Working for a smaller school district has its pluses and minuses. On the one hand, there is a tighter, “we are family” feeling, since most people know and work with one another. On the other hand, resources and programs can be somewhat limited compared to larger districts.

So administrators who can get past that hurdle are highly valued. One such school leader is Annette Cleveland, special education administrator with Magnolia ESD.

Magnolia is a district with an ADA of approximately 6,500. However, it is located in Anaheim, the hometown of Disneyland, and is surrounded by larger districts and a vast amount of people. That is the key here, as Cleveland has used collaboration with surrounding communities to the district’s advantage. So well, in fact, that she has been named ACSA’s 2008 Special Education Administrator of the Year.

Cleveland has given more than 22 years of service to Magnolia ESD, starting as a special day class teacher and working her way up. Even though Magnolia is located in a densely populated area, she likes the small district feel.

“It’s truly a ‘we’ district,” Cleveland said. “We all work together for the kids; we all know the kids and the families, and our staff stays once they come here. It gives them a more vested interest in the community.”

Even though they only have nine schools, Cleveland said the district is quite diverse and the community supportive.

“We have lower socio-economic schools, we have middle-income schools, and all the families are so wonderful to work with. They all give support where they can,” she said.

Cleveland is definitely a hands-on leader. She makes it a point to work personally with parents to help familiarize them with the often-complicated world of special education.

“Then I follow the kids along,” she said. “I’m often out of my office during the daytime, making classroom visits, which gives me credibility with the teachers. I’m not the kind of person who sits at a desk all day long. I can go out there and give a teacher some help; I can give a family some help. Then I use my office time to stay up on the latest trends in the field, legislation and other issues.”

Besides staying in touch with the field, Cleveland can also credit her success to a key word: Collaboration. Because Magnolia ESD is not big enough to offer numerous programs for special ed students, she collaborates with the Greater Anaheim SELPA to tap into the resources they can offer and to share her expertise.

“We have some very diverse special education programs in that we run the regional special education program for four other districts for our SELPA,” Cleveland said. “I actually have 24 special day classes. When you have a lot of options, you can really make the best recommendations for students versus a situation where you’re a small district and you only have three options. We care about the student, we make those best recommendations, and we follow through.”

The collaboration with Greater Anaheim SELPA has given Magnolia the opportunity to offer some programs it would not normally have been able to, such as two satellite occupational therapy clinics and augmentative communication systems. One excellent example is the Applied Behavioral Analysis Clinic, which works with autistic students.

“Our district and the SELPA really wanted to make a difference for our students with autism, so we created this clinic-based program so students who needed extra intensive instruction could receive it on campus during the school day instead of having to bus them someplace,” Cleveland said.

Similarly, both agencies offer a sensory center for visually impaired students to provide such students sensory input other than visual.

“We run a huge program for our children with severe medical, cognitive and vision impairment needs,” Cleveland said. “I don’t have the staff to do that, so we consult out with the SELPA.

“When you’re small you have to be creative!”

She also credits the terrific support she receives from the board of education and her superintendent, Paul Mercier, the 2007 ACSA Superintendent of the Year.

“The support is from the top on down,” she said.

Ironically, Cleveland never intended to get into special education. When she went to college it was with the goal of being a pre-school teacher. Then she started working with autistic children at a local recreation center.

“One of the little boys bit my arm,” Cleveland recalled. “It was kind of alarming, but he needed a way to communicate and I wasn’t where he needed me to be.”

That led to her taking an interest in special needs children, which ultimately led to 13 years as a special education teacher. But even after moving to the district office in 1999, Cleveland has a passion for maintaining that personal connection with students and their families.

“We have students with real severe cognitive disabilities, with real severe medical needs, and if we can find the one thing that can make a child tick so that they can benefit from their education, then we’re going to provide them the support in that area,” she said. “A lot of our kids don’t have a voice, so we have to find that augmentative device that can help them to smile, to laugh, to say yes or no, to communicate with the world where they are going to school five days a week.

“We want every moment in the school to be a valuable teaching moment. But you have to understand what the function of communication is before you can elicit communication to help a child.” Now her hard work has resulted in a statewide recognition from ACSA.

“It’s very overwhelming,” Cleveland said of the award. “It has been a thrill, it has been the greatest moment of my career, but it’s not about me. It’s about all of those collaborative relationships that I have and all of those parents that have provided me the opportunity of working with them and their children.

“We are a village at Magnolia in serving others, so while the award had my name on it, I think it really represents the passion that all of the staff, families and students that I work with earned together.”

Each of ACSA’s 19 Administrators of the Year will be featured in EdCal through Nov. 3. They will be formally honored during ACSA’s 2008 Leadership Summit, to be held Nov. 6-8 in San Diego. For more information or to register, visit ACSA Online or contact the Educational Services Department at (800) 608-ACSA or (650) 692-4300.