I don’t usually write in my blog what might seem like a promotional piece for a particular business, but in this case, I am moved to let the community know more about an endangered resource: Explore MCP. When I tell people about the school, they often respond, “Explore what?” And then I have to figure out how to answer succinctly when the answer I want to give would take hours.
Here is my succinct answer: “It’s a tiny private school in Scotts Valley that serves the needs of unusual learners.”
But that leaves out so much! The school describes itself as serving ‘students who learn differently,’ then continues by explaining that all children learn differently. So much for succinct. It’s hard for a school with such an unusual mission to explain anything in 20 words or fewer.
The last resort
The long answer starts with a long list of children, one of mine included, who entered MCP as a last resort. These kids largely came from public schools, but some also from homeschooling and private schools. These kids had usually been subjected to years of testing, educational specialists, interventions, special classrooms, new schools, medical specialists, and therapists (not to mention the occasional legal team). And almost all of them find MCP when all other educational options seem to be exhausted.
Then, it seems, almost always the students and parents have the same response: Why didn’t we try MCP first?
Focus on success
MCP does something that I have long advocated to homeschoolers: they focus on success. Instead of asking, “what is wrong with this child?” they ascertain what is right, what works. Then they proceed to do more of it. It sounds logical, but this isn’t the way that other schools have worked for MCP students.
These students are unusual: MCP doesn’t serve the needs of typically developing students (though I have to say, I think all children would get a better education through MCP’s approach) or severely impaired students who are better-served by the public schools. MCP students are different from the norm but also different from each other. MCP serves kids with learning differences, physical disabilities, high-functioning autism, gender dysphoria, depression, and more—but who are learning at or above grade level. It’s quite a challenge, and yet the tiny, close-knit staff works like a team of Cirque du Soleil acrobats, keeping the delicate balance of running a school while also serving the individual needs of such a diverse group of kids.
And on top of that, MCP prepares these kids to be college-ready, arming them with skills ranging from how to register online to how to negotiate disagreements with professors.
It comes down to numbers
In the beginning of this piece, I referred to MCP as “endangered.” That’s because it’s in a niche that, so far, no school I’ve heard of has ever survived in longterm. Most kids with special needs go to public school, and many are served well by public schools. But MCP takes on the hard job of educating students whose needs are so specialized that the public schools aren’t able to help. By design, therefore, MCP doesn’t attract the wealthy families who form the core of other private school populations. Parents find MCP through desperation, and do not come from a single demographic. (Some of the students’ tuition is actually paid through public school districts.)
MCP’s staff would like to do just a few things very well:
- They want to educate the students who fit their mission rather than admitting students who don’t belong at the school just to receive the tuition.
- They want to be able to serve any student who needs them, regardless of family income.
- They want to be able to pay their hardworking staff a living wage.
- They want to stay in our very expensive community.
Those modest goals are nearly impossible for a tiny nonprofit with no deep-pocket donors. The students come from as far as away as Monterey County and Santa Clara County, but they only come when they find out about the school, and outreach to such a tiny percentage of the population is difficult.
What can you do?
The main thing I hope that my readers will do is spread the word about MCP. Continued healthy enrollment is the top priority. People who should know that MCP exists include:
- Public school teachers, administrators, and support staff
- Private school teachers, administrators, and support staff
- Therapists
- Tutors
- Doctors
- Lawyers (unfortunately)
- Parents
I would hope that a few families will stumble across this article and think, “This might be the place for our child.”
The other thing, of course, is to support MCP in any way you can, even small donations. I’d love it if this piece ended up on the screen of a wealthy donor who wants to make a difference. I’m not holding my breath on that one, but stranger things have happened. MCP needs operating expenses, which are very hard for small nonprofits to get through grant-writing; a scholarship fund so they can serve any student who walks in the door; and an endowment to carry them through years when unexpected expenses arise.
I describe our experience with Explore MCP as “transformational.” Another mom said to me, “It still surprises me that when there’s a problem, they try to solve it rather than just saying my kid needs to change to fit their agenda.” MCP is not the school for everyone, which is why it’s such a good school for the small number of students it serves. I can only hope that in ten years’ time when a desperate parent finds this blog post, they will be able to click on this link and see Explore MCP still up and running, doing its very important service for its uncommon, wonderful population of students.
