Special education critics speak out in Oak Park
By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

Oak Park parents during a school board meeting last week griped about a perceived lack of attention to special education in Oak Park schools. District officials blamed an inability to retain special ed. teachers.

Concern over special education has existed for many years, parents said. When administrators heard the complaints, nothing happened, according one mother. Both nearby districts, Las Virgenes and Conejo Valley, have also heard criticism over special education.

Special ed. kids in middle school will have a hard time advancing to high school, parents said. They haven’t been receiving the necessary skills, fathers and mothers said, to prepare them for difficult classes. Many students haven’t been examined on a one-on-one basis as required by the state, according to one parent.

"We are going to do what we’re required to do," said Oak Park Unified School District (OPUSD) President Jim Kalember. "We had a situation at the middle school where we lost a teacher," he said. "And we’re desperately searching to fill slots (like these). But it’s hard to find special ed. people."

The problem, Kalember said, is that 60 percent of special education teachers in the county don’t have special education credentials. And many of them tend to burn out because working with special ed. kids can be emotionally taxing, he said.

Parents weren’t notified about teacher changes, said one mother. The replacement teacher, she said, didn’t have a special education credential, only a certificate for counseling. That’s unacceptable, she said, "My child is not an abused kid. He doesn’t need counseling." She asked boardmembers why she wasn’t notified about her child’s new teacher.

School staff notified the students when a new teacher came aboard, said OPUSD Superintendent Marilyn Lippiatt. "We don’t notify every parent of every staff change," she said.

"I think parents want what’s best for our children," Lippiatt said. "And that’s what we want." Parents and the school district must work together, she said. "We’re always eager to have parents participate."

Improvements to the special education program are in progress, Lippiatt said. The director of special education at Moorpark Unified School District, Dolores Allen, came to Oak Park on Monday to observe the program to suggest changes or adjustments, according to Lippiatt. Fresh eyes on day-to-day operations are important, she said.

The length of Allen’s stay is yet to be determined. Another step the district will take, Lippiatt said, is forming a parent/administration committee to meet and solve the needs of parents and teachers. The committee will have evening meetings, Lippiatt said, as opposed to previous daytime sessions when parents couldn’t attend because of work commitments.

Another priority, said a concerned mother, is the barrier between general education students and special education students.

A special ed. student recently threatened to harm other people in the classroom. Her daughter, a general education student, is now frightened to attend school, she said. Complicating the situation is that other kids made fun of the special ed. youngster.

Traditional students must be taught how to treat special ed. youngsters, the parent said.

"(The Oak Park special education program is experiencing) a typical management problem that any organization has," Kalember said. "It’s not a matter of us deliberately withholding money and using it elsewhere. We gladly make the investment in special ed. and we always have. Our problem now is one of managing and resource availability."

The focus should be on solutions, Kalember said. Complaints and negative feedback don’t help, he said.

The flaws in special education will be examined, Kalember promised. And he said he was confident that improvements will be made.