School board chairman: District losing good teachers over special ed issues

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Board member Larry Pate listens to board chairman Frank Hall discuss his concerns about special education in the school district.

Friday, July 11, 2014, 5 p.m. — Special education policies in the Nelson County school district may follow the letter of the law, but school board Chairman Frank Hall said he didn’t believe they are working. Halls comments came at the end of the board’s working session on Thursday.

The board spent nearly 45 minutes discussing special education and the problem of teachers trying to teach and deal with classroom disruptions.

“We’ve got staff who can no longer stand the pressures they are under on a daily basis,” Hall told the board. “They go home totally drained each day because they just can’t handle what they are having to deal with.”

Hall said parents are expressing concern about classroom disruptions, and some are even taking their children out of the district. “They’re moving them elsewhere because we seem to get bogged down with one student and the rest of the class doesn’t get the instruction they should be getting.”

FRANK HALL

Hall said the district is also losing staff because of the problem as well. “We’ve got to do something to somehow make this work,” he said. “We’ve lost some good staff members and New Haven is looking for several because of this.”

Superintendent Anthony Orr told Hall the board has already taken action to help teachers by creating a Special Needs Coordinator position designed to provide teachers more support in the classroom.

Hall said he understood the coordinator job was a coaching position. “By adding that, what did we do to support the teacher in the classroom who is bogged down with a discipline issue?”

Orr explained the position is a coaching position involves going into the classroom and working with the teacher, the student and even parents on how to improve the situation. It was something the district is already doing, with the Director of Special Education serving as coach. The new coordinator position will devote most of his or her time to this type of coaching work, Orr said.

“It’s direct coaching with the teacher and student,” Orr said. “It’s not simply meeting with principals to talk about how things can be done differently.”

ANTHONY ORR

Hall said based on feedback he’s getting it would be helpful if teachers had someone to help them in the classroom when it was needed.

Orr explained that adding staff creates its own problem. By adding staff to assist the teacher, it builds a “cocoon” around students who have extra needs or challenges. This was how special education in the district was being done up until a few years ago.

“The problem is the kids weren’t getting the accommodations and appropriate instruction they really needed,” Orr said. When special ed staffing was cut, classroom behavior issues increased because disruptive students were no longer being pulled out of the classroom as they had in the past.

The goal now is to help teachers know what strategies work in the classroom rather than remove the disruptive student.

“Those children’s behavior can get better,” Orr explained. The solution is helping the district’s teachers find effective ways to interact with the children to avoid the unwanted behavior. “It’s not just about adding more staff, its about coaching teachers and coaching kids to be in a position to learn better.”

The special needs coach will make classroom observations and create a plan that engages both the teacher and student with specific strategies, Orr said. The plan also involves working with parents so everyone has similar expectations.

“What if we have the same disruptions every day?” Hall asked. “What are we going to do then?”

Board chairman Frank Hall discusses special education with Superintendent Anthony Orr.

Orr said the new strategies have a record of success already in the district. Every time district personnel have tried the coaching strategy and gotten the participation of the adults and student, the strategies are effective, he said.

“The things we are doing with the behavior coaching are research-based,” Orr said. “If our adults will use these strategies they will make teachers’ lives easier and help students achieve more.”

Hall said that the district is still losing teaching staff who can’t handle the classroom disruptions.

For the strategies to work, the district’s teachers must be on board, Orr said. Some teachers who have left the district were not on board, he said. “If those folks leave, then I’m glad to see them go,” Orr said. “If they aren’t going to use what we know works, then we’ll find someone who can do that job better.”

Board member Diane Berry said she was getting phone calls about the issue, including one from Elizabethtown. But before she could explain the nature of the call, Orr stopped her in mid-sentence and insisted it was a discussion he and Berry need to have in private. She said the issue was a concern to her and to parents she has talked to. Orr restated his belief that the matter should be discussed privately and not at the open board meeting. Berry did not elaborate further on the phone call, but told Orr that “things need to change and I hope it does.”

Hall told Orr he felt that there had to be more done to support teachers. Orr insisted the coaching process works if given enough time, and that bringing in more staff to help in a classroom only rewards disruptive behavior. “I would be happy to take you into the classroom and see how its done,” he told Hall.

All school districts are dealing with the same issue, Orr said. Those districts are either handling it the same way Nelson County is, or they are using staff to create a “cocoon” around the student. “I know that’s not legal, and I don’t think its moral,” Orr said.

Rapier asked Orr to keep the board informed about the coaching program and its implementation. “It’s a concern and it affects our students, our employees and our parents,” he said.

Orr agreed and heaped praise on the district’s teachers. “It’s an incredibly difficult job that we ask our people to do. We owe all our gratitude to our teachers.”

“So you’re telling us you have it under control,” Hall told Orr. “I want to see the results, the proof is in the pudding.”

The problem won’t be solved immediately, Orr told the board. “But I can tell you we do make progress when people do the things we know will work.”

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