Board of Education Creates Special Needs Committee

For the second time in seven years, the Suffield Board of Education has formed a subcommittee to study issues raised by parents of special needs students.

About a dozen parents attended Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting to hear the panel unanimously approve a new three-member ad hoc committee that will discuss issues the parents had raised.

At the Board’s last meeting on March 15, a group of about 20 parents delivered a lengthy report about issues regarding communication between teachers, staff and parents in regard to meeting the needs of special education students. This booklet included letters and details regarding incidents involving students as well as staff members.

Among the concerns expressed were issues with day-to-day communication between special education teachers and parents, liaison information regarding behavior between teachers and administration, concerns about bullying incidents and the overall fair treatment of the special needs students. The major point of the group’s presentation was that these are not isolated incidents but represent a snapshot of a larger problem within Suffield schools.

Speaking for the group, Melissa Sullivan of Mountain Laurel Way noted that parents are not just throwing their hands up and saying do something.

“We want to be part of the solution,” she said.

The Board of Education formed a similar task force in 2004 to study many of the same issues, according to board member Michael Smith.

“We spent a lot of time and had numerous meetings to write a comprehensive report about this subject,” he said.

 “I looked at the report in preparation for tonight’s meeting and found that only about 20 percent of what was recommended in 2004 was actually implemented,” said Vice Chairman Mary Lou Sanborn. “We can do this but unless we have a follow-up system, it is really useless.”

The Board discussed the possible structure of the committee and how to include parents, administrators, board members and other community members. The board bylaws, according to board member Lauren Life, only allow for creation of a subcommittee that includes board members. However, the Board did recently form a group to review technology within the school that includes representation from several areas of the community.

Secretary Mary Ellen Tunsky was adamant that the board retains a consultant to moderate and steer the process to give the findings some direction and expertise. She noted that she would only join the committee if a consultant were hired. Board member Jeanne Gee questioned the expense of using a consultant and began to see this committee and project growing at a grand scale.

“We don’t want this to become a cost for anyone,” Sullivan said. “What we are asking should not cost anyone any money.”

As the board members continued to debate the issue, the growth of the process became so entangled that the motion to form a committee was withdrawn by Chairman Mary Roy. Eventually, the board finally adopted a committee with Gee, Tunsky and Sanborn to sit and study the scope of the issue. The unanimous vote drew applause from the parents present Tuesday night.

Also at the meeting, three Suffield High School students were honored by the Board of Education. Soobyung Park and Emma Kubetin received art awards from the Connecticut Association of Schools for exceptional musical performance and technical theater aptitude respectively.

The Board also authorized construction of a new pavilion at Suffield High School, sponsored in part by the Suffield Rotary Club. The $260,000 project broke ground on Wednesday.