Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The county will reconsider spreading out the classes after parents and teachers oppose the idea.
By KELLY RYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 14, 2002
LARGO -- After fielding angry complaints from dozens of parents and teachers, Pinellas Schools Superintendent Howard Hinesley is reconsidering plans to relocate dozens of special-education programs this fall.
Hinesley and top administrators met privately Wednesday to discuss the situation. They are expected to announce as early as today how they plan to respond to the growing controversy surrounding special education classes, which serve 26,000 students.
Parents of special education students complained they had no advance warning or input into the changes. Hinesley would not reveal the district's response, but he acknowledged mistakes were made.
"Certainly they should have had an opportunity to give input, then an opportunity for give and take before anything was rolled out," said Hinesley, who once taught physically impaired students. "We didn't do enough upfront to work on the communication."
At two School Board meetings, one Tuesday and one last month, parents tearfully urged the district to consider how dramatic changes could hurt some of the district's most vulnerable students. They passed around photos of their children.
"I'm begging you, this is not going to be good for our kids," Walsingham elementary parent Kim Pidgeon told board members, choking back sobs and then apologizing for crying. "No matter how you look at it, they're doing good where they're at."
While Hinesley and other school officials would not reveal their decision, there are indications they may scrap the current plan and propose another one. Administrators discussed that option in a public meeting late Tuesday. District officials also could phase in the current plan or delay its start until 2003, when the choice plan starts.
"I hope the recommendation is to stop it for this year and have next year to look into some transition or change," board member Linda Lerner said Wednesday. "When we voted for choice, it wasn't just to move people around."
Parents of special education students hope the district will start over and listen to their suggestions. But many are so disenchanted with the district that it will take time to regain their trust.
"I guess I am getting cynical," said Ann Ritter, whose two sons are autistic and attend Osceola Middle and High schools. "Whoever made this plan wouldn't be a very good teacher of kids with autism. Because this is not what you do."
It is the coming choice plan that prompted the changes to special education programs.
As families begin choosing which schools they want their children to attend, Hinesley said, some principals don't want their schools to be informally labeled for their special education programs.
As part of the preparations for choice, officials said they need to set the number of students who will be allowed to attend each school. They said they wanted to locate special education programs first.
A committee of principals and administrators proposed spreading special education programs around the county starting this fall. Some schools would add special education classes and others would lose them, resulting in most schools having a couple of those classes.
District officials said the changes would be good for families, because it would give them more choices. They said spreading out special education classes to more schools wouldn't affect services.
But critics pointed out that some schools wouldn't have full time nurses, therapists or other support staff because there wouldn't be enough students to justify them. They said some buildings are not handicapped accessible -- and that some schools don't have experience blending special education students into general education classes.
Many special education students don't respond well to change, their parents said.
"When you move a child with autism into a completely new environment, it takes time," said Bill Lawrence, who recently brought his son Scott to Osceola Middle School so he could get acclimated to the campus, though he knew the autistic program was set to move to Seminole Middle. "It's very hard for a child to make the transition."
Details were unveiled at a School Board workshop in February, and board members were told they had no say in the matter. Slowly, parents and teachers started learning of the plans.
District officials estimated that the shifts involving special education, which includes gifted classes, would affect fewer than 1,000 students.
Parents were not notified their kids could be moved. Teachers, even those whose programs were being cut or moved, were not told where they would be working in the fall.
Parents said they got conflicting answers as they asked questions of district officials, administrators and others. District officials called them misinformed; parents countered that district officials were upset that they knew what was happening.
"I can't even prepare my daughter for what changes may lie ahead because no one even knows," said Kim Kuruzovich, whose daughter Gina gets occupational and physical therapy and other services at Tyrone Elementary School. "While I am sure choice is a good thing, I think parents should have some input. We have had zero input."
Denise Malone says she has found utopia at Tyrone Elementary, which has a therapy staff, a therapy suite, a nurse and handicapped accessible equipment, including a playground.
Her 8-year-old daughter Sarah, who is in a varying exceptionalities class, is welcomed in general education classes. She has a seizure disorder, so she benefits from having a nurse to give her daily medications. She has access to a physical education class that is adapted to her abilities and needs.
Malone, who teaches at Bay Vista Fundamental, is appalled that the district would force her to find a new school for Sarah. She is frustrated that she can't get any information -- as an employee or a parent.
"My daughter is doing things now that seemed like an impossibility," Malone said. "It's such an accepting environment they've created there. Where am I going to go next year to find that?"