Special Education Meetings Canceled; Some Parents Protest School Board Decision
Posted on: Wednesday, 1 February 2006, 09:00 CST
By Jessica Van Sack; JESSICA VAN SACK
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY - Three special education parents unleashed an unusual tirade on the school committee, accusing it of shunning an especially needy contingent of students.
At issue last night was the dissolving of a joint subcommittee of special education parents and school committee members, which met four times each year since the late 1990s.
"To eliminate this portion of your responsibility two weeks into your new term is a travesty," said Bonnie Marcel, the parent of a 13- year-old boy with autism.
School officials see the disbanding of the committee differently.
"I've been at almost all the meetings, and I'm seeing there's no systemic problems," committee member Dave McCarthy said.
McCarthy, a father of three special needs children, said the subcommittees became a forum for individual problems, a conversation that might be more efficiently had with the superintendent of schools rather than politicians.
Yet the parents who spoke at the school committee meeting last night, including Eileen and Neil Mullen, parents of two autistic boys, said they felt abandoned.
"I simply cannot see the logic in this," Eileen Mullen said.
McCarthy said he receives frequent calls from parents like the Mullens and said he would encourage parents of special education students to continue calling school committee members and administrators with their concerns.
The subcommittee was formed to address significant problems in the late 1990s, and those problems no longer exist, school officials said.
School committee Vice Chairwoman Elaine Dwyer said that usually no more than four parents would attend the meetings. With 1,600 special needs students in Quincy, the poor attendance was a sign that something needed to change, Dwyer said.
"It wasn't working," she said.
reach Jessica Van Sack at jvansack@ledger.com.
Source: Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.
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