State commends h.s. district
on special education progress
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
The Freehold Regional High School District Special Education De-partment has been commended by the state Department of Education for successful monitoring.
"Back in 2000 they started a special education monitoring system and part of the new system was a self-evaluation," Superintendent of Schools James Wasser said at a recent meeting. "It was an extremely grueling process."
Wasser said the process included a critique and a series of checklists of all the things that special education was doing, all of the areas that needed to be corrected and so on.
"Dr. (Patricia) Emmerman, the assistant superintendent of student services, took that on and got through it which was amazing because most directors don’t get through the special education monitoring," Wasser said.
State officials noted that after several years of on-site monitoring, all of the needed corrections had been made and all of the areas that needed improvement had been improved, the superintendent said.
A letter from the state to district administrators said, "The district is to be commended on the progress that was made since 2000 in correcting special education procedures. The commitment of the director and her capable dedicated staff for the provision of special education programs and services in the least restrictive environment for all FRHSD disabled students is evident throughout the visit."
Emmerman said the monitoring process was not easy.
"We’re very overregulated in special education," she said. "This (commendation) is really a testimony to the professionalism and dedication of my child study teams in each of the high schools and they are truly team advocates. We really do the best that we can and we are fortunate that we are able to make such progress during the period."
In other business, Assistant Super-intendent of Personnel Frank Tanzini reported that 103 positions have been hired, including secretarial and administrative, since the spring. Out of the 103 positions, the teachers bargaining unit had 86 of those positions filled with teaching staff, seven administrative positions and three assistant principals.