By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
While the Waterford Graded School District will definitely continue offering programs to special education students, the structure of its future offerings is clouded in controversy and uncertainty.
About a dozen residents attended a WGSD Board meeting Oct. 22 to express concern about a Sept. 19 letter that gave preliminary notice of Waterford Graded’s intent to leave the Co-op in 2014.
The speakers asked that Waterford Graded remain in the existing Waterford Special Education Cooperative program, which speakers deemed to be successful.
But Waterford Graded board members attempted to deflect the frustration onto the board for Waterford Union High School, the district that employs licensed staff in the Co-op.
WGSD, which pays 54 percent of the Co-op budget, seeks a better voice in determining Co-op employee salaries and compensation packages. For months, efforts by the WGSD board to hold a closed negotiating session with the high school board about Co-op compensation costs have been frustrated, school officials explained.
But at the Oct. 22 WGSD board meeting, Carlene Chavez, the parent of a child with severe autism, expressed her own frustration with the Waterford Graded board.
“This is a highly trained staff,” Chavez said of teachers and specialists in the Co-op.
“The Waterford community has invested heavily in an exceptional needs program. Now that program is in jeopardy.”
Resident Monica Baker also has a child who benefits from services through the Co-op.
“This is a very, very important program, and I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to remain a part of the program,” she said.
School Board President Dan Jensen told the crowd that the Waterford Graded district and board take special education seriously, but also are balancing that interest with fiscal responsibility.
“Don’t think that people on this board are immune from not knowing people who don’t have kids in special education; that’s quite the contrary,” Jensen said. “This is extremely important to us. It’s one of the most highly funded programs in the district.”
While the Waterford Graded board sent the Sept. 19 letter announcing its intention to withdraw from the Co-op in 2014, Jensen maintained that no firm decisions have been made.
“We’re still waiting to have that dialogue with the high school,” Jensen said. “We want to have that dialogue.”
In recent weeks, high school officials balked at discussing Co-op issues with just Waterford Graded rather than with all Co-op school boards present.
Jim Graff, president of the Waterford Union board, said such a scenario would not be in keeping with the definition of the Co-op.
A joint open meeting has now been set for Nov. 14.
Jensen noted that Waterford Graded has a larger stake than any of the other three districts in the Waterford Co-op.
Waterford Graded shoulders 54 percent of the Co-op’s budget, yet has no say in the Co-op employee salary structure, he explained. Its board seeks a true say about the funding that WGSD taxpayers must pay, he said.
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