Tension High as WJCC Board Denies Stimulus Spending Plan for Special Ed.

By Amber Lester Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Williamsburg-James City County School Board faced a quandary at its Tuesday meeting: should it approve a stimulus spending plan presented by the administration, but heavily criticized by an advisory board?

The board voted down two motions to approve a spending plan for $1.3 million in special education stimulus funds. The proposal presented Tuesday was the second to be dismissed by the board; a first proposal was not approved at a July meeting. In both cases, members of the Special Education Advisory Committee criticized the proposal. Two board members, Joe Fuentes and John Alewynse, were absent.

The crux of the argument was whether stimulus monies should be spent on recurring costs, such as the addition of staff positions that will only be funded for one year. Some SEAC members and concerned citizens also suggested some of the spending outlined in the proposal was illegal.

The tone of the meeting was set during the citizen comment period when new SEAC chair Beth Haw said she was disappointed to see the proposal that appeared on the meeting agenda. On Aug. 8, SEAC met with several members of the administration, including Executive Director of Student Services Stephen Chantry and Acting Superintendent Scott Burckbuchler, to discuss possible changes to the proposal. Haw characterized that meeting as insightful, but was surprised to see that only one of the suggestions made in that meeting was added to the proposal; otherwise, the draft was the same presented in July.

SEAC was concerned that many of the planned expenditures, especially to add several staff positions, were unsustainable and would not result in improved performance for students with disabilities. Haw added that some of the money was earmarked to benefit both special ed students and general education students, which she said was not allowed.

In his presentation, Chantry said he was surprised to learn that SEAC was not supporting the proposal, especially since previous chair Brenda Lee signed off on the proposal earlier this year before resigning her position.

He said some of SEAC’s proposals, such as establishing a disability awareness program, could not be researched and prepared in time to meet the Tuesday meeting deadline. The proposal does not allocate approximately $200,000-$250,000 at this time, however, and he said the money could still be used for that program or another purpose.

He added that the school division does not have a disproportionate amount of special ed to general ed students, and because of that, it is not illegal to use up to half of the money for initiatives that benefit the entire student body.

“To hear the public comment from people that were at the meeting tonight kind of alarms me and I didn’t hear anything about this until today,” he said. “I would have appreciated a phone call after people had time to think about it.”

Across the board, members said they were disappointed to see the ongoing tension between the administration, SEAC and other concerned parents. Member Ruth Larson said the groups did not have a healthy relationship. In response, Burckbuchler said stimulus spending is a catch-22: it’s aimed at creating or saving jobs, but without “going off a funding cliff.”

What followed was an unprecedented chance for citizens to rebut some of Chantry’s claims, and like a debate, Chantry was also given another chance to speak. Haw said it was frustrating the SEAC members have to defend themselves, and Chantry said the same thing.

“I’m really getting dismayed by this,” Chantry said. “I’ve been doing this for 33 years and I will not have someone question my professionalism or what’s legal and what’s not … I urge you to approve this so we can go on. We cannot delay this. This should have been approved months ago and we have many things to do.”

The board briefly considered a motion to allow the staffing from last year to carry over to this year while the administration had a chance to revisit the proposal, but it became clear that would include nearly all the staff positions that were the center of the debate.

Ultimately, that motion failed and the board directed the administration to meet once more with SEAC before its Sept. 7 meeting. The board also appointed member Jim Kelly to serve as a liaison to SEAC.

While there is no set deadline to determine the allocation of the stimulus funds, the delay will hold up staffing decisions and could delay the purchase of equipment or implementation of programs. To see the proposal that was not adopted, click here.