Vallejo school board receives report on special education program

A consultant hired to audit the Vallejo school district’s special education program had a stern message for the school board Wednesday night.

“The time of not paying attention no longer can exist,” said William Gillaspie with the Roseville-based Educational Strategic Planning.

Retained by the board in September to complete an audit of the district’s special education program, Gillaspie found disarray.

“The recently hired director has inherited a department that has lacked leadership and experienced a teacher shortage as the root causes of systemic problems that have led to inconsistency, disorganization, and confusion over lack of policies, procedures, and a lack of direction to school sites,” Gillaspie wrote in the report’s executive summary.

Gillaspie said this has caused to over identify 91 students needing special educational services, which cost the district about $1.34 million.

He also noted the disorganization has caused the district to overidentify how many students require specialized transportation.

The transportation budget increased from $2.5 million in 2016 to $3.4 million during the current year, the report states.

Gillaspie said 30 percent of the students in the Vallejo City Unified School District’s special education program receive specialized transportation – which is significantly above the state average of about 10 percent.

Twenty-five of the district’s 29 drivers work for the special education program, he added.

Gillaspie noted state and federal funding covers about 40 percent of special education budgets around California, with districts forced to pay the rest from their general fund.

Having policy, procedures to identify which students truly need the services would help the district in the long run, Gillaspie explained.

He also highlighted the statewide graduation rate for special education students, which is about 60 percent.

Trustee Bob Lawson spoke about the problem of not having special education students exit the program. He said there is usually not a set of expected outcomes for students in the program.

Calling the report the “most clarity that I’ve seen” on the district’s special education program, Trustee Ubalde expressed shock over the results.

“How come we didn’t know that?” Ubalde asked regarding the 91 students overidentifed for the program. “It blows my mind.”

He also asked a why staff members were not communicating with each other, which is another issue mentioned in the 75-page report.

Ubalde remarked that the lack of training for staff in the program is a reason why the district gets sued.

“We’re not prepared to handle this awesome responsibility,” he added.

Ubalde asked if the district will be able to turn the program around.

Gillaspie confirmed the district can. He praised VCUSD Superintendent Adam Clark, and the program’s new director Rachel Chang,

“I’m optimistic, I’m encouraged, that things are going to really improve,” Gillaspie, who said his report can be used by the district to help rebuild the program. “You’ve got the road map, you’ve got the staff, you got a lot of great teachers, a lot of great people in the district doing a lot of really great things.

“They need direction, they need leadership, and they need to be held accountable,” he added.

Contact John Glidden at (707) 553-6832.