One More Isolated Incident

I was in attendance in my son's IEP meeting on December 16th, 1996. I assumed it was going to a contentious meeting, as it had all of the earmarks of those types I had attended before.

Prior to this meeting, I had written a letter to the principal outlining some of my concerns. After six years of learning the ways of the District, I had become better at covering all of the bases, even though I knew there would be some angle I was not prepared for.

While there were a lot of interesting things that happened in this meeting, I will address one connected to the link below. The principal recorded the meeting. There were a lot of "damaging" things said by some of the District people and also there was a lot of "evidence" of how my "procedural safeguards" were compromised, some being outright violated. Keep in mind this was prior to me learning the rules of the game. In fact, that day started my official quest for knowledge regarding IDEA and how it is supposed to work.

It was the proverbial straw. Some of the people who were in that meeting are still around. I think one or two of them understood the injustice that was done. I think the others were more entrenched in how to spin the events so they were defensible.

The fallout of this meeting was immediate and widespread. It may not surprise some of you that despite the fact that I had an MO-12 inviting me to an IEP meeting on that day and a time specific and room specific, along with the fact that nine or ten other people showed up at the same time and place, upon my request for copies of the records of that IEP meeting, I was told by a District Person that there had been no IEP meeting. I guess it depends on what the definition of "was" was.

The principal had tape recorded the meeting. She had prepared for taping. I did not. Try getting a definitive "yes" or "no" answer today whether a parent can tape an IEP meeting.

Back to my point that speaks to the below. After I insisted on getting a copy of that tape, I was finally given a tape.

The tape I received was blank.


This post jogged my memory:

Saturday, April 05, 2008

I can't remember exactly how this poor mangled teacher came to my attention. I think she emailed me. I asked for a copy of her court case to put on our blog, and she said OK.

It's Not What You Say, It's The Fact That You Said It

Once again, time will tell.

A decade or so ago, I was called in to the big office down town a couple of times for things I was saying and doing. I was given some sage advice: It wasn't what I was saying, it was how I was saying it. We country boys know what that means. It took me a few years to realize that sometimes it didn't matter how I said it, it was the fact that I said it.

I know the District wants to be seen as professional. Imagine if you will where the District and a parent are at odds about an issue. The issue is outside of the classroom, in fact it has to do with transportation. So the parent and the District have a meeting. I learned a long time ago a good litmus test to determine the level of problem a parent is becoming is to see how many higher level people come to a meeting, even when the parent doesn't know they are going to be there. Having a union rep there means the parent must be stepping on some toes.

Suppose the District personnel say that what they are doing, or not doing, is based on "District Policy". Suppose the parent asks to see a written copy of the policy. Suppose the District's response is they don't have to provide anything in writing to the parent.

I wasn't there at the meeting today. This could all be another one of those made up dramatic, tearful stories. The fact that this same event happened to me a few times in the past does have some effect on how much credence I give to thinking it really did happen. Again.

Time will tell.

Click here: Dangerously Irrelevant: Why is staff development so bad?

"We have known for a long time (decades!) about what constitutes effective staff development. As the latest version of the National Staff Development Council Standards for Staff Development notes, effective staff development has small groups of educators working together over time in professional learning communities; is based on principles of effective adult learning; and
deepens educators’ content knowledge.
Yet what does staff development look like in most school districts? Typically it involves three or four one-shot “sit and get” (or “spray and pray”) sessions spread across the year, each on a different topic than the one before, that are attended by most or all educators in the organization. A “one size fits all” model is used, meaning that there is relatively little differentiation between, say, music teachers and math teachers and industrial arts teachers. Sometimes schools spice it up a bit and have a buffet day where educators can pick from multiple choices throughout the day, much like a professional conference."

and from the comment section, I chose this:

"The one area that has frustrated me as a consultant is that there is little to no funding to provide executive coaching services to principals. If a principal needs help, they often can't speak up or they are admitting weakness"

I posted the above to say this:

As those who should know, transition plans (school to post school) can start as early as the age of 14. I was aware that the common practice in HCDS was to wait until the last two years of the student's stay, and that out of these last two years, "work training" was usually no more than half a year per year out of the last two. One could understand the difficulties that arose when I insisted on my son obtaining work experience starting at the age of 15.

While there is so much information that should be provided leading up to the following point, suffice it to say that my son became involved in a "pilot program" in HCDS. He was one of three students in the program. The District paid money for an outside consultant to demonstrate how to set up "school to work" situations for even the most "challanged" students. I thought it was a great program and it provided support and guidance to my son's team.

The program consisted of 3 teams for each of the students. My understanding was that the information and strategies of the "pilot program", once developed, would be shared to others and become integrated within the system. In one of the early meetings one of the teachers of one of the teams said" Why am I here? I have a bunch of student's in my class room that need me - I don't have time for this."

I am sure it baffles the administrators that know how much my son received from HCDS to hear me be critical about the system. My previous post under "A Piece of the Dysfunctional Puzzle" speaks to the difficulty of challanging a mindset as opposed to challanging what is perceived as an isolated incident. An illustration of this may be revealed by a comment another teacher made to me one day. She said to me "it is unfair that your son get's more than the other students in the class."

I recently heard that the "pilot program" and the systems that were in place at the school my son was at the time are no longer there. As far as I can tell, the key players of the program are gone from the school. Some have "moved up the ladder" and some transferred out.

I can only assume that when the next parent comes along that insists on following the rules, another "pilot program" will be invested in.

Looking Back On The Memories

As one who tries to be introspective regarding my outlook on many aspects of my life, there have been many times I have been accused by those who know me that I over analyze issues.
Having grown up in a very rural part of Hillsborough County, I have had the benefit of knowing many people who have been employed in the local school system over the last 50 years. Some of them were my school mates. Many of the ones who have risen to the highest ranks possible were teachers at the high school I attended. Some of them I knew, some of them I did not. I probably would have never recognized the significant number of how many future administrators were directly tied to that particular school had it not been for particular circumstances in my life that afforded me that information.
I fondly remember my days as a student. I believe I can still name all of my first 8 elementary school teachers and one of my principals. I remember the challenge through the years of trying to get the highest score on the tests. My rivals were a couple of girls. In the third grade, a boy from out of state moved in to our area, at which point I had a male rival.
My high school years were memorable. My attendance record for my 12 years in school was excellent and was close to perfect one year. Despite my relative lower economic status and family dynamics, I was able to participate in several extra curricular activities. I was involved in both academics and sports. I played baseball (12-0 in our conference in my senior year), 1st chair trumpet player and played bass clef sousaphone, was undefeated in 1st chair chess club, drum major and school mascot, 99 percentile in aptitude assessment, a two year member of NHS and was voted “most likely to succeed”.

One of my memorable days was a Saturday in which I played sousaphone in a Concert Contest at Chamberlain in the morning, played a baseball game at Turkey Creek in the mid day (knocked in the winning run either in the last inning or may have been an extra inning), and then went to Sarasota to fulfill my Drum Major duties in a night parade.

I say all of this because one would think that I would be an ambassador for the school system that did so much for me. I held the teaching profession and school administrators in high regard for many years when my kids entered the system. There was a period of about 10 years that I continued to see the professional behavior and mutual respect between parent and school personnel. In 1990, circumstances started to change.
Along with the continued professionalism by many, it took six years of repeated incidents that demonstrated to me that there were a few people who I had to deal with, regardless of which school my son was in that could not be trusted. Along with them, there unfortunately were different key people in three of the 4 sites that repeatedly demonstrated actions and words that were repeatedly shown to be disingenuous.
Despite my many efforts to collaboratively and honestly communicate, these efforts were not reciprocated. On December 16th, 2006, this group of which I was a part of hit rock bottom. The rest, as they say, is history.
As with any profession, I recognize there are levels of experience and capabilities. I had the expectation that if I voiced my concerns and demonstrated repeatedly what was happening that there would be attention paid to what I was complaining about. Instead, the focus was on me being a malcontent, troublemaker and naysayer.