Special Ed Chief Offers Plan to Save $1 Million
February 15, 2010
The special education director of the city’s public schools introduced a plan Thursday night to cut 12 positions and reduce local spending by $1 million in the program’s $16 million budget starting July 1.
Barbara Dee also showed School Committee members her preliminary assessment of the resource room staffing across the district, which indicates the jobs of as many as 37 special education teachers and education technicians could be eliminated.
The school finance subcommittee is reviewing Dee’s program after a recent report said Portland schools could save $2.5 million a year on special education by restructuring administration, cutting 37 positions and adjusting programs to improve instruct ion.
Several people at the meeting questioned Dee’s resource room numbers, saying they didn’t seem to reflect staff workloads or duties accurately. Some questioned why Dee plans to drop only 12 positions if her assessment found that resource rooms are overstaffed by as many as 37 teachers and aides.
”Am I missing something?” asked Justin Costa, a committee member.
”Technically, we could make this reduction, but it would decimate the program,” Dee answered.
Resource rooms provide targeted special education services to students who spend about half their time in regular classrooms.
Dee noted that Portland has a good record of following federal guidelines to provide required services to students, having been sued by parents only twice in the past 10 years. ”And we prevailed in both cases,” she said.
The finance subcommittee is meeting with administrators of 17 Portland schools and departments in the district as it prepares to review a budget of more than $90 million for the next school year.
Superintendent Jim Morse is scheduled to deliver a 2010-11 budget on March 3 that’s expected to absorb a $6 million reduction in state and federal revenue and could result in as many as 120 layoffs.
The analysis of Portland’s special education program by American Educational Consultants of Beachwood, Ohio, served as a backdrop for Thursday’s meeting at Portland Arts and Technology High School.
The $40,000, two-month study is highly critical of Dee, who has been the district’s special education director for nine years. It cites problems ranging from shirking her duties to perpetuating differences with other staff members.
Dee provided updated student and staffing data, which was questioned in the consultants’ repor t and at recent meetings. She said her program has 239 teachers, therapists, social workers and other staff members, which varies from the 253 staff members tallied in the consultants’ report.
Dee said her program oversees about 1,300 students: 1,019 who receive special education services in Portland schools; 46 with special needs who are home-schooled; 62 who attend special education programs outside the district; 46 who get special education services in private schools; 31 who receive tutoring in Portland schools; and 98 who are in general education classes in Portland schools but get special accommodations for mild learning disabilities or other issues.
Dee said Portland’s nearly $1 million cost for out-of-district placements, such as residential or highly specialized education programs, is below the state average, in part because of the West School’s day treatment facility for students with significant behavioral issues. However, she said Portland’s out-of-district costs are expected to be about $126,000 over budget this year.
Ed Bryan, a committee member, read an e-mail he received from a speech therapist in Portland schools who listed many things she does in addition to her dedicated professional duties. Bryan urged the committee to consider the full workload and broader value of each special education employee before cutting positions.
The superintendent noted that many school employees do more than their assigned duties. ”We need to be precise in how we use people,” Morse said.