WESTFIELD – At Monday’s School Committee meeting, human services director Paula Ceglowski asked the committee to approve a job description for the new position of “special services program supervisor.” The new position will replace the current “special education supervisor” positions in the schools.
Paula Ceglowski is Westfield Schools Director of Human Resources (WNG file photo)
Ceglowski explained to the School Committee that after one year on the job as administrator of special services, Dr. Adam Garand is noticing that in order to move the district forward, he needs a different type of supervisor, one who can design, evaluate and provide oversight of programs.
“Dr. Garand has a lot of great ideas. He needs people to monitor,” Ceglowski said. She said the new supervisors will also be looking at new programs.
“Rather than a school owning a supervisor, they will be all over the district. They will be tied to programs,” added Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski.
One of the main differences is the new special services program supervisors will analyze the programs that are necessary for more inclusive practices. Right now, the special education supervisors are maintaining current programs, Ceglowski said in a conversation following the meeting in which Garand also participated. The three special services program supervisors will be housed in the Central Office, and look at the programs throughout the district, and the effectiveness of the programs.
Special education programs in Westfield Public Schools include the Developmental Learning Program (DLP), which serves students with severe disabilities, Special Life Skills program, for students with significant learning difficulties, and CLEAR for students with a high level of autism.
RISE serves students with social/emotional /behavioral needs, and TIP (Therapeutic Intervention Program) is for students with emotional disabilities.
Student Support offers practices, resources and the training needed for students with mild learning disabilities, and QUEST is for students with high functioning autism.
Garand explained that all of the programs except for Quest and Student Support require a high level of service, and are not inclusive. The new configuration will allow much more access to student classrooms, he said.
“The district goal is to redesign separate programs, to allow more time in regular classrooms and with peers. Inclusion is a major goal of the district,” Garand said.
WPS’ Administrator of Special Services Dr. Adam Garand (left) with School Committee member Bill Duval. (WNG file photo)
Currently there are six special education supervisors in the schools, and one program supervisor. These positions are being eliminated and replaced with three of the new special services program supervisors and four “education team leaders” (ETL), teachers without teaching assignments who will work with initial or revaluations of Individualized Education Plans (IEP).
“My concern is what happens to the other positions?” asked School Committee vice chair Cynthia Sullivan at the meeting.
Ceglowski said after bargaining with the Unit B union (vice principals, directors and supervisors), the union said the changes in the positions were significant enough that the district would have to post the positions.
“By approval of this job description, you’re authorizing the superintendent to post or not post,” Ceglowski responded.
“Because we created a new position, we bargained in good faith. We informed all special education supervisors that we eliminated the position for next year. Personnel were eligible to apply for the new supervisor position, or to ETL, or to revert back to a teaching position,” Ceglowski explained after the meeting. She said if they had professional status before taking on the administrative positions, their contracts allow them to go back to the teaching union, which three of the supervisors already did this past Monday.
Ceglowski said the new positions haven’t been filled, but the district is projecting lower costs overall, because they are going from seven UNIT B supervisors to three, and adding four UNIT A (teachers union) ETLs.
“Cynthia Sullivan in the School Committee meeting wanted to make clear that the district is not eliminating special education supervision, but Adam believes this will be a better model for delivery of services,” Ceglowski said.
Garand said that following the School Committee meeting on Monday, he did meet with the Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) leaders, and explained the changes to them.
“On the overarching idea, we are like minded. We want to see outcomes and services improve for our students with disabilities,” Garand said.
