Deerfield District 109 begins special education meetings

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Updated: February 2, 2012 4:10PM

About 40 parents gathered Wednesday at Shepard Middle School in Deerfield to hear how special education is being handled in School District 109.

Administrators asked parents of special education students at Kipling and Walton elementary schools to attend Wednesday’s session, and those with children at South Park and Wilmot to attend a meeting Monday, Jan. 30.

“While other parents and community members may attend, these meetings are building specific and designed specifically to facilitate discussion between the district and parents of students who are receiving special education services,” said a letter written by Catherine Kedjidjian, the district’s coordinator of communications, and sent to the parents.

“Due to each child’s right to privacy, we will not discuss individual children at this meeting,” the letter stressed.

Several administrators gave an overview of how special education is decided and delivered using a PowerPoint presentation. They stated that special education is regulated by state law.

Paul Oswiak, assistant superintendent of learning, refused to provide a copy of the PowerPoint presentation that was shown, saying that she would make it available only to the parents and after the last special education meeting scheduled, which is Feb. 13.

Then, the audience broke up into small groups to provide “general feedback,” as stated in the letter, about what was working, what wasn’t and how it could be improved.

But when a Deerfield Review reporter tried to join one of the groups to hear the feedback, Jenell Mroz, the district’s director of student services, said the reporter’s presence in the group would be disruptive and asked her to leave.

The implementation of special education services is one of the sticking points in the controversy between the Deerfield Education Association, the district’s teachers union, and the School Board.

The teachers want input into special education delivery, but the board has said that should be a management decision.

The teachers’ contract expired at the end of August. Negotiations have been ongoing, with the next session slated for Jan. 31.