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Several special education teachers and parents of special education students approached the Ohio County Board of Education this past week with their concerns over moving the county's alternative school to a space at Wheeling Park High School that would be shared with the special education program.
Something else that came out of that meeting was equally concerning -- that the board members apparently didn't realize how that move would negatively impact those students.
"The awareness has been raised," board president David Croft said during that last meeting. "At least from my perspective, I was unaware of how the impact would be on various students."
That begs a simple question: Why weren't board members made aware of these concerns until now, and how did it become the responsibility of teachers and parents to be the ones to inform them?
The board of education is the ultimate decision-maker for a school district, but those decisions need to be made with a full understanding of the effects and the consequences. That's up to the central office administration to provide that complete catalog of information.
Was that done?
It sounds like there's some credence to the parents' accusations that the move came without a full vetting.
"My question is why are our special education students paying the price for your lack of foresight?" parent Charles Fithen asked. "Our kids are losing time and access to the vital spaces and to their own dedicated area. Routines and layouts have been disrupted just to accommodate (the alternative school)."
The school district needs to provide a proper education for its alternative students. The current facility, the Triadelphia Middle School annex, has no heat -- and it's getting colder. They need a place to learn where they won't freeze, and there was space available at Wheeling Park High School.
Yet these are students who, by the nature of how they're currently educated, are too disruptive in a conventional classroom environment. Yet the county's solution is to house them in the same area as some of the district's most vulnerable students?
It appears to be a decision made in haste, and haste can lead to mistakes. It also sounds like a decision made without the input of those educators and parents involved in the special education program. And while not every decision the administration makes needs to be vetted by those groups, this one probably should have been.
Croft called for an agenda item at a future meeting where there can be an "open discussion" about the proposed move before anything permanent is done. In that discussion, district administrators need to explain to the board -- and special education teachers and parents -- how they came to this solution and provide the evidence as to why it was the best one.
As Croft said, in situations such as this, it's necessary to measure twice and cut once.
Make a mistake with this decision, and there won't be enough tape and glue to fix it.