Springall Academy

30 minute drive. 15 S 52E 125 S near lake murray

Director - Dr. Heather Dierlof, PhD
Associate Director - Lanae Aguilera, MA, PPS

-talked to a mom of a 4th grade student – robby – who has had a good experience at springall. Robby was in the ED class at painted rock for 2 years and then went to a day treatment program in oceanside before going to springall. He rides the bus for 30 mintues to get to school. She said the Poway/RB kids get picked up first and have a longer ride on the bus - probably an hour to hour and a half.

Took calvin with me on the visit. He walked into the office and called the associate director a bitch and punched the director. He said he wanted to go home. They did not care AT ALL. They simply said, “this is what we do. It doesn’t bother us at all.” Calvin ran out of the room and the director followed him so that I could have some time to talk to Lenae, the associate director. We talked about Calvin’s school experience so far. While we were talking I could hear Calvin honking the horn in my car.
After a few mintues, Calvin came back and said he wanted to go home right now. Then one of the ladies mentioned basketball and Calvin snaped out of it. At that point he willingly went with one of the adults to go check out the school and see what was going on around campus. Ha! He is crazy.

The school is similar in structure to the ED class Calvin is in now. They have green stars, yellow stars and red stars that they can earn for each hour of the day depending on behavior. They work in small groups for academics. They have the chance to go play basketball several times throughout the day – there is a basketball court right outside the door of their classroom.

School hours are 7:35am-2pm. They have time for breakfast at school after they arrive.

The school is 2-12 and the elementary school area is separated from the other school a bit. Kids get together after they have earned the privilege of sports or for other fun activities.

Each class has 10-12 kids. 1 teacher +3 aids. The elementary class has one big black athletic guy as a teacher who loves sports too. There is a second big black athletic guy that helps with another class.

They have a garden that they are all excited about.

Good atmosphere and friendly staff.

Cons: distance from home. Early start + bus time would mean leaving home at 6:30am or earlier depending on what we set up.
-not many extras such as music, art, etc. however, sports are big

-9 pages of homework sent home in a packet Monday -- due Friday.

springall questions: field trips?
How do I apply for funding to bring a music program to the school? SDCFC has lots of sponsors that give $$. If I come to springall I want to find a way to get more $ there.