Public reacts to SAD 45’s special ed audit
WASHBURN, Maine — Recent complaints to the Maine Department of Education regarding SAD 45’s day treatment program brought to light many errors after a district-wide audit.
SAD 45’s school board met at Washburn Elementary last Tuesday to discuss the audit with the public, along with guest speaker Barbara Pineau, special education director for the state.
“The school went through a regular Department of Education review for their special education self-contained program. They came away with a corrective action plan, which is normal. Training will be provided to help them remain in compliance based on the findings of the corrective action plan. And the results of that training will be reported back to the Department of Education,” said Pineau.
“Every school district in the state of Maine goes through it. Even when the legislature doesn’t change, there are changes proposed to the special education regulations as we speak; they get changed every year,” Pineau added.
Pineau reassured board members and attendees of the meeting that next year SAD 45 will start over fresh with a six-year cycle before their next audit. What they’re missing now is someone at the helm to represent and document special education matters alongside the already placed licensed clinical social worker, to close the gap between the medical model and the special education model.
Residents, including parent Tim Stitham, used the Jan. 13 board meeting as a platform to voice their concerns about SAD 45’s day treatment program and question whether or not special ed students should be mixed with students who aren’t part of the special ed program?
“A child that’s in the [special ed program] that’s disrupting the classroom remains in the classroom while you drain the rest of the students that are there and ready to learn? Even though a child [in the special ed program] is having their particular moment where they need to be taken care of, we need to think of the 20 other kids that are still in the classroom,” Stitham said.
“By federal law you have to educate a child in what’s called the least restrictive environment. The least restrictive environment starts out as the general education classroom and you have to work to getting that kid back into that general education classroom as much as possible and as quickly as they’re ready. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work,” Pineau responded.
Board chair Michael McIntosh admitted to the crowd that the school board is at the mercy of state and federal regulations.
“A basic misunderstanding is a lot of people assume we have a choice. I don’t know what the ideal situation might be, but people that write the laws are telling us this is how we have to do it. Whether we have a day treatment program or not, [special education] students have the same rights,” said McIntosh.
According to SAD 45 Superintendent Edward Buckley the audit also discovered financial coding discrepancies.
“They went through all our records and found areas with coding problems and they had some questions about why we did things. We still have to hash those out,” said Buckley.
Buckley says he’s still waiting to hear back from the Department of Education to find out whether or not the coding errors created any cost to the taxpayers.
Melanie Cote, SAD 45 Elementary School principal, said she feels good about the direction the school is headed.
“I think it’s important we have someone from the state department to clarify misconceptions. I feel secure knowing we had someone come in from the Department of Education and saying that we’re doing what we need to be doing for our students which is the bottom line,” said Cote.
