PRINCETON: School board candidates focus on special ed

By Stephanie Vaccaro, Staff Writer
   The only time the three candidates running for the three open seats on the school board for Princeton Regional Schools will meet prior to the election was at candidates’ night, held by the Special Education PTO Monday evening.
   The questions and answers centered on issues relating to special education in the district.
   Candidate Afsheen Shamsi, the mother of a 12-year-old with autism, has a particular interest in the subject. She and her family moved to Princeton for the autism program.
   ”The autism program has made such a wonderful, qualitative shift in our lives,” she said, and now she wants to give back to the community by serving on the board.
   Ms. Shamsi, who worked in the nonprofit sector for a number of years, is now a consultant for nonprofits, assisting with fund-raising, and volunteers with the Princeton Education Foundation. She also ran for a seat on the board last year.
   Incumbent Dan Haughton ran three years ago on a two-pronged platform that remains his focus this year.
   ”One is to provide outstanding educational opportunities to the kids at all levels and all learning abilities, and also to be good fiduciary stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” he said.
   Incumbent Tim Quinn said in his opening address that he has been struck by the level of involvement of parents whose kids have special needs.
   ”It serves as a model of involvement for all parents,” said Mr. Quinn.
   Each candidate was asked the following question: During your continued/new board service, what can you and your colleagues do to enhance the educational experience for special education students in this district?
   Mr. Quinn, who serves on the Program Committee said, “Program Committee deals with curriculum matters mostly and I think that just keeping an awareness of how the decisions that we make or that the administration recommends in curriculum, keeping in mind that there is a wide range of learners in our district, and that one size does not necessarily fit all.
   ”One thing that we have talked about a lot in Program Committee is this notion of differentiation of instruction, and in providing the supports, to make sure that all teachers in our district are comfortable and able to work with a wide range of learners.”
   ”If I had to answer this question in one word, which was not asked of me, I would say ‘technology,’” said Mr. Haughton. “I’ve worked for technology companies for the last 12 years, and the advancements in technology, in all spectrums of life, have increased so dramatically. I think the benefit of technology is that it’s the great equalizer. It allows us to level the playing field for people who are disadvantaged, whether that’s geographically disadvantaged, by having conferences around the world, to people that are educationally disadvantaged or economically disadvantaged, or learning disadvantaged. Technology can be a great equalizer.”
   ”There are many, many things that this district does well,” said Mr. Haughton. “One thing we’ve not done well is keeping up with new and expanding technologies, and we’re focusing on that now.”
   Ms. Shamsi spoke about social skills.
   ”Every parent was concerned about bullying,” said Ms. Shamsi. “Every parent was concerned about social skills and ensuring that their kids were in a safe and nurturing environment that is accepting of them. So, I would like to work to see successful integration of our kids into the general population, that includes a greater influence on social skills.”
   Other topics addressed included the perception that the general education budgets are compromised in favor of special education budgets and mandates, the advantages and disadvantages of including special needs students in general education programs, and the district’s history of disproportionally identifying Hispanic, African American and male students for special education classification.
   ”I think communication is really the key,” said Ms. Shamsi. “We really have to let folks know that opening up a new program — for example, this past year we opened up a bridges program, an autism program in the high school — people may think ‘oh, we’re cutting costs, why are we adding new programs to the high school when we’re laying off staff for other programs and other teachers and aides?’ But the fact is that by bringing these kids back into the district, we’ve actually lowered the district’s cost. It’s actually become more cost-effective to educate them in district rather to send these kids out of district.”
   ”I think it’s important to inform the community that these special ed programs benefit not only the special ed population, but they also the general ed population, and that’s because the specialists who are brought in to work with the special ed population also serve as advisers for general ed cases that may need help in a specific area,” said Ms. Shamsi.
   Also, she pointed out, that the technologies used to benefit the special ed population can be used for the general ed population as well. When you have a special ed program such as co-teaching, it really benefits all students to have two teachers, she said.
   ”I think Princeton Regional Schools made a concerted effort to bring kids, as much as possible, into the general program,” said Mr. Haughton. “I think it has a lot of positives for everybody involved.”
   ”The vast majority of the kids are, in some way, shape or form, integrated in the general population,” said Mr. Haughton. “I think we should expand that to the extent that the child is ready for.”
   ”Just as my catchphrase for technology was ‘buy smart,’ my catchphrase here would be ‘assess smart,’” said Mr. Quinn. “It starts with leadership, I believe. It took a long time for this district to realize that there was a difference between an English language learning kid and a kid who has a learning disability related to language. It took a long time.”
   ”I’m proud to say, in my time on the board, that we have turned the corner there, and that those numbers are going down,” said Mr. Quinn. “Now that’s not to say that a wholesale dismissal of Latino kids are automatically not recommended for special ed just because they’re Latino, it’s about assessing smarter. Before it was always assumed that there must be a language-learning problem.”