Meeting to explore special ed co-op
Porter County Education Services, which meets the needs of Porter County’s special education students, is considering a restructuring of its staffing and will hold a town hall meeting Tuesday to give information to the public, particularly parents of participating students, and receive feedback.
PCES serves the students of all seven school districts in Porter County: Duneland School Corporation, East Porter County School Corporation, the Metropolitan School District of Boone Township, Portage Township Schools, Porter Township Schools, Union Township Schools, and Valparaiso Community Schools. The superintendents of these seven corporations, as well as the director of the Porter County Career & Technical Center, make up the PCES board.
A letter went out to PCES families Oct. 13 inviting them to the town hall meeting. The letter explained that the PCES board, at its meeting that morning, had opened a conversation about the possible restructuring of special education services.
“We’re not changing anything that affects students or services,” said John Hunter, superintendent of Union Township Schools. “That’s the purpose of the town hall meeting; to clarify what the restructuring plan is and what it is not.”
Hunter, who runs a school district of 1,424 students, said the possible restructuring would only affect teachers and paraprofessionals, or teacher’s aids, who physically work at district schools, not those who work at the Special Education Learning Facility at 758 Ransom Road in Valparaiso. He said any proposed restructuring would also not affect where students currently receive their educational services, whether those are at SELF or at their neighborhood schools.
Hunter explained, for example, that the restructuring is proposing that teachers or paraprofessionals who physically teach at a Union Township School would become employees of Union Township rather than employees of PCES. “Those working at PCES will be paid by PCES,” he said of the SELF campus, and a few categories of PCES employees such as speech, physical therapy, and occupational therapists who do travel to individual district schools.
That would be a relief to some, said Leslie Nuss, president of the SELF Parent Teacher Organization, which was restarted in the spring of 2021 to help raise the morale of staff. “Not everybody wants to be integrated,” said Nuss, whose 14-year-old son, Harry Bamesberger, is nonverbal.
“Some of us realize our children wouldn’t necessarily do well in that type of environment (mainstream school),” she said. “Some parents want integration and that’s OK too.”
The issue became a point of
focus and the subject of an online petition last year after the Duneland School Board approved a teachers contract that boosted pay for most general education teachers by $10,000 over two years. Parents of children in special education classes, particularly in Duneland, wanted to see the pay gap between special and general education teachers narrowed.
Having to take over the pay of special education staff could have varying results, depending on differing pay scales. “It depends because each of us have our own bargaining agreements,” said Aaron Case, superintendent of East Porter County School Corporation, made up of Kouts Schools, Morgan Township Schools, and Washington Township Schools.
“Their (PCES) starting base salary is slightly higher than us,” Case said of the starting teacher pay in his district of 2,416 students. He said it shouldn’t be a problem for EPCSC to make up the difference.
For some districts participating in PCES, particularly the larger ones, starting teacher pay may actually be higher in the individual districts than at PCES. “There’s really no reason why it couldn’t be better funded,” Nuss said of special education in Indiana. “It’s a whole cultural conversation about valuing these people and what they do.”
If you go: Porter County Education Services will hold a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15 in the Valparaiso High School cafeteria, 2727 Campbell St., Valparaiso, IN 46385 regarding a possible restructuring of staffing for special education services in Porter County. Enter at either door 1 or door 25.