By KAREN RICE
The union's concession allows the provision of services to these students to continue unchanged from prior years, according to Frank Parise, school board president.
The decision will allow 14 students living in the district and attending private schools to keep their present special education teachers at their home school instead of being bused to a Lawrence Public School for instruction. Many private school parents embraced the latest decision, after fearing the proposed changes would disrupt their children's learning.
Marilyn Hazan Corwin, a parent of a special ed student who attends private school, felt that it is essential to a child's learning for a child's special education teacher and regular teacher to be in daily communication. If a child were to be bused to another teacher for services, the two teachers would not be in direct contact, she said.
Under the [former] proposal, these kids would be shunted to a strange building to work with children from different schools and taught by individuals who cannot possibly be in daily communication with their classroom teachers, said Corwin. In addition, these are the very children who have a hard time with adaptability and change. They are educationally and emotionally more vulnerable. These are great kids and not to be written off.
Marlene Sterling, a special education teacher, agreed that busing the students would compromise their education. By busing a child to a different school, you are giving him an education in a vacuum, she said. By taking that child out of that school, the special education teacher has no connection with the children's regular teacher. There is a list of problems that go along with that lack of continuity.
Heather Boneparth of Cedarhurst also felt that the students should be provided with the least restrictive program possible to give them the best education.
I am happy to report that the Lawrence Teachers Association [LTA] has decided to forgo their grievance regarding the services we provide to our private school children, Parise said in a written statement. [LTA has] once again proved that our children come first. I want to reassure our parents that we are doing everything we can to provide excellent services to all of the children of our district.
The LTA grievance insisted busing private school children to Lawrence schools in the morning before their regular classes began so they could be taught by School District 15 teachers. This is because the LTA wanted to start a new policy that the special education programs must be taught by district teachers. It would have cost LPS an extra $300,000 for teachers to travel to the 14 students at their specific private schools. They would also have had to hire more teachers, according to Parise. The only affordable way for the school board to have applied for this new policy would be for them to bus the students to public schools.
It would have cost an extra $300,000 to utilize LTA teachers for the special education services, Parise said. We just couldn't afford that. But, the LTA decided to support the board so the kids will be able to attend private school . . . that will allow us to service the children in their own schools.
Rose Harris, school board trustee, commented at an Aug. 13 meeting, that special education students are the students that need more care, not more problems. Certainly we are talking about the most fragile population of our schools, she said.
