From Daniel Weber:
On Monday at the Board Of Ed meeting, SPECIAL ED was at the bottom of the agenda and the last group to present. The evening went smoothly for the other groups presenting, there were no technical problems with the overhead projection or PowerPoints, no virtual dogs barking in the background.Was it coincidental that SECAC had to struggle through their presentation with these difficulties? They gave a report on their achievements/goals to a Board who seemed bored by the needs of special ed children. One boardmember looked indifferent/irritated – she rolled her eyes! Another stifled laughter behind her hand. Many other Board members stared blankly wishing time would.just pass. I do want to applaud Laura Runyeon and Bob Frisch for their apparent interest, it was appreciated.
The women in these positions for SECAC are worthy of the same dignity and respect that the other members of the other committees had gotten. They are not second class citizens. During the presentation from the Gifted and Talented, the Board actively listened, were engaged and asked questions; they were not treated with the same disinterest or disrespect. It delights us as parents to hear G&T is a strong program that everyone is excited about; we would like to see Special Education receive the same attention. Your role as the Board of Education is to represent ALL children, not just the ones who make you look good.
We ask you to please take SECAC and the needs of our children seriously. My son deserves to have the board of ed respect his needs and give him what he deserves in the school system.
Daniel Weber
The way some of the members of the HCPS BOE disrespected the Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee Officials was shameful. We have experienced, and witnessed the HCPS BOE disrespect Special Education Advocates, and students for numerous years, however it was still astonishing to witness what took place at this meeting. Here is a short take of the video from the HCPS BOE web page https://www.facebook.com/amy.garnerlindecamp/posts/10154362668544698?__mref=message
Spending enormous sums of money on the students that are the least successful and have the least potential (special education students) may make you feel good. It actually makes me sick. It is what has nearly single handedly resulted in our education system becoming one of the worst rated among all developed countries. We need to go back to the days of using our resources as efficiently as possible. And children are our most important resource of all. Sort them by ability and train them accordingly. Stop expecting taxpayers to waste money on failed attempts at getting children to escape the limitations they inherited.
Way harsh, Tai.
Who wants to bet this guy lives in his dad’s trailer and smokes spice all day?
I believe the writer has a point. If your child needs “Special Ed”, and has no apparent disability, there is a cause for this, and it is very often in the child’s home.
Parents have to adopt responsibility for their children, and spend their own time tutoring the child, rather than relying on the Board of Education to do their job for them.
First of all, there has to be a disability in order for a child to receive Special Ed or 504 accommodations in the school system…so I am not sure what you meant by that comment. Secondly, a great teacher should be able to teach to all levels of students (obviously a severe disability is an exception, which is why there are special classrooms/schools for those students). But, you have to keep in mind there are all levels of “disability” and many fall into the range of mild to moderate and these students have accommodations that the teacher uses to make sure the child can be successful. And believe me…parents are helping at home too!! It has to be a collaborate effort to ensure success of the child. Until you experience the frustrations or know someone who does…even with a child with mild disabilites…you will just never understand, so it is best to not be judgmental.
Not to be gratuitously mean and not to deny the rights of disabled kids including autistic kids and those with emotional disabilities as well…we need to provide instruction and education obviously. The point is however that we now spend as much as 4 times “normal” costs to educate these kids – to mainstream them into a regular classroom and in addition we find out last week we pay extra to teachers subsidies to the tune of forgiveness of $17500 in tuition reimbursements for a group of students who’s long term productive value to the community is marginal. In addition, you say a great teacher should be able to teach to various levels of learning. That may be true but it’s also true that when you have C students and A students in the same classroom there’s little need to diverge away from the core presentation…that does not hold true for kids who have difficulty concentrating or understanding without special instruction. When you do that you are taking time away from educating the rest of the students and the entire class is weighted down. That is just fact. Mainstreaming compromises the quality of classroom education because it means teacher’s time is taken away by a more needy group of students.
If you want really great teachers in every classroom you will need to pay a lot more than HCPS currently does. High salary and good benefits is what draws and keeps the best teachers and staff to a school system.
The barking noise heard in the video clip is from the cell phone of a BoE member who forgot to put it on silent during the meeting – disrupting yes, but an innocent mistake.
Right, man! More money= better.
Isn’t it? End all.
Hey little tool – works in sports, film and law so go troll somewhere else.
A “C” student may be a “C” student, not because they are “dumb”, but because the teacher is not teaching in a way to connect with the child. Kids learn in many different ways and a “their” style, may not be a style that works best for all kids. Teachers should present content in a variety of ways to ensure success. Additional outside help may be necessary for a few. I have sat in and observed classrooms and many are so boring I can’t stand being in there. Unless the child is a self motivator with no concentrations issues/disabilities, they probably won’t be successful in that type of classroom. But that does not mean these kids can not be successful in society. In fact, many of them may be more successful than the “A” student when put into the right environment. I do agree that teachers need to be paid more! But they also need to be held accountable just like all the other industries…you get fired if you are inept. Unions have caused this problem…by making it almost impossible to get rid of a teacher. I have seen MANY teachers who should not be in the classroom. So many of these problems could be solved by paying teachers a lot more and holding them accountable!! And for the most part (at least at my kids’ school), the kids who need special accommodations are placed in some classrooms where they provide Aides to help ensure success, and there are Honors/AP classes for the higher level students. Also in middle school, the classes were separated more by level, but even then there is still a range on the learning spectrum that teachers need to teach to. But please keep in mind that just because a child has a “disability” or is not an “A” student does not necessarily mean they are not as intelligent as the “A” students who thrive in the traditional learning environments. I have seen those “C” students and below score super high on ACT’s and SAT’s, which kind of tells you that many teachers are not “connecting” with these students.
SJSB – or is it SJBS? Maybe we should hold students accountable for doing their job and return competition to the education system in this country? It seems to work in other countries whose students outperform our students year after year. I went to a private high school where competition was valued. Hard work was expected and no student or parent blamed the teacher for being too “boring”. It has certainly served me well over the years. By the way, although my parents paid for my private education, they were very supportive of the public education that I received for 9 years. Attacking teachers, public education and unions is so typical of those with a political agenda. I think most hard working Americans are fed up with political attacks and politics in general. Take some ownership of your problems and solve them. Quit the blame game.
Call them like a see them..That was not my point. I totally agree that there should be competition and I was not trying to put the blame on anyone. Do I believe kids and parents are responsible too? ABSOLUTELY. My point was…as any educator will attest to…that you cannot disregard a student because you think they are not good enough because they don’t get “A”‘s or have a disability. Kids learn and think in different ways…that is a scientific fact. I think most people would agree that there should also be “competition” within the schools too. Are you saying that we should keep teachers around who can’t teach? No other business in this world would keep inept people. And so you know…I am an educator (not a politician) and I never believed that teachers should be tenured. Teachers/Administrators should be held accountable just like all other businesses. Kids ARE held accountable by the grades they get. Yes, you have parents who don’t care and who aren’t supportive, which you probably didn’t see in private school because the parents were paying a lot of money. But I think for the most part, most parents do care and are very supportive of the schools. It takes a village…and yes, ALL should be responsible…Kids, parents, teachers, administrators, etc. In no way am I putting the blame on any one group. I am a parent who has children on both ends of the spectrum…one who gets A’s and one who has a mild disability who struggles in school, on top of being an educator. I am the biggest supporter of my children and do whatever it takes for them to be successful…as well as a HUGE supporter of the schools and teachers. I send my kids to public schools, even though I can afford private, so don’t say that I am not a supporter of the school system. Furthermore, I work with the teachers to ensure success of my children and my children have consequences when they come home with bad grades…but as I said…It takes a village!
I sent this article to a friend who teaches at one of our high schools. Here’s their reply:
“Special Ed students definitely impact my classes and me as far as time and workload. I have all kinds of forms that I need to regularly fill out for them and have to get a substitute to be in my classroom with my class while I sit in an IEP meeting as the designated general classroom educator representative. So my entire class goes without me for one student who many times does great on homework and long term assignments but fails miserably on classwork and tests…and we all know that the parent is doing the work at home to boost the grade but can’t voice it out loud. I also just received yet another 504 plan for a student with 8 accommodations. When you look across to the “person responsible” column, every single one says teacher. The student is rarely responsible for their own learning once they have a plan in place-it’s all on the teacher. I have never wanted to be anything else but a teacher but I did not choose special ed as my major. Yet here we are with CC classes because teachers with special ed degrees are not considered highly qualified in Harford County so all special ed teachers “team teach” with the highly qualified subject area teacher. Those classes have large clusters of the students receiving special ed services in with regular students. Does that class move at a slower pace than non CC classes? Many times. Team teaching also requires extra planning to coordinate that is on our own time, CC teachers don’t get additional planning periods. As for all the people who immediately start bad mouthing teachers about knowing what you were getting into…When my friends and I graduated from college, we looked at, but didn’t really pay close attention to the salary scales. We were at the bottom of the heap anyway and the ‘big’ money was years away and only with additional educational degrees. Most of us just went around screaming “I have a teaching job!”. It wasn’t until later in our career when we were juggling our adult finances and responsibilities as we married and had children that we realized that we wanted our contract honored. Yes there are bad teachers and those that are morally corrupt, but those kinds of people are present in all walks of life and it’s not only education that doesn’t let you fire employees at will, many have procedures that must be followed first. There are also bad administrators who target teachers, not for their teaching but personal reasons and in those cases the union can be helpful. A good administrator will be able to determine whether that bad teacher needs to go or will go the distance and do well with additional help and mentoring. The problem is most administrators don’t want the work of documentation that needs to be done to fire a teacher based on their lack of skill. (ethical issues are usually handled by central office) and some administrators were themselves poor teachers but became administrators for the pay increase or wanting to be out of the classroom. I find it hard to support a school system that plays with words to praise its teachers for their PAARC scores being the 2nd in the state, while the reality is that we have the second best of failing scores! . I’m not sure what the answer is, but Harford County needs to get it’s act together…”
..”
So basically your “teacher friend” is a moron. Waiting until later in life to realize their “adult responsibilities”?
These are the type of scum we DONT want teaching our children.
Scum? Moron? Really Gibbons? That’s your opinion of a highly effective and well respected teacher that leads at the county level when called upon? Who is highly respected by their peers and students? You have no idea who you are spewing anti-teacher venom at and they do not deserve it.
As for your comment…Most young Americans begin to get their lives together in their late 20’s and 30’s (if they are lucky) and few are fully adults at age 21 or 22 when they graduate from college. Many still live at home in order to pay off their student loans. And that one statement was hardly the focus of my post, yet that’s what you fixated on? What a perfect example of the dysfunctional Harford County mindset.
Yes, really. Scum bags teachers.
End of story. Please waste more of precious life telling me “how it is” according to your own idealogy.
You are so wrong. Helping those who struggle the most achieve their best is what makes America and its education system great.
and BROKE
America’s education system is great now? Last I looked American students didn’t beat out any country in any subject… unless they want to include idolizing empty headed celebutantes as a gradable subject. The US isn’t even in the top ten. Face it, most of today’s graduates can’t answer the $100 questions on Jeopardy.
You are a drain on society
Why don’t you put your name on your post? If you are going to be the cold hearted person you project, own it.
Here’s my name. What are you planning to do about it? Come over and commit physical violence? I think the Police would like to know.
Well John, I don’t believe there was any threat made. If you read my comment, I said you should own what you said instead of hiding behind the unoriginal name you stole from a puppet on Crank Yankers.
I think people who write comments on here, especially negative ones should have the courage to put their name up there. That way your friends and neighbors can see what kind of person you really are or, if I ever meet you socially, I can walk away without having to interact with you and waste my time with someone as unlikable as you are.
Thanks.
Im sorry, What? I’m not a “crank yankers.”
I simply replied to you (out of the blue) that this is my name, inquring what you were planning to do with my name?
In some aspects you are correct. My son has an acceptionally high IQ and autism. We should spend more time and money on his education than just typical kids. He will give back to his community by being a scholar and gentleman.
I, for one, have no intentions of including my name when expressing my opinions… particularly on controversial subjects that inflame the passions of the weak minded among us and could potentially overstimulate them to the point of violence. For all I know, Brad Bennett is just another nome de plume.
Dundalk Class of 1989
you piece of crap! Every student deserves the best! Every person is entitled to the same liberties as you are! Get out of the country you communist!
Special Needs Students should all attend John Archer and not be allowed in other schools where they are a burden.
I am appalled to read some of these comments. Shame on you!! These children deserve the same as every other child. I sure hope the shoe is never on the other foot! You should be ashamed of yourself!
Right on Kim, these people are so ignorant it is heartbreaking. I surely hope none of these people have any experience with special needs children, they don’t deserve to know them. Nobody cares about these kids anyway especially the BOE, that is quite evident with the appalling conditions of the only special needs school in Harford county.
Well, you are free to take your ass out of Harford county.
So are you BIG TOOL, you have that name right for sure!
I would say very tiny.
It’s not that nobody cares for these kids – just that sacrificing the quality of education for the other 30 kids in any particular classroom is a high price to pay. When mainstreaming was originally pushed it was more about “socialization” and removing stigmas. In essence that’s what it remains. It’s just one more reason so many parents if they can afford it yank their kids out of public schools. Too many mandates that make no sense and inhibit rather than enhance the quality of education. By the way as per the comment earlier – US spends more than any other nation for education and is ranks 36th in performance.
…your state and federal representatives! If you are so passionate about this issue, I would think you would be spending a lot of time writing to those who have the power to repeal those laws which you deem unnecessary or even harmful. I doubt that spouting off on an online news website comment thread is going to go very far in furthering your cause of eliminating mainstreaming in the public schools. Have you written to your representatives about your concerns yet?
We have been reaching out to just about every county, and state representative for about 3 years now. The only one that ever shared with us they attempted to take on this issue was Senator Wayne Norman. He actually sent a letter to Nancy Reynolds, HCPS BOE President, and as far as we know he could not even get a response.
Amy…just to let you know, my previous comment was directed at “The Money Tree”.
I hope everything works out for you and your son. Best wishes!
The whole “use your real name” makes no sense, especially on the internet.
How would you really know who’s name is “real”?
If you think its ” hiding ” or not, if I used my “real” name about zero f$cks would be given. I’m not a Fortune 500 company executive, politician, et all, I’m just a nobody loser like the rest of you.
posting lol’s real name….. lolisapoophead
I was at the meeting and I have to agree, the BOE were completely disengaged when SECAC presented. Maybe it was coincidental that there were technical problems which undermined the presentation, but I’m not so sure it was. I actually thought some of the board members were falling asleep! This was also disrespectful towards Dr Susan Austin who contributed along with SECAC. The message was clear: Special Education is not valued. I think HCPS would secretly love to close the doors on special Ed and forget it even exists. Hmm….I just remembered that’s what happened at Hickory! Not HCPS’s finest moment!
Aite, who was the jokester playing dog bark YouTube clips on their Smart Phone? Hilarious!
Hopefully the board members were not apathetic, just tired by the time SECAC presented. That is very unfortunate and I hope that SECAC members and parents can speak at future board meetings during public comments. And do not feel like g&t is going well. The county is not meeting their needs either and is ignoring the state requirements. I’m not so sure bragging about intramurals really addressed how HCPS is meeting the needs of its gifted kids either. Special education students deserve to have their needs heard too.
Local government run public school systems are fhuk’d for LIFE. You can write all you want, elect all you want, nothing will change.
Its all a big petty dysfunctional organization.
If you’re an employee, my suggestion is dig in deep and ride the gravy train as long as possible to get that nice state pension and health care. OHHHH YEAHHH
“watchingharcospiraldown” Thank you for that pitty party about your friend who was doing the “happy dance” saying “I got a teacher job” and then realized later in life at the expense of EVERYTHING.
I made $190,635 last year after taxes, health insurance and my investments.
I have no debt, own an old vehicle, live in a small house and will be retiring before I’m 45 years old in South Carolina. Have you checked the price of real estate? Literally mind blown. You can buy 10 acres and a 1700 square foot rancher for the price of a stick built cooke cutter with 1/8 acre lot here in Maryland.
I had a career choice to make young, and it’s worked out great. I knew what the potential earning could be if I busted my ass.
I’m going to purchase two Corvettes the day my drivers license changes to a South Carolina one, at the same time.
You can’t afford it if you can’t write a check.
You didn’t answer my question from the last time you felt the need to brag about your income when ridiculing a teacher. Aside from your self-fellating (which I admit that on a level, I understand you certainly need to do this since most normal human beings gag violently when having to come anywhere near such a ginormous a-hole IRL – so I do get that when you aren’t at work you are sad and lonely and you need to pass the time), I fail to see the purpose of your post.
Teachers need to be paid and respected. I need a teacher for my kids because I don’t have the skills, patience and ability to do this task to the level of success that Harford county’s teachers have accomplished. The fact that our teachers find reward in their work and are willing to do so at a rate below $190k/year is a bonus but when they say they aren’t making enough to make ends meet and that they receive implied promises those are real issues that we as the community that employs them need to take notice of and ensure be addressed.
You are welcome to go down to SC because no self-respecting teacher will want to deal with your spawn (I assume you’ll be bringing your cousin/sister with you so that you fit in with the locals) so enjoy what you get for your new community and the quality of teachers you’ll have there.
Is it surprising that nothing I typed is true and that I wanted to see someone with the likes of you reply?
You fail to see the point of my post because you were the point.
I didn’t answer you because I never went back to it.
Please, type another long reply “forest hill resident” telling me how I’m low life trash. Don’t forget the cousin/sister joke too.