Porter County considering shifting special education staff
A two-and-a-half hour meeting Tuesday night in which the parents of Porter County special education students were given an opportunity to address concerns and ask questions about their children’s education was billed as just the first step in a potential remodeling of Porter County Educational Services, but one that may move quickly.
Jim McCall, superintendent of Valparaiso Community School Corporation, and one of the eight PCES board members, led the town hall style meeting in a nearly full Valparaiso High School cafeteria.
He began with a history of special education in Porter County, explaining that prior to 1971 the county had no special education offerings. The superintendents of Duneland, Portage, Valparaiso and Porter County schools formed PCES in 1971 and the Special Education Learning Facility, also knowns as SELF, had been built by 1977 under an interlocal agreement.
“But as things progress, old models must evolve,” McCall said. “There is a feeling of otherness that has been identified by the special education staff in the buildings,” he said of those special education teachers who teach within local district schools, but are currently employed by PCES.
He said there is also confusion among parents, who often don’t know if an issue they have is one to take up with PCES or the local school where their children attend.
To clarify, some special education in Porter County is provided at district schools, while some is provided at the SELF School, a separate building on Ransom Road on Valparaiso’s north side. Some students receive education in both locations.
The initial change being considered by the PCES board is whether to transfer the almost 300 building-based special education teachers and paraprofessionals from PCES employees to local district employees. McCall said the idea has been discussed at a couple prior PCES and VCSC board meetings.
A letter went out Oct. 18 to the parents of special education students inviting them to Tuesday’s
town hall meeting.
“Change is hard,” McCall said before opening the floor to public comment. “You have to have the courage to change. We can’t have a good product without a good process.”
He said parents were integral to that and the board wanted a proactive process to design and build on the front end, rather than a reactive one on the back end.
“I’m also known to love an open mic,” he added.
And, indeed, all those who signed up to speak were given an opportunity, as well as several who had not signed up in advance. No time limits were placed on the parents as is often done in public meetings.
Over 20 people, many who are parents and special education teachers, spoke.
Their comments ranged from considerable anger over a feeling of being stonewalled when advocating for their children in intimidating meetings that might be 10 administrators and service providers to one or two parents, plus an advocate, to accusations of being lied to, to ideas for making special education better, to heaps of praise for the teachers and paraprofessionals working in the classroom.
Jessica Witherspoon was the first to speak. She told the board there was a huge difference in the quality of input afforded parents between the PCES parent network group being offered now, and a parent advisory committee. “When can we parents hear from you on when your districts will form PACs?” she asked.
Jenny Hansen, whose son attends SELF in the morning and Chesterton High School in the afternoon, wants a contingency plan in place for staff shortages. “My son didn’t have speech therapy for five weeks,” she said.
She added that last Friday a card with a $100 bill was given to all the teachers in her district with a note of thanks. She said, particularly given the shortage of special education teachers, such a gesture should be considered for all special education teachers in the county.
Another parent asked what would happen if the recent raise of paraprofessional pay from $12 to $15 per hour wasn’t enough to retain classroom aids. Kathleen Benson, mother of an autistic student in the Union Township School Corporation and special education teacher at Jones Elementary School in Portage Township, has an idea.
“I wish my para would be paid throughout the year,” she said, referring to the pay model available to teachers. “I couldn’t do my job without my para. I beg her to stay. I shower her with gifts,” she said to titters from the audience. “I really do,” she replied.
Dawn Kucera, of Kouts, demanded transparency.
“Don’t lie to our faces during a meeting,” she said of her attempts to keep her 8-year-old daughter Eliana at her neighborhood school in Morgan Township. Eliana attends Bailly Elementary in the Duneland School Corporation, as they provide the county’s deaf and hard of hearing services which she needs, while Kucera has been trying to get her those services at her local school where her big brother attends.
“Don’t tell us we have a choice and then two weeks later tell us, ‘No, you don’t have a choice,’ ” Kucera said. “Be honest.”
The board expects to continue answering questions raised at the meeting via a running document on its website https://www.pces. k12.in.us/. “We are most likely going to be splitting and conquering the different questions and anticipate we’ll begin answering them Friday,” said Amanda Alaniz, superintendent of Portage Township Schools.
McCall said the board would need to make a decision as early as next month if it wants to make the proposed change as soon as the fall of 2023.
The next PCES board meeting is at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, in the boardroom of the SELF School, 750 Ransom Road, Valparaiso, IN 46385.