won’t have their contracts renewed next year, saving the district $200,000. Caught in the state budget crunch, Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Trustees made a total of $3.7 million cuts to its general fund this spring and a total of nearly $9 million in the past two years. The district has about $60 million in this main fund.
Wait said her field encompasses the entire field of communication, working with students whose disabilities prevent them from processing information correctly, forming thoughts and ideas or reading facial expressions and body language. Most children learn basic communication – like phone conversations – through osmosis, she said, but some students with disorders like autism need to be taught the process.
“People think speech therapists are just a person who works with children who talk funny, who have articulation errors. But it is so much larger than that.
“These students need help navigating the social world and how to handle themselves in everyday situations. Articulation is a very, very small part of what we do,” she said.
Idioms like “heart of gold,” down in the dumps,” and “hold your horses” are lost on these literal-minded students, so she spends time explaining expressions. Last week, Wait said students arrived excitedly to her room, saying they’d spotted some of these expressions on the STAR test.
The job has changed over the 35 years Wait has taught special education, she said. What started as an active, challenging job with a variety of children has been bogged down in paperwork, she said. And the district’s caseload expectation hasn’t changed.
“Back when I started in speech, that was before we started IEPs,” she said, referring to the Individual Education Plan developed for each special education student, including speech students. “Now the paperwork is staggering.”
Every student that comes her way – which could jump to as many as 55 next year – comes with a pile of paperwork and a range of issues to address, she said.
“Children are not just numbers,” Wait said. “I can say I have 53 on my caseload, but some children come with a greater weight. Some are easier, some are harder, some are really hard.”
Jay Totter, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, stressed that the district understands that each student is different, but that in tight budget times the district has to staff to the maximum ratio. Totter said state education code mandates a regional average of 55. Morgan Hill shares a region with Gilroy, Oak Grove and Franklin McKinley. The districts all strive for the 55 average, Totter said. He said a March review found that the average speech therapists’ caseload was 48.
“Sometimes, I almost forget what it is I’m here for,” Wait said. “I’m here to help children, and yet, I feel most of my work now is paperwork. I feel like I need a law degree to navigate the documents and special education laws.”
Still, the success stories from past students have kept Wait enthusiastic.
“Parents are so concerned and worried, ‘What’s going to happen to my kid when they grow up, they have so many problems in primary…’ ” she said. “I’ve had enough longevity and perspective to see that, yes, they do turn out all right, and they do have happy lives.”
It’s that reminder that will keep Wait in the district for at least one more year, her patient smile greeting students – as many as 55.
