The Michigan Education Association will hold a news conference Wednesday, Feb. 28, to talk about what they call "dangerous conditions" within the special education program at Grand Rapids Public Schools.
Six local unions and some parents are calling for the program's director -- Laura LeMore -- to be removed.
A local MEA representative says a recently released report details legal, health code and school code violations that he says are being ignored.
That news conference is set for 10 a.m.
GRPS says they will hold their own news conference at 11 a.m. to respond. They also offered the following statement:
The overwhelming majority of items listed as reasons to support the removal are false. Those that are true have either been fixed or are in the process of being fixed. The unfortunate thing is that the union has been provided specific information in response to the concerns raised.
Despite our on-going response and commitment to working with the union to address the concerns, they threatened us that they were bringing in an individual from the outside to engage in this “smear” campaign against Laura LaMore.
We are hearing from many special education staff who do not agree with the allegations and the union’s tactics. They report they feel bullied and pressured into signing the union petition and that these tactics are occurring during instruction time. We will be addressing that issue with the relevant staff.
I want to be clear that I have no intention of removing Ms. LaMore “by February 27, 2018” as demanded in their letter; and I will not be a party to this effort to ruin the reputation of a competent educator who is doing the right thing for our students.
Many of the complaints listed regarding the special education program were raised several years ago. I commissioned a comprehensive evaluation that was conducted by Jeff Butler, a widely recognized special education attorney who at that time was a partner at LaPointe and Butler. The evaluation debunked many of the allegations. He found that the changes recommended by Ms. LaMore to improve the special education program were consistent with special education laws, rules, regulations, and Michigan Department of Education guidelines. The report did find that we needed to do a better job with communication and made eight (8) recommendations, the first of which was the creation of a Strategic Planning Team for the purpose of implementing the recommendations.
• Of the 28 members of the Program Review Team established for guiding the Program Review, 17 committed to return to provide further input for the strategic planning process. The team consists of a general education teacher, two special education teachers, three special education teacher consultants, a parent, the GREA President (Mary Bouwense), two related service providers, a general education principal, a special education principal, a special education supervisor, the director of accountability for special education and an executive director. The team is co-facilitated by Ms. LaMore and Mr. Butler.
• The first meeting was held on January 23, 2018 and there are three more meetings scheduled for the remainder of this school year.
• The seven remaining recommendations are:
o Recommendation #2 - Review Futures Report to include recommendations for the Strategic Plan
o Recommendation #3 - K-12 supervisor alignment for the purpose of increasing accountability and communication to the system
o Recommendation #4 - Explore GRPS ongoing operation of center based programs (began 8/2017)
o Recommendation #5 - Define a specific set of criteria for awarding a Certificate of Completion
o Recommendation #6 - Review policies and procedures for the implementation of Personal Curriculum for students with IEP
o Recommendation #7 - Explore interplay between Section 504 and IEP
o Recommendation #8 - Consider a 3 year review cycle for Program Review Process (began 1/23/18)
• The Program Review Strategic Plan Committee made the following recommendations for Priorities:
o Year 1 – Recommendations 3 and 4
o Year 2 – Recommendations 5 and 6
o Year 3 – Recommendation 7
• Embed Recommendations 2 and 8 throughout
The District continues to provide training for special education staff, including child care workers. Ms. LaMore was instrumental in developing a budget and prioritizing professional development for child care workers and paraprofessionals. Prior to 2015-2016 school year, these role groups were not included in PD. All staff in schools received three hours of emergency use of seclusion and restraint training. Staff at CTC Mayfield and Straight received training in the use of CPI (non-violent crisis intervention), and on the use of data for improving student achievement. Based on staff input, Employability Training Specialist certification is scheduled this summer for child care workers who service young adults at the 7 CTC sites. I am also implementing a new coaching plan next school year to assist general education teachers in educating students with IEPs.
We realize that we have not been able to fully staff emotional impairment (EI) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) programming this year; however, it has been a challenge everywhere, not just for the GRPS. This is a national problem that is impacting us statewide, county wide, and locally. We have taken a number of steps to recruit and secure staff. We hired two professional recruitment firms to assist, but they were only able to find two special education teachers. Even then, the union filed a grievance. We are recruiting all of our special education student teachers for fall 2018 and I have authorized HR to offer early contracts to any qualified special education applicant. We have also offered to pay for ASD and EI endorsements for any of our current staff who are willing to take those assignments either now or in the fall.
Specifically, we have also addressed the concerns at Straight. The following is a summary of current and future actions:
• We have addressed the issue of consistent snow removal at fire exists and on the walkways.
• There are sufficient toilets at Straight. In fact there are more at this community based site than at either Mayfield or the previous location of Lincoln KVO. However, knowing we serve a diverse population of young adults, we have hired an architect to design building improvements aligned to our communicated three-year plan. [This plan includes restroom upgrades.] It is important to understand that the facilities at Straight meet the standard code for toilet height.
• Past practice was to replace broken glass windows with Plexiglass; and Plexiglass gets foggy over time. This practice has been discontinued. Last fall there was a series of storms that hit the area and window leaks were evident. These were promptly addressed by maintenance staff. [Replacement windows is a part of the 3-year improvement plan.]
• Room dividers were installed in January immediately following the relocations that took place at City Middle/High.
• Requested locks have been installed on staff restrooms.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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