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Oct 1, 2018 at 3:29 pm
Jolene asks the School Trustee Candidates
As a special needs parent what do you plan to do to make sure children like mine get an education? The current lack of EA’s results in our children being sent home early or being told not to bring them to school due to lack of support. Many children did not even start the year off with their peers due to schools not having support for them the first week.
2) IEP’s. Many parents work and are unable to come during school hours to meet with staff to write IEP’s but instead get sent home a copy of it and expected to accept this. This is not meaningful consultation. What do you plan on doing to make sure parents are included in this important decision making?
Beat Klossner
I see the Board of Education getting to be "top heavy". New Mangers positions are created at the board level on a regular basis. One of those positions is worth 3-4 teachers/support staff at the school level where these resources are much more effective and a much better value for the public and the school system. I would like to see a review and elimination of all unnecessary Board level management positions and those resources going into the schools as EAs etc. It is also important to demand the needed funding from the Province since the "asking" and "hoping" for it by the current Board hasn't had much success at all.
As for the IEP’s, there has to be a more flexible approach in the scheduling. I believe it is essential to have parents involved in the process and it should be possible for the district to find ways to accommodate a parents work schedule. Some of us are working Mon.-Fri 9-5, many of us have different work schedules. I think flexibility it is just a question of will from the District administration, which is missing at this time.
John O'Fee
Thank you for advocating on behalf of special needs students. We all know that children facing challenges benefit the most from early intervention. I would need to learn if the problem with EA's relates to a lack of funding or a lack of available people able to provide that service. In either case, we have a duty to ensure that each child matters and gets the best possible outcome from public education.