State to investigate school district

WINSTED —  The state’s Department of Education is investigating the school district’s special education program after complaints were received from The Gilbert School and Arthur Melycher, who is the chairman of the town’s Commission for Persons with Disabilities.

The complaints were filed in a letter in October to Charlene Russell-Tucker, the chief operating officer of the Department of Education.

In the October letter to Tucker, Gilbert School Superintendent Anthony Serio and Principal Alan Strauss accuse the school district of violating Individual Educational Plans (IEP’s) due to personnel shortages in the use of teacher assistants and paraprofessionals that are necessary for special needs students.

Both Serio and Strauss wrote that the school district is currently short one special education teacher due to the resignation of a school district employee during the summer.

“Despite our numerous requests to the [district] to fill the position and our attempts to supply names of qualified teachers, the administration of the school district claims no qualified staff is available,” Serio and Strauss said in the letter. “As a result, one certified high school special education teacher is managing 43 cases along with a substitute who is not certified in special education. We have numerous cases of students not having the one-to-one or one-to-two classroom aides to accompany them in the mainstream or inclusionary classes.”

Serio and Strauss wrote that last year Gilbert had seven teachers and 11 paraprofessionals to service The Gilbert School’s special education population, and that this school year Gilbert has five qualified special education teachers and 10 paraprofessionals assigned to the school.

“Our regular education teachers have repeatedly complained about the lack of special education teachers, paraprofessionals and teacher’s assistants [for the students that are] required IEP services,” Serio and Strauss wrote. “This condition has negated co-teaching, a model Gilbert has used in the past to implement inclusionary instructional practices on behalf of these students.”

Both Gilbert School officials wrote that required services specific to students have not materialized due to “inadequate programming” by the school district.

“In addition, curriculum modifications and alternative assessment settings are not being adequately addressed as specified in student IEP’s due to the presence of only one certified high school special education teacher for over 40 students,” Serio and Strauss said in the letter to Russell-Tucker. “Numerous Planning and Placement Team  [PPT]meetings have been canceled due to school district administration not being available. There was one day in September when all special education teachers were pulled from the building for training on appropriate IEP writing. 

The school district’s special education teachers, who were already worried about service delivery, were asked to make clerical corrections to IEP’s and then notify parents of the changes. Some of these changes for transition services did require PPT’s, but clearly others required a PPT meeting before the IEP could legally be changed. The school district held some PPT’s, but not all that were required. We will also point out that I had to demand from the school district administration adequate class coverage for the missing special education teachers who were attending the IEP clerical training.”

In response, Tucker sent a letter to Superintendent of Schools Anne Watson on Thursday, Jan. 8, saying the state’s Bureau of Special Education will be conducting a general supervision review of the school district’s policies, procedures and practices associated with special education and related services for students attending The Gilbert School.

“As part of the review, [State Department of Education] staff will be conducting site visits to review Winchester’s special education policies and procedures to determine compliance with state and federal statutory and regulatory requirements as well as [state] policy,” Tucker wrote.

Tucker added that student files will be reviewed by the state and state Department of Education representatives will be meeting with Watson and administrative staff to discuss the district’s management of special education students.

“Also, as you are aware, at the district’s request, the Office of Internal Audit is conducting a fiscal audit of special education.” Tucker wrote.

Around the same time that Gilbert School officials sent a letter to Tucker, Melycher sent a letter of his own concerning the school district’s special education programs.

Melycher’s letter, which refers to the letter from Serio and Strauss, requests that the state remove Board of Education Chairman Susan Hoffnagle and members Mary Ellen Valeyo, Christine Royer, Richard Dutton, Brian Shaughnessy and Theresa Starzyk.

Melycher, who has presented complaints to the Board of Education at various meetings throughout the year, is accusing the board members of numerous violations.

“The Board of Education members have neglected to perform the duties for which they were required, and there is enough probable cause for their immediate removal,” Melycher wrote. “In a one-year time frame there were 22 complaints, six hearings and seven due process hearings.”

Melycher wrote that, in February, the board asked previous Superintendent of Schools Thomas Danehy to investigate the district’s special education department.

“Danehy is the 504 Compliance officer so he was investigating himself,” Melycher wrote. “In March, Superintendent Danehy, [Pupil Services Director] Ania Czajkowski and board lawyer Mark Saommaruga never presented to the board all the facts. The presentation of the violations was not fully revealed.”

Melycher went on to accuse Czajkowski of telling some families that she was ordered to state there were no issues in the school district.

“This investigation caused more distrust and harm to the children and families by their outright neglect to address the issues,” Melycher wrote.

Danehy resigned in April while Czajkowski resigned in September.

In response, Tucker sent a letter to Melycher on Jan. 8 similar to her letter to Gilbert School officials that says the state is investigating the school district.

“If a parent with a child attending The Gilbert School has a specific complaint concerning special education programming for his or her child, the [State Department of Education] would encourage that parent to pursue one of the complaint resolution options provided for in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act,” Tucker wrote. “A resource document titled ‘A Parent’s Guide to Special Education in Connecticut’ explains the complaint resolution options that parents have and contains related forms in the appendix.”

The letter did not stop Melycher from calling for Hoffnagle’s resignation at a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 13, during public comment.

“[Hoffnagle] should resign as board chair based on the performance of allowing the previous superintendent to not follow the federal and state guidelines on special education and putting the Board of Education and this town in the position of multiple lawsuits,” Melycher said. “The Office of Civil Rights contacted me last week and another attorney is being assigned to the Winsted case as more families are coming forward and more information is being sent to the office each week.”

Melycher alleged that since October, the families of four children had their rights violated due to incomplete and false statements recorded on their IEP’s.

He went on to serve the board members a Freedom of Information request for copies of all legal bills since school year 2010-2011.

At the meeting, the board and superintendent Watson did not respond to Melycher’s comments or request.