So how many kids are in your child’s resource room?

For anyone who doesn’t have a special needs child, the resource room is the primary classroom for children whose disabilities require additional assistance. It’s a place that provides instruction in appropriate grade-level skills, life skills, and social skills. Typically the classrooms are clustered around a particular disability.

Resource rooms need to be spacious. Children with disabilities often have difficulty navigating cramped or crowded rooms. They need to have areas where children can find a quiet spot to sit. They need to have sensory areas, were kids can bounce, spin, climb and even swing.

And they need access to teachers and instructional assistants. Otherwise, it’s just a room.

This past year, the special education department of Huntsville City Schools decided to consolidate many children who spend the majority of their school day in resource rooms into basically three schools: the Academy for Academics and Arts, Challenger Elementary and Middle and Hampton Cove Elementary Middle. (For my regular readers, this was “the plan” that was never shared with parents in writing despite numerous assurances and promises from Amy Sledge, Ann Roy Moore, David Blair, Jennie Robinson and others that they would.)

This consolidation has now been implemented. That fight is over.

On May 5th, Amy Sledge, Dr. Moore and the board discussed this plan and stated that this consolidation would allow students to have access to more resources such as therapy, material, supplies and staff.

On April 6th, Amy Sledge told parents that elementary resource rooms would have between 6 and 8 students in them. You can watch the video below. While she does say that they will have no more than 10, this she throws in as an extreme afterthought.

My son’s resource room at Challenger Elementary has 10 students right now with one teacher and three aides. The class is so large that it has to be split in two so that they are able to accomplish at least some of the learning goals of the IEPs. Since there is but one teacher, this means that every student is effectively receiving half of the instructional time that he or she received last year.

This is unacceptable.

But this isn’t just about my son. This is about 2,900 other students with IEPs in this system who are also getting half the instructional time that they did before.

And the only way we can address these problems is to talk to each other and compare notes.

So I’m asking you to share what you know about your child’s resource room in the comments section below. This will help us all to gain a better understanding of how Huntsville City Schools is planning to meet IEPs with less than half the Instructional Assistants that the system used last year.

Particularly since the number of special needs children has actually increased since last year.

So as you are able, please share the following information below or with me privately via email at staff@geekpalaver.com:

• The school your child attends.
• Your child’s grade.
• Does your child have an IEP?
• Does your child spend the majority of his or her school day in a resource room?
• How many children are in the room?
• How many teachers are in the room?
• How many instructional assistants are typically in the room?

There is certain information that you should not share with me. For example, do not share:

• Your child’s name. (At least not in a public forum such as the comments section below. If anyone does this accidentally, I will edit that information out of the posting.)
• Any other child’s name. (Again, I will edit this information out of the post if necessary.)

The purpose here is to make information available to all the parents with children in Huntsville City Schools that the system is, at times, hesitant to share with us. The purpose is to make the system aware that we know what is going on.

We have a right to know if the system is serving our children and meeting their needs. Perhaps this will help us all understand where most significant needs exist so that we may work together with the school system in addressing these needs.

If you do not want to share this information with me, I completely understand. In that situation, I would ask that you do the following: Contact your child’s teachers and principal. Ask them for specific numbers concerning the number of children in your child’s classrooms/resource rooms. Ask them for specific numbers of teachers and Instructional Assistants that will be in the classroom working with the kids on a daily basis.

You have a right to know this information about your child’s class, but you will often have to ask to get it.

Finally, I would encourage everyone to visit your child’s school as often as possible. See for your self the conditions of your child’s classroom and the situations under which your child’s teacher is working.

Our teachers are overworked, and they need our help to rectify this problem. The central office has a vested interest in keeping teacher salaries at the state minimum (even when their own salaries are “nationally competitive.” [Editor’s Note: Dr. Wardynski stated on August 18th that he claimed the administrative positions were “state competitive.” I have decided to take him at his word on this.) The only defense that our teachers and therefore our kids have against these conditions are parents.

I know how difficult it is to find time to visit schools and advocate for your child’s education. Especially for special needs parents. But if you don’t no one else will.

Ask questions, and hold the system accountable for the answers they offer.

It’s our kids’ only hope.

The post A Call To Action: Resource Room/Classroom Overcrowding appeared first on Geek Palaver.

There will be another meeting of the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education on Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 5:30pm at the Merts Building downtown.

According to the agenda, this meeting will include a Human Resources Report (that will hopefully finalize the staffing needs for the new year), a report on the Adequate Yearly Progress report released on Monday, the introduction of a new central office job description called, “Community Outreach and Engagement,” and intriguingly a “Special Education Presentation.”

It’s going to be a busy night in the board room.

At the end of the board meeting on Tuesday, Dr. Wardynski told me to expect some “good news” at the board meeting on Thursday. At the time, I suspected that he was planning to share more information about the hiring process to complete the staffing of classrooms for the coming school year.

But perhaps he was instead referring to the “Special Education Presentation” that I suppose he, or Mrs. Amy Sledge, will be making tomorrow night.

I don’t have any idea what will be discussed in this presentation, but here are a few suggestions if anyone in Dr. Wardynski’s office is interested in the opinions of a special needs parent.

1. Dr. Wardynski should offer clear, detailed and specific evidence that the system will be prepared to meet the requirements of the IEPs on Monday, August 8th. This is non-negotiable. Without this, our schools will not be safe and 2,700 special needs children will be at risk.
2. Dr. Wardynski should offer details concerning student/teacher ratios for the classrooms. I know that these numbers are constantly in flux right now, but he needs to offer the public information concerning the system’s planning. What are the best numbers right now?
3. Dr. Wardynski should offer other ratio information that is necessary to demonstrate that the classrooms will be safe including: Student/Instructional Assistant ratios, Student/Occupational Therapist ratios and their placement, Student/Speech Therapist ratios and their placement, Student/Physical Therapist ratios and their placement.
4. Dr. Wardynski should offer specific details on the plans to ensure access to and safety for special needs children participating in Physical Education. As adaptive PE has been eradicated, what exactly will be taking its place? Are the PE classrooms sufficiently staffed to ensure safety and education? Do PE teachers know that they are going to be expected to include students with disabilities in their classrooms?
5. Dr. Wardynski should, finally, offer specific details concerning the special needs consolidation plan that will have been implemented on Monday.

This is what I would like to see in a Special Needs Presentation later tonight. This would be “good news.”

As I have written before, meeting the requirements of the IEP is first and foremost a safety issue. If there is not enough staff to meet these requirements, there is not enough staff to ensure the safety (much less the education) of our children.

Having discussed my son’s IEP with other parents whom I know are assigned to his classroom, I know that the current staffing for his classroom is insufficient. I am addressing this with his teacher and principal, but as their hands are tied on personnel matters, Dr. Wardynski needs to address it as well.

If we can afford to be competitive on a national level for administrative personnel, we can afford to meet the requirements of IEPs. It’s the legal thing to do. It’s the moral thing to do.

And I’m asking Dr. Wardynski to do the right thing by providing adequate staffing for my son’s and all of our kids’ classrooms.

Hopefully, the meeting tomorrow night will offer clear evidence that the Superintendent and the Board are finally Putting the Students First.

Please make every attempt to attend this meeting tomorrow night and stand up for all of our kids.

The meeting will be broadcast on ETV (Comcast 17, Knology 99-it has recently moved from 71), and at the Huntsville City Schools website. I will also be live-tweeting the meeting @russwinn. You can follow on Twitter or on the Geek Palaver Facebook Page.

I hope to see you there.

The post Special Needs Presentation at HCS Board Meeting Thursday appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Today at Challenger Elementary, we had a good IEP meeting that is best characterized as a meeting where everyone sitting at the table, I am completely convinced, had my boy’s best interest at heart.

For this, I want to publicly thank Mrs. Patti McCord, our regular education classroom teacher for leaving her classroom for an extended period to stay with us, answering questions, and providing guidance to us as we sought to address the boy’s needs even though she had much that she needed to be attending to. We couldn’t have addressed his needs without you. We’re excited that the boy will be in your classroom next year. Our boy will be in kind, wise and loving hands.

I would also like to thank Ms. Karen O’Hear who represented the special education needs as his regular teacher, Mrs. Niki Bowling, is out for maternity leave. Ms. O’Hear was drafted to do much of the work on the IEP even though she is not the boy’s teacher. She did much of this work on her own time despite the fact that she is one of the approximately 150 teachers who have received pink-slips so far. Even though this is the first time that I’ve worked with Ms. O’Hear, it was clear to me that she knew and cared about my son. She cared about meeting and finding ways of addressing his needs. It is a tragic loss to Huntsville City Schools that this dedicated teacher has been pink-slipped. I implore her principal, the Special Education department, and the School Board to find a way to undo this tragic loss. Our children need teachers like Ms. O’Hear in their lives.

Finally, I would like to thank Mrs. Nancy Barnes a special education liaison from the central office. The best advice that I have for parents in the Huntsville system who have concerns about their IEP is to contact Mrs. Barnes. While I have been particularly hard on the central office as a whole of late, Mrs. Barnes is proof positive that it is possible to work there and still be concerned about students’ needs. Mrs. Barnes listened, carefully to every concern that we raised about our boy, and she found a way to address those concerns. Others in the Special Education Department should make a point of learning from her how to keep the students’ needs first and foremost in the process of providing education to all.

The IEP process isn’t an easy one, but the entire system could learn from this one. Each person went into the process seeking only one thing: the best possible education of the boy. Thank you for your commitment to my child. Years from now when he is graduating from college, he will be singing your praises as he gives the valedictory speech for the work you have done today.

In addition, I would specifically like to thank two of our boy’s Instructional Aides who have also been pink-slipped: Mrs. Kim Collins and Mrs. Terry Klinkhammer. These two, despite massive uncertainty in their own futures, never fail to great our boy with joy and compassion. Without their work our son would not have managed to make the amazing progress that he has made this year. Both of them should be re-hired immediately. We cannot afford to lose them and their dedication to our students.

As teaching is always a community process, I must also thank Mrs. Susan Cooley for stepping in when Mrs. Bowling had to leave. Mrs. Kelly Smith his OT teacher who made it possible to hear cheers of joy. Mrs. Alison Johnson his speech teacher who helps the boy express himself. Ms. Kim Lam, Ms. Deborah Chavers, and Ms. Judy Stinson for their dedicated commitment to the education of our boy. He loves you all and so do we.

These teachers (and I can think of no higher title or praise for any of them) have committed their lives to helping give a voice to the voiceless. Teaching matters, and it’s time for us, all of us, to support our teachers rather than using them as scapegoats for mismanagement. Our teachers are not responsible for the financial issues that Huntsville City Schools are facing. Everyone of these that I have mentioned and millions more like them throughout our nation have given their entire lives, just as completely as those in our military have done so, to make our nation the greatest in the world.

They deserve our praise. They deserve our support. They deserve to keep their jobs. They deserve a significant raise.

The post A Positive IEP Is Not A Myth appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Congratulations are in order to Superintendent Moore. On your way out the door, with the cover of Dr. Richardson and the complicity of the Board of Education, you have successfully implemented your plan to segregate our children without any oversight or accountability.

Dr. Moore is using her power to force segregation upon a segment of the student population without input from the parents, teachers, administrators or even the Board of Education. And while I greatly appreciate that Dr. Robinson and Mr. Blair worked to get even a modicum of accountability from Dr. Moore and Ms. Sledge, they have not done nearly enough to provide the oversight that they are supposed to provide of the superintendent.

This is a colossal breakdown of the system that is designed to serve students not segregate them.

On Thursday, May 5, 2011, while hundreds of people still did not have power in their homes from the worst tornados to hit the state in perhaps it’s history, the Board of Education received an oral report from Ms. Amy Sledge, the Director of Special Education, and Dr. Moore, the Superintendent about the concerns that have dominated my life and the lives of thousands of families in Huntsville for the past six weeks.

The timing was quite fortunate for Dr. Moore. Not only did the recovery efforts keep the majority of the city from paying attention to the school board meeting (students had only just returned to school for the first time in a week hours earlier), but also the first round of interviews for the new superintendent had happen just moments earlier that day distracting the press.

Yet, Dr. Moore’s attempts to segregate our children without oversight were perhaps best aided by the decision of the Board at the previous meeting to only allow public comments if they were included on the agenda.

No public comments were allowed at the conclusion of this meeting.

It is also clear from the final moments of the Board meeting video that I linked to yesterday that Dr. Moore had no intention of discussing her plan until after the plan had been implemented. She stated on Thursday, May 5th:

I think that what would probably help, Amy, is once you get all of the schedules settled, and all of the students moved, then you can present that information to the board with the exact locations of specific programs and how many students now that the IEP has been written. (She stated this in the third clip at about the 9 minute mark.)

The truly disturbing part of this is that both Dr. Robinson and Mr. Blair may be heard in the background stating that waiting until the implementation of the plan was completed would be “very helpful.”

Respectfully, waiting until after “all of the students [are] moved” is anything but “very helpful.” It is, frankly, like waiting until the world has exploded to begin talking about ways to avoid a war.

By waiting until all of the students are moved, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Blair, Mr. Birney, Ms. McCaulley, and Ms. Morrison have abdicated their responsibility to provide oversight to the Superintendent of Huntsville City Schools. (This is the very thing that Mr. Blair stated on March 16 that would never happen when he pointed out, “that no decision could be made without the issue coming before the board.”

Mr. Blair: The board hasn’t heard, review the plan, or approved the plan, but Dr. Moore will not actually present any details of what will happen (let alone, why it is happening), until after all the students have been moved.

In addition, Dr. Moore’s description of the order of events does not tell the complete story. She claims that any decision to move students is being made in the IEP meeting. As you can see from this letter which showed on April 15th that Dr. Moore was issuing directives to the school administration representatives on the IEP team to tell parents that their child will be moved in the coming year.

On April 21, 2011 at about 4:30pm, I spoke with Ms. Sledge via phone and asked her what directives were being sent out to the IEP teams from the central office. I specifically referenced the Matus’ letter and my own experience of being told that “we cannot write aides into IEPs without prior approval from the central office.”

Ms. Sledge denied that this was happening and claimed that she would immediately send out notices to the principals that they do not have to seek prior approval for items written into an IEP. I am still being told that aides cannot be written into IEPs without the approval of the central office.

Parents are still being told that their child will be moved to a new school next year.

Additionally during my conversation with Ms. Sledge she informed me that if parents did not like the segregation plan, that they could request a mediation over the issue.

The central office is daring parents to take legal action against the segregation they are forcing on our kids.

Dr. Moore also repeatedly made the implication in the May 5th meeting that we’re all having to make cuts to address the financial situation the school system, under her direction, has experienced. What she has not said to the board, and what the board seems slow to recognize is that Special Needs have already been the primary group affected by the cuts that have taken place so far. The majority of the layoffs that have already occurred have been from Instructional Aides, the majority of which work with Special Needs students.

In addition during this poorly attended presentation, we now discover that Adaptive PE, which Mr. Blair correctly described as a central part to inclusion for special needs children, is also being cut. Dr. Moore claims that all PE teachers are trained to offer Adaptive PE, but she avoids answer any questions concerning how these already overworked teachers are supposed to teach both their regular students as well as their special needs students.

She claims that to be a “staffing issue,” and that Instructional Aides (whom have already been pink slipped) will be able to assist.

While special needs kids are being asked to bear the heaviest burden of cuts, there still has not been a single cut, nor even a plan to cut, from the bloated central office.

If you agree that one person should not be allowed to implement her own private agenda against the will of the public, and without oversight of the board, please contact the board and insist that they order Dr. Moore to halt the moving of students to new schools until she provides a written and public justification for doing so.

You may contact the board via Ms. Gail Kiker, Administrative Assistant to the Board at (256) 428-6940 or via email at gkiker@hsv.k12.al.us.

You may contact Dr. Moore directly at (256) 428-6810 or via email at armoore@hsv.k12.al.us.

Perhaps if there is a mass outcry, the Board (who aren’t leaving office in July as is the Superintendent) will begin to finally hold Dr. Moore accountable.

There is always hope, but there is little time. The next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 5:30pm. School will dismiss for the year on Wednesday, May 25, 2011.

The post Hold the Superintendent Accountable appeared first on Geek Palaver.