What a shame that the teachers union, that just endorsed the incumbents for re-election, would now have to endure their teachers aids being cut this year. This week, the meeting and budget called for more cuts! Last year they cut text books, sports, teachers, and aides. They even closed down the independent school for those that needed more individualized schooling at the Phoenix. It is apparent that these school board members are very right wing Republicans. We say this because they give to the rich while taking from the poor...
Look at the pay and number of top heavy administration that continues to take its raises in VVSd. They just hired two people to do Faith Dalhquists job, so they needed to cut somewhere. They decided to cut from the people that needed it the most. The people who make barely minimum wage and from the students that have disabilities, or those that need assistance.
When will this stop? When will people on the board place the best interest of the children first?
Our recommendation is to send your kid to private school if they are not the smartest kid in town. If they have disabilities or special issues, this is not the school district for them. Matter of fact, Bonnie wanted to give her imput in this situation as the closer...
"A few years ago I was running in circles with VVSD. My son was diagnosed with minor special needs and the school fought tooth and nail to not offer him assistance. All he needed was a teachers aid to help him organize. He suffers from a memory issue. He needed to be able to bring his homework home, take supplies to class, and write down when tests and assignments were due. I was told that they did not have enough people to offer him any help. The teachers could not be burdened with helping either, since they were already overworked. Since he was not failing, like so many others, I was told that he was not a priority. I was told 4 years ago that only so many kids in each school could be labeled with a disability and since their school would not label him, although top Psychologists already did, he would receive NO assistance. You see a disability to the Valley View School District is one that can be monitored by grades on his ISAT. As long as he passed that, he had NO disability.
I had to email the teachers daily, check his locker weekly, and buy a spare set of textbooks for the home every year. Even helping him out so much, and re-teaching him his lessons at home daily, I was still only able to help him pull C's and D's because the homework never got from his folder to the teachers desks, or even home for me to help.
One day the dean told me to let go and let him do for himself. Let him step up to bat, and who cares if he has a disability. This caused him to plummet to failing every subject for four straight quarters his eight grade year while I had to sit by and watch this happen. Finally, I saw the board was cutting again and again from those with disabilities, and I pulled my son out of the school.
This school system failed my son, and thousands of others each year. It is a disgrace that they cut from the bottom, leaving more and more kids in a bad situation each year. "
I have to wonder when we will start turning to mainstream home schooling. Things were bad enough in the public schools before the recession. Now they're only getting worse.
ReplyDeleteDid you file for a Due Process Hearing with the ISBE whey your son was denied services based on a disability?
ReplyDeleteYes, the excuse was that by offering him textbooks for home, this was the only assistance they could offer. They were suppose to have him write down assignments in the special book I bought him during class, but never enforced it or helped him.
ReplyDeleteThey allowed him to see the school social worker since it impacted his treatment from fellow students. However, he was tested twice by the school system for disabilities and determined that half F's and half A's(which was a part of his memory/twice gifted issue) meant a "c" average on ISAT, thus no disability.
Top Chicago Psychologists were even involved with the group hearings and meetings and the school failed to act. They recommended me to pull my son out of this district ASAP.
Matter of fact, he went many times without lunch, because he forgot his wallet in his locker and they would not let him go get it. He failed gym for forgetting to bring his uniform from his locker to class. He sat out of after school activities for bad grades, even though the homeworkl assignments were in his bag all along. This was their way to punish a child with a disorder...
I had to hear how he had no pencil or books with him in class. A parent can only do so much, but when the school does not help when he is there, we, as parents, are helpless ... Do you know how it breaks a kids heart every day to know that they did something wrong (forgetting to turn in homework, bring it home, or have supplies) when he was coping with a problem? Lord knows he tried so hard every day... Try spending 12 years of school with teachers yelling at you everyday or giving you "f's" for it...
These are things that this child will never get over. I would never recommend VVSD to any parent whose child has ANY kind of issues.
Submitted by Bonnie
What was the decision made at the Due Process hearing?
ReplyDeleteIs your son involved in RTI?
If you are not happy with your son's IEP, I suggest that you familiarize yourselves with your rights as a parent. ISBE has procedures in place and it is the responsibility of the parent to follow them if they believe that their child's rights have been violated.
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/spec-ed/pdfs/parent_guide_english_pf.pdf
Whoa! As always - 'to each their own' and I understand that some have had a rough time in Valley View with their Special Needs children - BUT - I am one parent who, BECAUSE of Valley View teachers and aides (in spite of little money and State hoops to jump through) have helped my Autistic daughter flourish and become a very well known and very social child. We have met nothing but GREAT people in Valley View. I'm always amazed that year after year our IEP teams are fantastic. We have transitioned through to Jr High and look forward to High School. So, don't through the baby out with the bathwater - lets try and HELP the kids that ARE here and aren't getting what they need.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to remember that Phoenix is NOT closed. It was relocated from Brooks Middle School to Bolingbrook High School.
ReplyDeleteIt's also not a school for Special Needs students but it is the Alternative school. Most of the students that attend Phoenix have behavior problems that are not related to a disability.
Hang on please, Right Wing Republicans? absolutely not. These individuals are Left Wing Socialists. Let me remind you that the only difference between Fascists and Communists is that Fascists are Honest about what they do.
ReplyDeleteRemember the school board members see honesty as for the most part less profitable than dishonesty