Inclusion Pre-K students and facilities staff celebrate Inclusive Schools Week

Tony Muckle, operations and maintenance manager for School Reform Team (SRT) 1, celebrated Inclusive Schools Week by inviting 37 APS Pre-kindergarten general and inclusion education students housed at John F. Kennedy Middle School to decorate the office holiday tree with their paper ornaments.

Students from Kennedy’s inclusion Pre-K and general Pre-K classes decorated the tree with help from their teachers and SRT-1 facilities and maintenance staff.  Muckle, whose office is located around the corner from the Pre-K classroom, has been with APS for six years. He also brought in a few holiday ornaments from his childhood to decorate the tree.

Following the tree decorating, Muckle read the book “The Gingerbread Girl” by Lisa Campbell Ernst and offered the students and staff gingerbread cookies to sample. Muckle said he chose the book because it is one of his daughter’s favorite books.

APS’ Inclusive Schools Week, sponsored by the Program for Exceptional Children (Dec. 6-10) honors the belief that all children can learn and be successful within a shared academic environment.  The week also celebrates the progress that schools have made in providing a supportive and quality education to an a diverse population of students who are marginalized due to disability, gender, socioeconomic status, cultural heritage, language preference and other factors.