More departures keep Lawrence special education in flux.
By: Lea Kahn
The search for a replacement for Wendy Miller, one of two supervisors of instructional services in the special education program, will involve parental and staff input, according to Schools Superintendent Max Riley.
Ms. Miller is resigning from her position, effective Aug. 29. She is one of six special education program staff members whose resignations or retirements were accepted by the school board at its July 16 meeting. The others included two resource center teachers, a speech language specialist, an instructional assistant and a learning disabilities consultant.
At last week’s school board meeting, Elizabeth Donahue of Balsam Court pointed to the ongoing turnover of special education program staff members. The district is losing experienced staffers, she said, adding that their replacements are inexperienced.
Ms. Donahue also said that she is not aware if exit interviews with departing staff members are being held. The school board’s subcommittee on special education recommended holding exit interviews with staffers who are leaving the district. The subcommittee requested the policy be developed in time for board review in August.
However, Dr. Riley said the district has begun to conduct "voluntary" exit interviews with staff members who are leaving the district. Staffers who are leaving the district are being asked to reflect on their experiences in the district, the reasons for their departures and suggestions for improvements, he said.
A report prepared by the school board’s subcommittee on special education earlier this year recommended holding exit interviews with special education staffers who have resigned. The subcommittee was formed in the wake of parental concerns about the special education program, including turnover among staff members.
Also at last week’s school board meeting, Laura Waters of Ivy Glen Lane asked the school board to include parents of special education students and staff members in the search for a replacement for Ms. Miller. Seeking parental and staff input would be helpful in rebuilding the trust that has been lost between the community and the administration, she said.
Parents and staff will have some input in the process, but no decision has been made as to exactly how it will work, Dr. Riley said Monday morning. He said he is mulling it over now and expects to have some answers by next month.
It is important to reconsider the structure of the position of supervisor of instructional services, Dr. Riley said. There are currently two supervisors (Ms. Miller and Jane Bilik). The job description will be reviewed and perhaps tweaked, he said. It is not uncommon to review a job description when someone leaves a position, he added.
In this instance, those revisions may affect the principals of each of the district’s seven schools, he said. The principals are responsible for the delivery of instruction to each student, so there is a working relationship between the principals and the supervisors, he said.
The principals may have to work more closely with the supervisors of instructional services, he said. The principals may have to become more involved with special education students’ individual education plans, because they are in charge of teaching and planning for instruction in their respective school building.
Dr. Riley said that when the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was adopted in the 1970s, the special education program was separate from the regular education program in the public schools.
But when IDEA was reauthorized by Congress in 1997, the approach changed to become one of inclusiveness, he said. Regular education teachers were given more responsibility for educating children with learning disabilities in their classrooms, he said.
The 1997 version of IDEA presumed that a child with a learning disability would be educated in a regular classroom along with his or her peers, unless it was determined that he or she could not be taught in a regular classroom setting, he said.
The school district had begun to take some steps to redesign the special education program to comply with the new approach before Ms. Miller announced her plans to leave the district, Dr. Riley said.
Therefore, the question is not how to go about hiring a replacement for her, but to consider the district’s special education program and how it is organized, he said. The person who is ultimately hired will be determined in part by what the district wants to achieve.
One factor in what the school district wants to achieve will be determined by the federal legislation informally known as No Child Left Behind, he said. The new law likely will have an impact on the special education program, as well as regular education programs, he said.
Under NCLB, school districts break out the standardized test scores of students children who are enrolled in the special education program, ethnic groups such as African-American and Hispanic children, children whose family income qualifies them for a free or reduced price lunch, and children who are enrolled in English as a Second Language programs.
Even if the average score of all students meets minimum standards, Dr. Riley said, if the performance of one of those subgroups does not meet those standards, the district would be subject to "remediation" by the state and federal governments, he said.