kids come first with sage

The SAGE program at Fairview Elementary helps educators keep individual students' needs a priority, according to two teachers at the Milwaukee Public School.

"This is the first school experience for a lot of these kids and being able to give them personalized care can help make the transition easier and less frightening in the beginning days for these kids," said Mary Lemke, who teaches kindergarten.

"Having team teachers helps keep the dignity of the child because you can usually take them aside and explain things in private," she said. "A big plus is, if you need to, you can contact the parent right away. That's key because it's hard to discuss something six hours later and have a child recall exactly what happened."

Tina Stewart, who teaches second graders down the hall from Lemke, agrees.

"When a child has a special concern or need, one of us takes care of that and the other continues with classroom instruction. That way no one is neglected," Stewart said. "Before, children would have to wait 15 minutes while a problem was addressed. Now we have fewer interruptions during our lessons."