What is Paul Vallas doing to Bridgeport’s Special Education Students?

Aug 21

jonpeltoBridgeport, Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas Bridgeport, Budget cuts, Education Reform, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas 28 Comments

When Bridgeport’s City Council approved this year’s $511.1 million city budget, it included a core school budget of $215.8 million. That is the same amount that was budgeted last year.

Last year’s school budget was balanced, in part, from a series of budget cuts proposed by Paul Vallas, Bridgeport’s $229,000, part-time, interim superintendent of schools, and approved by Bridgeport’s illegal board of education. The final gap was covered by a $3.5 million dollar forgivable loan from the State of Connecticut.

A budget is a type of a law. It is a blueprint of how the public’s money will be spent.

Although this year’s school budget is for the same amount as last year’s, some spending categories have been increased and others have been decreased.

To date, the focus has been on Vallas’ claim that he “cut” one-third of the school system’s “central office” costs, although considering he’s brought in a cadre of high-priced consultants, signed numerous no-bid contracts for new products and software systems, and pushed costs down to the school level, it is not clear whether he really has or has not cut out a third of the central operation.

But there is something that is very clear about the new budget;

Paul Vallas proposed, and the members of the illegal Board of Education adopted, a budget which includes an incredible, shocking and unprecedented attack on Bridgeport’s special education programs.

That cut was included in Mayor Bill Finch’s budget and approved by Bridgeport’s City Council.

Bridgeport’s new city budget eliminates 90 percent of the money needed to pay the tuition costs for the placement of special education students in what has been determined as the most appropriate environment for these children.

Last year, Bridgeport spent $39.8 million on costs associated with educating and supporting its special education students.

This year, Bridgeport’s approved school budget reduces that number to $18.9 million

That is a cut of $14 million dollars, and almost all of it comes from ending the placement of special education students who need services beyond what the school system can provide.

Vallas and the board cut the funds appropriated for out-of-district tuition and support services from $15.0 million to $1.4 million (see this year’s budget – link below).

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other federal and Connecticut laws, students who face special challenges must be provided educational opportunities that maximize their potential and provide them with an education in the least restrictive, and most appropriate, environment.

As parents of students with special needs know, the school system develops an Individualized Education Program (called an IEP) that is designed to address each individual child’s needs. In some cases, that includes taking specific students out of a traditional school setting and enrolling them in special schools or programs.

The Vallas budget removes the money to send these children to the special schools and programs that they need and deserve.

In a truly stunning defense of his approach, Vallas wrote in a July 2012, District Financial update, “…the district has continued to find itself in precarious financial condition largely as a result of…burdensome contracts with external vendors which disproportionately allocated 10% of the entire budget to just 1.5% of our students, unfairly shortchanging the majority of our students and their teachers.”

Publicly pitting Bridgeport’s special education students against “the majority of our students and their teachers” is reprehensible.

Worse, instead of recommending a thoughtful effort to review and revise individualized education plans to see if less expensive options exist, Vallas simply ends tuition payments completely for these students.

And at the same time, the school budget reflects NO meaningful and corresponding increase in the number of special education teachers and professionals that would be needed if Bridgeport shifted all those special education students back into city’s traditional schools.

Not only is the plan Vallas has proposed and the illegal Board of Education adopted immoral, but, in speaking with special education experts, the move would almost certainly be ruled illegal. IEPs for every child would have needed to take place and be changed to achieve the budget savings; students would have had to have all been moved as of July 1, 2012.

Furthermore, the underlying problem with the budget that Vallas proposed and Mayor Finch signed, is that if Bridgeport’s special education students are not pulled out of their specialized programs, Bridgeport’s taxpayers are facing a $14 million deficit in their school budget.

An alternative scenario is that Team Vallas knew perfectly well that they couldn’t cut 90% of the special education funds for out-of-district placement, but wrote that “savings” into the budget in order to make it look like the budget was balanced.

Either situation is more than bad.

As noted, pitting special education students against the rest of the budget and proposing to remove students from their educational settings, a move that is probably illegal, is definitely not the answer to Bridgeport’s challenges.

But to knowingly adopt a budget that is $14 million out of balance is also bad news, especially for the taxpayers of Bridgeport who will have to pick up the costs associated with this type of fiscal irresponsibility.

If you run into anyone on Team Vallas, you might want to ask them, what are they doing to Bridgeport’s Special Education students?

If you run into a member of Bridgeport’s illegal Board of Education, you might want to ask them, why did they vote for a budget that is so off and so off track.

A copy of Bridgeport’s approved budget can be found here: http://www.bridgeportct.gov/OfficeofPolicyMgmt/Documents/2013%20Adopted/BOE%20all%202013.pdf

Vallas addresses the special education issue in his District Financial Update which can be found here: http://www.bridgeportedu.com/docs/HomePage/2012-2013/BPSDistrictFinancialUpdate.pdf

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Linda174

For each student who is placed out of the district or in an alternate program or class within the district, each school is required to hold a PPT, for each one of these students, to make a decision as a team whether this student’s current IEP is or was appropriate. If the placement or program is to change, all attending the PPT are responsible for making this decision and for creating a new IEP for the upcoming school year and for the new school, building, program, classrooms etc. Therefore, every single special education student whose placement is changing for this school year should have PPT meeting minutes and a new IEP addressing the disability and new program in place for this year.

If not, the return back to the public school/ regular ed. setting is illegal.

See this site (Office of Civil Rights) to seek guidance and file a complaint: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/office/about/rgn-hqaddresses.html

Region I – Boston (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Peter Chan, Regional Manager
Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Government Center
J.F. Kennedy Federal Building – Room 1875
Boston, MA 02203
Voice phone(617)565-1340
FAX (617)565-3809
TDD (617)565-1343
- jonpelto
  
  So Team Vallas knows they can’t pull that off – but the alternative arguement is also disturbing – did they know there was a huge deficit and decided to hide it by cutting special ed and then blaming the special ed students for the deficit?
  He has repeatedly said he balanced the budget but this situation proves he didn’t and – worse – sets Bridgeport up for a disaster later in the fiscal year.
  They can’t possibly have thought they’d get away with it.
  
  Sent from my BlackBerry please excuss typos
  - Linda174
    
    Any sped. teacher, principal or parent should be able to view each file of each student returning to BPS. When they open the file there should be PPT minutes and an IEP agreed to by all and there should be a program and plan for each returning student. Do the parents even know their rights? Do they have an advocate? That is supposed to be the Bridgeport Public School system. Maybe they have no plan and they thought nobody would ask. Arrogance and ignorance….always a bad combination.
  - Linda174
    
    I can’t even find the name of their director for sped. Or their pupil services position. I don’t know what they call it, but their site isn’t user friendly if one is looking for those who work in central office and the duties each person performs. It looks convoluted to me.
  - tpaleo
    
    Look under Team Vallas consultant in charge of Special Services.
buygoldandprosper

Finch/Vallas should utilize the Dan Malloy method… just install a suggestion box for instant budget savings of hundreds of millions of dollars…poof! Just like that,your problem is solved and you can continue spending and passing out “forgivable loans”.
Dan Malloy and Paul Vallas.
Working together for the common good.
Castles Burning

It is hard to respond to this one. You present two extremely disturbing alternate scenarios with well-researched review of the numbers and policy statement by Vallas. My own “limited” review of the budget numbers corroborates that there is no indication of increased salary, supplies, etc. to “counter” this more than significant decrease of 14 million dollars. Indeed, there are so many questions raised here that I would hope that more than an informal, “meet on the street” discussion will be conducted to review this budget. Thank you, as always, for reviewing what is happening with education in our state. We count on you to let us know what is really happening.
Querculus

My God. It is common knowledge among Connecticut educators that major violations of IDEA can and probably will result in serious civil lawsuits.

Is there a line item in that budget for large civil damages?

Again we have an action taken by the Vallas team that appears to balance the budget for the short term with a complete failure to account for future expense and disaster.
brutus2011

To me, this further underscores what I believe to be a major problem with our education system–those in power and authority make decisions behind a wall of dis or misinformation or no information to those who are impacted by these moves.

Simply put, I believe this is abuse of power.

It is right in front of us and it is getting harder to deny “our lyin’ eyes.”
anonymousies

http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2626&q=320712

I hope there won’t be a huge amount of Bridgeport due process hearing decisions listed here in the future. The city just can’t afford.
- Linda174
  
  Evidently they can afford to pay Vallas and his circus plenty of money, but no money for programs for the disabled….one size fits all. Put everyone back in the mainstream, see how it goes and hit the road before you are held accountable for all the deception.
Magister

This is outrageous. I have no words.
BPTTCHR

So, you sit in Storrs and take pot shots at a superintendent who, for better or worse, is attempting to change the paradigm in a corrupt system that has traditionally promoted based on demographic factors than on ability. You neglect to describe how the University of Connecticut, in STORRS, with Dr. Michelle Femc-Bagwell of U-CONN at the helm took 3.2 million in taxpayer dollars to implement the wasteful and highly ineffectual COMMPact model in a few of the city’s schools, with no noticeable improvement. Incidentally, Paul Vallas, in spite of a good amount of advice to the contrary, has allowed the overpaid “consultants” from Storrs to keep their hold on a number of the city’s schools. Your opinions are uninformed, one-sided, and, worst of all offer no alternative solutions to the multitude of poverty-caused problems that educators are expected to correct in our six hours a day with the children of children. In short, perhaps it’s time to put up or shut up. Volunteer to tutor kids in the city’s schools, sit down with Mr. Vallas and attempt to understand the issues, and get out of STORRS before you open your big mouth and embarrass yourself further by using your bully pulpit to promote fabrications and ill-will. In short, put up or shut up.
- Guest
  
  So you seem to believe that Paul Vallas is going to alleviate the problems of poverty and the “children of children”–like he did in Chicago? Philadelphia? He has created a multi-million dollar school turnaround company, but you are suggesting that volunteer tutoring in the schools is going to help. YOU are the one who should be meeting with Vallas with this revolutionary idea.
  Does Vallas have open office hours, by the way? Would he like to sit down with Jonathan Pelto and concerned citizens and real journalists, and explain himself?
  You also seem to think that living in the same town as the University of Connecticut makes a person complicit in their research programs. I guess instead we need programs created by elite-Princeton-educated visionaries like Wendy Kopp to come and save Bridgeport Schools. Just ask Nate/Nathan Snow.
- Linda174
  
  Since you are in the know….what are the plans for all the returning sped. Students….obviously not asking to identify individual students, but obviously they are returning. Is everyone prepared? Programs, materials, aides, supports, are all set up and ready to receive these severely disabled students? And all of this can happen with less money? Are all teachers and aides aware of their needs and modifications?
  
  By the way the non-educator reformy types, like Vallas, are not big on using poverty as an excuse….brush up on your talking points if you are looking to become a part of the Vallas Team. I suspect you will find little noticeable improvement once Vallas leaves…other than the $$$$ he has raked in for his team and his crony consultants.
  
  Odd you didn’t quibble about the factual budget information posted above….hmmmm?
- Another BPTTCHR
  
  BPTTCHR:
  
  Stop outside and look into the dumpsters outside of any Bridgeport school and check out all the practically new reading and math books and teacher manuals that are being thrown out. At least my Bridgeport school’s dumpster was filled to the brim yesterday.
  
  And concerning Commpact:
  
  Student achievement rises ~
  ..Scores on the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) have risen by in the double digits at Barnum Elementary School and Longfellow Elementary School in Bridgeport—Barnum students’ math scores rose by 59 percent last year alone.
  ..More than 85 percent of the students at Washington Elementary School in Waterbury reached proficiency level on the latest CMT.
  
  Suspensions decline~
  At West Side Middle School, out-of-school suspensions declined by 12 percent and in-school suspensions by 18 percent between the 2008-09 school year and the 2009-10 school year.
  
  http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/110412-connecticut.pdf
  
  Do you have any documentation and or numbers that support your assertion that the program is ‘wasteful and highly ineffectual’? If so, please supply.
  - Linda174
    
    Isn’t throwing out new reading and math books wasteful?
    You contradict your own points. I am confused.
  - msavage
    
    I think the textbook comment is a different person–identifies him/herself as “Another BPTTCHR.”
  - Another BPTTCHR
    
    They’ve probably already been collected and sent to the dump. Vallas should have done something weeks ago. What a shame – Haitian students would have really benefited.
  - Castles Burning
    
    Can you do anything to prevent the loss of these textbooks?
  - msavage
    
    This just supports what I said above. Someone like Vallas–who apparently has no conscience and only focuses on making more money for himself and his cronies–also doesn’t care about waste of resources. What does he care about a dumpster full of perfectly good textbooks that’ll end up in a dump or an ash landfill somewhere? He NEEDS to order those new books so that his textbook-company-owning cronies can make some more money! That’s all that matters!
- melanie savage
  
  Yep, plenty of corruption at UConn–agreed. Plenty of curruption statewide. Plenty of corruption nationwide. Do you expect Jon Pelto to fix all of ‘em because he happens to live in Storrs, CT, the US? But feel free to share more with us regarding the “consultants” from UConn who are profiting from Bpt. schools. I, for one, would be interested in learning more.
  Re Vallas–please take a look at his track record in New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago. Take a look at the lists of consultants he has brought in from outside CT–cronies he has used in other districts that he has squeezed dry. Then take a look at Diane Ravitch’s blog (dianeravitch.net) and read about teachers from all over the country who are dealing with similar opportunistic, capitalistic “reformers.” Take a look at these things and tell me that you still believe Vallas has the best interests of Bpt. teachers, students, parents, taxpayers in mind. This is a nationwide trend, part of a capitalistic free-for-all designed to steal as much money as possible from unsuspecting taxpayers, regardless of the harm done to others. Related to big oil companies who continue to push fossil fuels and pour millions of dollars into lobbying designed to thwart renewable energy research and development–despite the fact that there’s overwhelming scientific evidence suggesting that these actions will result in catastrophic climate change. Related to “too big to fail” banks who manipulate the market and hoard money in offshore accounts despite the fact that they KNOW they are destroying the American economy, the American middle class. Related to corporations like WalMart that foster the manufacture of cheap goods overseas despite the fact that they KNOW they are putting smaller shopkeepers at home out of business. They KNOW that those workers overseas are being underpaid and mistreated. Related to companies like Monsanto that push the use of genetically-modified seeds in India despite the fact that they KNOW they’re contributing to farmers’ suicides. Related to a U.S military that, instead of addressing the real issues behind a shocking rise in suicide rates among U.S. soldiers (13024-military-developing-anti-suicide-nasal-spray-as-deaths-hit-record-numbers)–instead of admitting to it’s own contributions to this tragic phenomenon, invests millions of dollars into a nasal-spray panacea. They’re all related. It’s opportunistic, sociopathic, greedy jerks without a conscience gaining control in every sector–corporations, military, government, academia, public schools, public prisons, agriculture. Paul Vallas is just a part of this overall trend. And decent people need to start fighting this trend before there’s nothing left to fight for. Starting at home, in CT. With Paul Vallas and Adamowski. Or with whatever other opportunistic, sociopathic jerk you choose to take on. Take your pick. There’s no shortage.
- Another BPTTCHR
  
  BPTTCHR ~
  I’m not even sure you work in Bridgeport. If you do, I’m sure you know the name of the 2012 Bridgeport Teacher of the Year – it’s general information.
  I’ll wait.
  - Another BPTTCHR
    
    Just a simple question here, BPTTCHR. Who is our 2012 Teacher of the Year? Consider this a deliverable.
- Linda174
  
  Maybe this is the woman who works on labor issues and flits from state to state and then takes “vacations”. Cozette ??? I forget the last name. Maybe?
  - Another BPTTCHR
    
    Any Bridgeport teacher would know this information. Whatever the case, he/she hits and runs.
    
    On the plus side, I do like the use of the word ‘paradigm’.
    
    On the negative, he/she doesn’t support or confirm anything.
    
    Linda, I believe it’s a troll, and any more posts that don’t answer these questions will force me to write my grandmother’s recipe for Indian Pudding.
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Guest

Why didn’t Vallas ship all those Bridgeport books to Haiti? Doesn’t he still do work with their schools?

Wait, What?