CBI program prepares its students for the future

For senior Robert Stark, P.E. is a joy. Math, on the other hand, can be a little more tricky. Luckily, he has special education teacher Courtney Crase to help him out.

“The homework [at school] is not too easy [but] the teachers help you do the homework, so it is not so bad,”  said Stark.

The school’s Community-Based Instruction program (CBI), based in room X03, is known for providing assistance to students with learning and/or speech disabilities in school. There are now 13 students in the program.

In addition, it provides students with the skills and experience they will need after graduation, when they must care for themselves.

“We focus on functional academics to work on life skills and social skills to transition students into adulthood,” Crase said.

While students might attend some academic classes with other general ed students, most of them are electives like drama or P.E. Most of the basic courses, such as math and English, are taught in room X03 and they are more focused on what the students will need to know out of school.

CBI includes a workability program and transition course, which teach students how to do certain jobs and how to react to different life situations.

The workability program aims to give the students an  advantage when it comes time to support themselves.

“We try to get more students [working] who need vocational training,” said special education teacher Lisa McCahill. “We [sometimes] start them as early as freshman year.”

They look into job sites such as Trader Joe’s and Smart & Final, places with programs that employ CBI students. Freshman Beau Jensen, for example, will be able to put his current job as a landscaping assistant with the custodial staff after school on Wednesdays on an application later on. He hopes someday to work as  an interior painter.

Furthermore, the transition course keeps the students active in their community. McCahill explained the class as one that “[transitions them] from young child[ren] to adulthood. So [it includes] all the skills that you would need to transition from one stage to the next.”

This is Jensen’s favorite class because the students sometimes have the opportunity to go on outings to bowling alleys, Westgate mall and dances at other schools — a dance for CBI students at Mountain View High School takes place March 13.

“[The transition course] kind of the basis of our program because it is the community-based part,” McCahill said. “So every Friday we are out in the community for most of the day.”

The SAI staff would love to see more peer contributions during the transition outings, though scheduling makes this difficult since many of the events take place during school.

“If we had that type of leadership during outings that would be wonderful because, I [would] much rather have their models be same-age peers than teachers,” McCahill said. “We become kind of the parental figures and it’s just different when you learn from someone your own age.”

Senior Marcus Chan, one of the oldest students in the program, says that it has helped him become more independent. This independence is evident in Chan’s job at his mother's Santa Cruz restaurant, Takara, where he washes dishes. Chan hopes to continue this independence after graduation, when he will enroll in classes at West Valley.

Some of the main goals that the CBI program has for its students are integration and acceptance among their peers. She gives an example of a CBI student going to get lunch but not having enough money.

“It would be the worst thing ever for whoever is behind the counter to be like ‘oh it’s OK. You can have that because that wouldn’t typically happen with general ed students,” McCahill said.

While that response might have short-term benefits for the students, the staff is planning for the long term. They feel that it is important to educate the other general ed students to treat their CBI peers the same as everyone else. That way, the CBI students will be able to learn what is acceptable to do and what is not.

“They are accountable for the same things that other students are accountable for,” McCahill said. “They really benefit from equal standards.”