Episode Description
Ada Pineiro, Special Education Director at Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy, has built a program where 100% of special education students graduate with regular diplomas—a remarkable achievement in a high-poverty, high-crime community serving 90-95% African American students. In this episode, Ada reveals how intentional accessibility, community partnerships, and collaborative leadership created an environment where special education students succeed at the same rate as general education peers. Discover the concrete career pathways, parent engagement strategies, and team-based philosophy that transformed outcomes for students with disabilities.
Noteable Quotes
- “We’ve been able to create an environment where special education students succeed at the same rate as Gen Ed students.” [00:10:21]
- “Parents are the main ingredient—if we don’t have parent buy-in, education’s not gonna work.” [00:22:59]
- “Every program in the school is accessible to all students.” [00:08:49]
- “I’m just part of a team here to make sure they have everything they need.” [00:15:56]
- “We know that little kindergartner eventually becomes a high schooler—we all have to be involved.” [00:16:26]
Full Podcast Transcript
Lighthouse Therapy (00:01.758)
Hello everyone and welcome to the brighter together podcast. My name is Janet Courtney and my special guest today is Ada Pinero. Ada is a special education director at Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ada, thank you for being here today.
Ada Pineiro (00:19.032)
Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure.
Lighthouse Therapy (00:21.478)
So tell us Ada, a little bit about you. I know you have an interesting background and I’d love to share some of that with our listeners. And a little bit about Cincinnati College.
Ada Pineiro (00:27.714)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (00:35.566)
Sure, well, thank you for having me. I am like you said a special ed director at Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy I came by Like we had to discuss this is a second career for me education is I come from the corporate world believe it or not and When we when I decided that we were gonna have children I wanted to dedicate that time It goes right really really fast. I didn’t want to miss it
Lighthouse Therapy (00:37.828)
Absolutely. Thanks for being here, by the way.
Lighthouse Therapy (01:05.009)
Yes, it does. It does.
Ada Pineiro (01:05.519)
So I decided that I wanted to be a stay at home mom for a little bit and leave the rat race and the corporate world behind for a while. And then when my children went to school, we ended up moving here to Cincinnati and my oldest was in first grade and I had a preschooler. And I went to this little school in the Northwest local school district and
They needed a room mom, like a volunteer. So I started in that route and then I got to meet all the staff and they realized that I speak Spanish. I’m fully bilingual and there was an influx of Hispanic migrants in the community at that point and they needed somebody to help them with that. And I was like, sure, my kids go to this school. I can be with my kids and get paid for it. Why not? That sounds like a great idea. And then so I started.
as a paraprofessional. I did lunch duty, I did resource duty, anything, and then it developed into being an assistant to the special education intervention specialist. And so at that point I was
Lighthouse Therapy (02:11.251)
Ada Pineiro (02:24.404)
surprised at how much I loved it. I never knew that that is what I was meant to do with my life until that very moment. But here I am, a grown woman with two children just doing this little job. And so my intervention specialist at that point, the coordinator, was like, you have it, just go back, just go back and try it again. And so I did that and then became an intervention.
Lighthouse Therapy (02:35.25)
Well.
Ada Pineiro (02:54.448)
specialist in the elementary and started my career that way. I loved the little kids and then when it was time to move on to being a grown-up teacher as they say right you want to expand and do other things I was lucky enough to come to this little charter school not so little charter school now CCPA and they hired me and I’m so grateful I did middle
school and high school at the beginning, which was a really big change going from like K-3 to like the bigger kids. I’m not a tall or big person so these kids are like bigger than me and I’m like this and so that was a challenge and so I’ve done every single job in education that you could possibly imagine from picking up a garbage to now here I am all these years I’m not gonna say how many years later but it
Lighthouse Therapy (03:29.31)
yeah, the little ones, yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (03:49.874)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (03:54.081)
It’s truly a blessing. I love this school. I love this community. We are located in Lynn Street, 1425 Lynn Street. And so our demographic is very high needs, high poverty, high crime area. we serve, I would say that 90 to 95 % of our student body is African-American. We have some Hispanic and some
Lighthouse Therapy (04:12.337)
Okay.
Ada Pineiro (04:24.084)
white students, but our majority is an African American school. It is at the West End, so it’s a very proud community, very involved community members. So we have a lot of board members and volunteers that come and help our kids with whatever they can. And so, and that’s how I ended up being
Lighthouse Therapy (04:25.3)
Mm-hmm.
Lighthouse Therapy (04:41.502)
Nice.
Ada Pineiro (04:53.904)
I threw the ranks, had to do the work, and now I’m at my home that I love and so I get to do a job that I love for people that I love every day.
Lighthouse Therapy (04:53.94)
Wow. Nice.
Lighthouse Therapy (05:04.98)
So is it a charter school within a district? What is your structure? I’m curious.
Ada Pineiro (05:09.876)
It is, so we are our own district because we are K-12. So we have three buildings on Lenn Street. One serves the elementary, one serves the middle school, one serves high school. We have probably,
Lighthouse Therapy (05:16.573)
Okay.
Lighthouse Therapy (05:19.902)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (05:30.095)
We were probably one of the first charter schools to offer K-12. There’s not a lot of high school charter schools. High school is really hard as you know, so there’s a lot of requirements. so we are in a unique position that we could have students go from K all the way to graduate with us and be legacy students. So that’s really wonderful to have.
Lighthouse Therapy (05:34.28)
Mmm.
Lighthouse Therapy (05:48.658)
all the way to the end, graduation, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (05:55.459)
So we are our own district, but transportation and things like that is offered by Cincinnati Public Schools. So there is still some relationship there.
Lighthouse Therapy (06:02.622)
Gotcha. Okay.
Right, right, yeah. And so how many students do you guys have currently enrolled?
Ada Pineiro (06:11.274)
I think we have a little over a thousand students, K through 12. Not anymore. We’re getting there. We just had to build a new high school. So that was very exciting to serve our students. We have a full middle school, six through eight. And yeah, so I say little, we’re not that little. But for me, it’s still a community school.
Lighthouse Therapy (06:14.964)
So you’re not small, not small. No. Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (06:31.454)
Okay.
Lighthouse Therapy (06:37.438)
Bye.
Ada Pineiro (06:41.208)
still serve the community and so it gives a very familial
Lighthouse Therapy (06:41.298)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (06:48.448)
environment where we have a lot of families from our area, which is wonderful, but we’re starting to get families from other districts nearby that want to come to our school because of the things that we can offer. For example, 100 % graduation rate. Like that is not something that is easily achieved in a general, you know, in a regular public school, let alone a charter school. So, you know, we, we’re a little gem.
Lighthouse Therapy (06:49.737)
Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (07:05.812)
Wow.
Lighthouse Therapy (07:14.408)
And then you add the tough socioeconomic situation on top of that. That’s really an impressive number right there. So congratulations. Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (07:20.14)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And thank you. We are very proud. We are able to graduate our students. Those of us, those of them who want to go to college are able to do so. We have received, I think it was.
$3 million in scholarships for students just from their efforts in academics alone. We have a great football program. We have great basketball program for our student athletes as well. And we have a national honor society chapter that is very active and goes to the conferences. They fundraise for that. I am one of the advisors for it. So I get to
Lighthouse Therapy (08:07.304)
Wow.
Ada Pineiro (08:12.708)
participate in that and I love that I can do high performing kids in National Honor Society and I can help you know special education kids at the same time and sometimes those worlds are interlaced together. We have students that are special education that are National Honor Society members just because of their grit for their education.
Lighthouse Therapy (08:20.776)
Yeah, yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (08:26.846)
Mm-hmm.
Lighthouse Therapy (08:30.834)
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Special needs doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have the ability to learn because they all have their, they all learn. They just learn differently, don’t they? Absolutely.
Ada Pineiro (08:38.892)
No, not at all. That’s right. Different, yes. And our job is to make sure that that is accessible to them. So every program in the school is accessible to all students.
Lighthouse Therapy (08:49.33)
Right, right.
Lighthouse Therapy (08:53.798)
Nice, very nice. So tell us, tell us some of the things that, that, I mean, you’ve already talked about some of it, but tell us some of the amazing things that you guys have going on specifically in your department.
Ada Pineiro (09:06.37)
So like I said, for me, one of the biggest joys is that we are able to graduate all our students with a regular diploma. So we, since the requirements for alternate assessment changed a couple of years back, not…
Lighthouse Therapy (09:17.118)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (09:29.866)
not everybody qualifies for alternate assessments. Our students do have to take the Ohio State test that everybody else takes, right? And so it is up to us, special educators, to make sure that they have all the accommodations that they need, that they have a good environment to perform in that way. And I’m very proud of the job that my staff does in getting those results and those graduation requirements that are needed for
Lighthouse Therapy (09:36.446)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Ada Pineiro (09:59.723)
or our special population, they do need to take the ACT, they do need to take the state test, and they need to have some performance scores to do that. And so we have been able to create an environment and a culture where our special education students are able to succeed at the same rate as Gen Ed students, which is ultimately the goal and the purpose of special education. So it is really a feather in CCPA’s cap that they are able to graduate all their
Lighthouse Therapy (10:21.854)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (10:29.706)
education students with a regular diploma just like everybody else and not only that they also get to participate in other career programs. We had a special ed student graduate last year from an STNA nursing program so she graduated high school with her high school degree and with an STNA degree from Cincinnati State. So that for me I had tears in my eyes because it it had to be so hard for her.
Lighthouse Therapy (10:32.594)
degree. Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (10:47.508)
nice.
Lighthouse Therapy (10:56.684)
my bad.
Ada Pineiro (10:59.536)
to remove herself from the comfort of CCBA where we do everything that we can and just to kind of throw her out there to Cincinnati State and having to go to those classes and be successful is truly a testament to her intervention specialists that prepared her to be able to do that in the real world, right, without necessarily those guardrails, but we gave her the tools that she needed to be able to do that.
Lighthouse Therapy (11:00.254)
Mm-hmm.
Lighthouse Therapy (11:20.136)
Right.
Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (11:27.71)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (11:29.616)
that all our special education students graduate with either a boom lift operator license or the crane operating license before it used to be a forklift license. So they leave us with tools to join the workforce as soon as they leave CCPA. We also have a great relationship with Cincinnati Works. They come and talk to all our students, but our special ed students also get to participate in those programs where they get
Lighthouse Therapy (11:41.085)
Okay.
Ada Pineiro (11:59.329)
job placement help, internships to do all kind of mechanical labor, or if they want to work at a hospital and be like an assistant in the hospital, they’re able to do that too with those relationships that we have in the community.
Lighthouse Therapy (12:16.284)
Nice, very, very nice. That’s amazing. I love that. It’s so important for the, you know, that they don’t just graduate and then not have anywhere to go or any plans and finding out what they like and being able to do that is just incredible. yeah, wow, wow. So what would you say are probably some of your biggest challenges right now?
Ada Pineiro (12:26.415)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (12:42.95)
well, like, like any school, know, attendance is a big problem.
and the use of electronics is a big problem as well. But that is across the board. And I would say that’s true for all students. For our special population, think an issue is and always has been what life looks like after graduation. We always hope that we’re doing our best to prepare them for life after graduation. But in our current labor markets,
Lighthouse Therapy (12:57.268)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (13:20.976)
harder and harder for students to find their way to be able to do these kinds of things and as funding gets cut for special programs it makes it even harder for them to have access to the help that they need after graduation. So that
is a big roadblock for us for sure. Like I said, we do our best to make sure that they have several tools when they leave us. And because of the community that we are in, we have a lot of return students that come whenever they need assistance or if they need help preparing for interviews or whatever it is that they need. And there’s always a space for them to come and ask for that help. That’s one of the
benefits of being a community school that serves the community where it lives, right? So that is a roadblock for us that we try really hard. We have a lot of successes, but as the world turns, right, we also have a lot of struggles with that. So all we can do is do our best to always have an open door policy for our returning students.
Lighthouse Therapy (14:12.852)
Yeah. Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (14:23.911)
Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (14:31.636)
Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (14:37.384)
Yeah, yeah. So how are you support? What is your philosophy as far as like leading and working with your coordinators or your teachers or intervention specialists? I mean your team. I know you probably have a lot of people around you that make it happen, right? So.
Ada Pineiro (14:52.087)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (14:55.757)
Yeah.
Well, like I said, we are a small department for a special ed. Right now, I host 14 special educators, intervention specialists. We have an occupational therapist and a speech pathologist. And we have a relationship with Hamilton County ESC. they do the school psychology services. We get them through that because it’s more cost efficient for us.
Lighthouse Therapy (15:10.025)
Mm-hmm.
Lighthouse Therapy (15:14.206)
Mm-hmm.
Lighthouse Therapy (15:22.942)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (15:26.668)
and they are professionals, right? They are on the first to know about any changes with legislation or anything like that. So it keeps us compliant, which is a top priority for us, obviously. And we, am a very no man is an island, right? It takes a team. And so we, that’s how I like to lead. I don’t consider myself like,
Lighthouse Therapy (15:36.755)
Nice.
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (15:56.321)
a boss, I’m just part of a team and I’m here to make sure that they have everything they need to do their jobs well, right? They know what to do, right? They’re trained, they’re licensed, they know what to do. As far as my leadership, I’m just here to make sure that they can do their jobs to the best of their abilities, whatever materials they need, whatever support they need, and to make sure that we are in itself a community within a community.
Lighthouse Therapy (16:03.784)
Right, right.
Lighthouse Therapy (16:19.134)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (16:26.52)
We know that if a student is in grade K eventually he’s gonna be a high schooler so we all have to be involved in the growth and the academic success of that little kindergartner. So we do have, you know, team audits where we all participate. It’s all a learning opportunity. Things change a lot. So there’s no expectation that anybody is gonna know everything. So it is always a learning team-based opportunity.
Lighthouse Therapy (16:38.324)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (16:56.176)
Thank
Lighthouse Therapy (16:56.796)
Nice, very nice. I love that you have that support too, because I was thinking about that. was like when you were talking about changes, I was like, sometimes it feels like it’s daily. You know, every time you turn around, it’s like, yeah. Right?
Ada Pineiro (17:10.222)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like they’re changing the forms, but we don’t know what the forms are gonna look like. So hold tight. Yeah. As soon as whenever. Just keep doing it the old way until they change it. Yeah. yes, yes.
Lighthouse Therapy (17:18.974)
We’ll get that to you when we have it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Did we get it yet? No, yet. I totally am. Yeah, exactly, right? Yeah, we’re gonna keep doing it that way and then they’re gonna tell you in a month that you’ve been doing it wrong for a month, but that’s okay because we didn’t know. I know. Yeah, yeah.
Ada Pineiro (17:39.225)
That’s okay because nobody knew, nobody knows. So it’s fine. It’s all fine. So, but yeah, and I just try to keep as updated as I can. We go to task force meetings for the county and just to make sure that we are on top of it, that we are compliant because when we’re not, our students suffer. So, and that’s like our priority always is we’re here for the kids.
Lighthouse Therapy (17:48.944)
Yeah, for sure.
Lighthouse Therapy (17:58.462)
Yeah.
Yeah. So do you guys, are you, it’s April 9th today. So you have, are you, do you go through May or are you into June? When is school done for your kids? Five more Mondays. you’re almost done.
Ada Pineiro (18:07.209)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (18:12.856)
We, five Mondays.
I have more Mondays. We’re in the thick of OSD testing now, so it is a little nuts, right? It’s like an all hands on deck situation. We make sure that our students get all their accommodations as required. We make sure they have a great testing environment because like I said, they have to take the same test everybody else does. It doesn’t mean that it has to look the same as everybody else, right? So we do small groups and we do everything that we can to make sure that they are successful.
Lighthouse Therapy (18:21.448)
Yep.
Lighthouse Therapy (18:41.235)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (18:46.16)
We have a good track record of having our special education students do well. So I just kind of hope to continue that tradition just to empower them and to show our students that they can do hard things.
Lighthouse Therapy (18:50.772)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (18:59.572)
Mm And OST I’m assuming is Ohio State Standard Testing. Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (19:02.934)
State standard test, yes, is the state test that every school has to participate. Every state has their own version of it. And so we have to participate. Yes, it’s third grade. No, it’s third grade through 11th. They all take some form of…
Lighthouse Therapy (19:09.83)
Yep, yep, for sure, for sure.
And it’s certain grade levels, right? I mean, there are certain grades. It’s not every grade that has, yeah, okay.
Okay.
Ada Pineiro (19:27.572)
state tests. They add science at some great levels and then obviously high school you have to take government and all that stuff so yeah. Skates. We’re on skates. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got a good plan. got a good plan.
Lighthouse Therapy (19:28.692)
Well.
Lighthouse Therapy (19:35.881)
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s good though. You got it. You got it. You got it. Right. Yeah. That’s it. And that’s the thing. You know, it’s like, this is going to come out and you’re going to be all done. You know, because we’re about five, six weeks out is when we win this. Once we do the recording, then it’s about five or six weeks before we just you are like number 236. I think. Yeah, I know. It’s incredible. It’s been amazing to do this.
Ada Pineiro (19:48.777)
Ugh.
okay. Got it.
Ada Pineiro (19:59.784)
Wow.
That’s wonderful.
Lighthouse Therapy (20:04.788)
But we just published 200 today. So you’ve got only got 36. There’s only there’s 36 in the queue. So it’s not too bad We have a we have a podcast producer who’s doing a great job and it’s just been it’s just been such a blessing to be able to talk to different districts and and Just the amazing things that are happening in education. I love what you guys are doing and it’s just so It’s just it’s just inspiring to see people that just have so much passion
Ada Pineiro (20:10.798)
All right.
Ada Pineiro (20:25.865)
Thank
Lighthouse Therapy (20:33.8)
for the kids and for what they’re doing. And even even at the beginning you said, you know, you are somebody who’s thinking about the parents too. Like that is a priority. I knew that from the moment I started talking to you were saying how important it is that the parents understand, you know, can you touch on that just a little bit for me?
Ada Pineiro (20:35.618)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (20:42.508)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (20:46.397)
Hahaha.
Yes, yeah. Yeah, well, like I said, we serve the community where we live and so.
We get to see some of our parents every day, right? They come, they pick up their kids. Some parents are employed by the school. It’s a big school, so there’s a lot of job opportunity. But it is really important that we have the parents’ collaboration when it comes to their child’s education, because they are who their kids look to for guidance in everyday life.
Lighthouse Therapy (21:09.844)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (21:30.064)
is this important? If it’s important to the parent, it’ll be important to the student. And so we always try to make sure that we are always reaching out to parents. CCPA is really good about doing community involvement events. We have a beginning of the year event where it’s the entire community is invited to participate. They have health fairs and things like that to
Invite the community to come and see us we have Christmas programs and like history month programs and Hispanic heritage programs that are open to our community and obviously You know we see these kids for years and years that are they’re a part of our schools and so We have parents who went to the school bringing their schools their kids to school, which is Mind-blowing to me to see some students bringing their little babies. I’m like I am
Lighthouse Therapy (22:17.64)
Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (22:25.298)
Yes.
Ada Pineiro (22:29.072)
not old enough for this. No, no. And to have like our, our superintendent see like parents and say, I taught him in sixth grade. And so it’s a wonderful, wonderful community to, be a part of. And, and, you know, parents are the main ingredient, right? They are the ones that make the choice to, to enroll their kids in the school and to make the choice.
Lighthouse Therapy (22:29.94)
That’s right. You’re not old enough for that. No, no, no, no, no, no. We’re not old enough for that yet. I love that.
Lighthouse Therapy (22:41.897)
Now.
Lighthouse Therapy (22:52.404)
Yeah.
Ada Pineiro (22:59.212)
to participate in these activities and make us welcome in the community. So if we don’t have parent buy-in, then the education’s not gonna work. So it needs to be a true collaboration and a true partnership. We’re raising these children together, so it is always important. And obviously, you know, in IEP meetings and with special education…
Lighthouse Therapy (23:05.108)
Mm-hmm.
Lighthouse Therapy (23:08.648)
Yeah.
Lighthouse Therapy (23:16.638)
Mm-hmm.
Ada Pineiro (23:23.936)
It is parent consent that starts everything. If we don’t have parent consent, we are a non-starter. And so it is imperative that parents work with us and that we work in turn with parents to make sure that our kids are successful.
Lighthouse Therapy (23:27.444)
All
Lighthouse Therapy (23:38.526)
Right, yeah. So tell people where they would go if they wanted to learn a little bit more about CCPA.
Ada Pineiro (23:46.669)
So we have Facebook. So we have a CCPA, Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy Facebook page. Or they can just go to CincinnatiCollegePreparatoryAcademy.com and see us in there. You’ll see a lot of fun pictures and things of our sporting events and our open house, which is…
coming up in August. I feel like that’s so far away and yet so close. But yeah, just we are at 1425 Lynn Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. Come on and take a look.
Lighthouse Therapy (24:16.328)
Yes, yes.
Lighthouse Therapy (24:24.66)
Nice, awesome. Well, Ada, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for your time and for your passion and for being on Brighter Together because like you said, it takes a village, it takes so many people and that’s why we are brighter together, right? So thank you so much. Absolutely.
Ada Pineiro (24:40.622)
Yes, absolutely. Thank you for having me. It was such a pleasure. I love talking about myself. I love talking about CCPA. Yes, I do. thank you.
Lighthouse Therapy (24:49.396)
Absolutely. It’s a good thing because you love what you do and the passion comes through. It really does. And that’s the thing I love to see is people that love the kids because I always say, know, we just are getting a, educators are not getting a fair, getting a bad rap. And it’s not fair. It’s not a fair picture of what’s happening in education. So that’s why we do what we do. Give you guys an opportunity to talk about it.
Ada Pineiro (25:08.172)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s hard times out there, but we’re going to make it. We’ve been here long enough. People will around.
Lighthouse Therapy (25:18.973)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, keep doing it. We keep doing it. Keep doing it. Absolutely. All right, well, God bless you. Thank you for being here and have a great rest of your semester.
Ada Pineiro (25:29.166)
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Lighthouse Therapy (25:34.857)
Alrighty.
