Fountain Hills High School Special Education (SPED) students are reaching new heights in terms of education and personal development this year, something Principal Tom Brennan attributes to a great group of students and their new teacher, Michael Karpinski.

Along with their accomplishments within the classroom, Karpinski has worked hard to set his students on the road to success following high school, so far placing two students in the Scottsdale Training and Rehabilitation Services (STARS) internship program with another on the way starting in the spring.

Another student, having completed the STARS internship, is now enjoying vocational placement at Pals Inn in Fountain Hills.

Yet another is set up to conduct her call-back interview at the local Target.

Brennan said that Karpinski has gone to great lengths to get more of his SPED students out into the community and into vocational opportunities, something the local program hasn’t seen in half a decade.

“Michael came into a challenging situation. He’s following two very popular teachers in the program, Mr. Curry and Mrs. Bawol,” Brennan explained.

“He had some very big shoes to fill, and he has done so with excellence, creativity and innovation.”

Brennan said Karpinski has established an exemplary classroom environment and culture for learning with his students held to high expectations and then given the tools to meet them.

“Because of the excellent rapport he has built with his students, they know they can rise to the challenges he gives them,” Brennan added.

“It is a room of tremendous support and rigor. The assignment of teaching in a self-contained special education program is clearly not for everyone. It requires great patience, creativity, interpersonal skill, time and energy.

“Michael Karpinski is the total package, and we are very lucky he found us and at just the right time.”

Ford to FH

Speaking with Karpinski himself, it’s easy to see why the students are so empowered by his classroom efforts.

He’s excited to be there and clearly has a passion for his students and the work he says he “gets” to do with them daily.

When discussing his students, he’s unable to suppress a smile, easily deviating from a story about himself to discuss their latest projects instead.

Already so imbedded in the local SPED program, it may be hard to believe that, just a handful of years ago, Karpinski was in a completely different line of work.

“I worked for Ford Motor Company for 10 years on the assembly line,” Karpinski said.

“In September of 2006 the company offered buyout packages to reduce their hourly work force. One of the package deals was to go back to school, so I took it.”

Karpinski and his wife (also a SPED instructor) moved to Arizona, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and special education from Arizona State University.

From there, he pursued his master’s in education from Michigan State online, graduating in May 2012.

Karpinski said his brother has lived life with physical ailments and, coupled with an interest in his wife’s line of work, he decided that special education might be right up his alley.

“I was one of the younger guys working on the line [at Ford], and there were a lot of people from very different cultural backgrounds there,” he said.

“I had an easy time interacting with them and adjusting how I worked with their work styles, and I thought that might be a benefit, too.”

Karpinski explained that SPED students experience education geared toward their own personal strengths.

“My job is to adjust my teaching style to fit their needs and help bolster them,” he said.

“…There wasn’t anything really set when I came here. I had the opportunity to take the program, put my spin on it and try to give these students the chance to get out of the classroom and get some real world experience.”

And over the past several months, that’s exactly what Karpinski has done, something that Principal Brennan said he is very excited to see taking root.

“I think the most important aspect that Michael has developed this year is the relationships with agencies and employers who provide significant real life transition experiences for his students,” Brennan said.

“He is creating pathways for students to gain authentic experience in the work place to support them in their journey toward independence as post-high school adults.”

And, according to Karpinski, his students have risen to the occasion.

“It’s really taken off,” he said, highlighting his students who are involved with the STARS program, those already working in the community and those who are currently in the interview process.

Student success

“We’ve made a lot of progress very quickly in here, and it’s very, very exciting,” Karpinski said.

“And this is all on top of core curriculum. All of our students study math, English, social studies, science, everything. It’s all individually based on their strengths and needs…Getting to work with these students, I’m learning just as much from them as they’re learning from me.”

The SPED curriculum also focuses on life skills, including cooking, cleaning, money management, research skills, etc.

“One of my philosophies is that the hardest part about being a special education teacher is breaking learned helplessness some students have acquired over the years,” Karpinski said.

“But with these kids, it didn’t take that long at all to break that mindset and develop the motivation to be independent and be successful. They bought into that idea, and into my approach to their learning, quickly.

“It’s been fantastic.”

In the midst of one of his smaller classes, Karpinski and his “absolutely fantastic” teaching assistant, Charlene Goldstein, were working with three SPED students on a variety of projects.

Erica Mike, who was ready to model for the camera in an instant, was in the midst of a word recognition and understanding assignment.

Riley Sorenson, living with visual impairment, was utilizing some rather high tech computer wizardry to read, write and complete her work for the day.

Kellen Washum, quite possibly the biggest fan of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series, was hard at work putting together a PowerPoint presentation to show off his research skills.

Sorensen is 20 and said she’s looking forward to graduating this spring. She’s currently applying at Target and hoping to see those efforts pan out.

“I’ve learned a lot here,” Sorenson said.

“I look forward to reading most, and typing on my computer. My computer has a lot of things that other computers don’t have, which is really cool.”

In the long haul, Sorenson said that she was interested in becoming a singer but, after looking into it, she realized that “they don’t make all that much.”

As an alternative, she said she’s interested in working with animals, as she and her family have quite a few pets and she enjoys her time with them.

Washum is also a senior gearing up for graduation.

“I’ve pretty much been in Fountain Hills my entire life,” he said.

One of his favorite classroom activities is researching and reporting on things he’s interested in. He recently did a project concerning video game character Sonic the Hedgehog and is currently working on a look at the history of Mega Man.

Karpinski said that Washum will now take the skills he’s learned from working on these projects and apply them to something he doesn’t yet have an expertise in.

In school, Washum said he enjoys the time he spends with his friends and teachers and, “also, I have a really great family.”

After graduation, Washum is hoping to get a job and possibly move onto college in the future with the hopes of studying video game design.

As for next semester, he’ll be one of the new students taking part in the STARS program, learning trade skills and experiencing life in the workforce.

Karpinski said that these students are a good indicator of how well the entire SPED program is progressing this semester.

“We have a good time in here, but we have an understanding that, hey, we have a goal, this is what we’re striving for, and this is what we need to do to attain it,” Karpinski said.

“It’s translated into success. I’m very, very happy with where we are today. We’ve taken a huge step.”