Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District Office of Education board of trustees on Wednesday directed staff to work on reviving a Special Education Local Plan Area, and figure out the process of forming a corresponding Community Advisory Committee.

Special education teacher Terry Goodall, vice president of the Special Educators of Amador County (SEAC), urged trustees to work with the various teachers’ groups to find a solution to the School District’s special education woes. Goodall said the media quoted her as saying the Special Education system is “broken,” but it missed the point, which is: “How do we fix it? How do we move forward?”

Goodall said Superintendent of Schools Dick Glock told her to “just keep doing what you’re doing,” but “we’re divided in SEAC” and the Office of Education, and Amador County Teachers Association. Goodall said “I believe people should be able to talk and to hear with their hearts and minds.” She said “I saw a board member effectively silence a parent” at a previous meeting, which she said was wrong.

“I said it was broken,” Goodall repeated, “but the real point is how do we fix it. I said we, and I said fix… We need to focus on the future,” to “show respect to others.” She asked: Do we “really want to focus on what is right and what is wrong?” She told trustees to “ask yourself: What will help our students?”

Theresa Hawk, executive director of Special Education, said Amador County’s Office of Education board, SELPA and the School Board are nearly unique in the state, in that they all are made up of the same board. She said only San Francisco is the same in California.

Hawk said a Special Education Learning Plan Area (SELPA) was last written in Amador County in 2007, along with Community Advisory Committee bylaws. She wished to reactivate and rewrite it, and she looked “to the board for direction on how to do this.”

Trustee Pat Miller recommended they consider allowing one school board member to sit on the Advisory Committee, because the 2007 bylaws did delineate that possibility. Hawk said they could activate the committee then have a simple majority of the Committee vote to establish its makeup. Trustee Lynette Lipp said she would rather the School Board establish that, so the Committee could not go against the Board’s wish for inclusion.

Glock said that could be done, and the Board could also interview applicants for the Committee. He said the Board could add more people to the Committee than the bylaws recommend. Board President, Trustee Wally Upper said “we’ll figure out the process and when the smoke clears, we will have a board member on the Committee.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.