Members of the District 200 Board:
As president of the African-American Parents for Purposeful Leadership in Education (APPLE), I am compelled to address this serious situation.
There is a crisis in this country regarding the future of African-American males. A high percentage are either unemployed or in prison. The situation is no better at Oak Park and River Forest High School. Almost 50 percent of the males in the freshman class receive some kind of suspension from the discipline system and the figure is increasing for African-American females. Little progress has been made in the last decade at OPRF in reducing the achievement gap between African-American and white students.
Yet an African-American staff member has been terminated almost every year. APPLE is a strong proponent of professionalism, high academic standards, and quality education. However, we see little action taken when there is incompetence by non-minority administrative staff.
Presently, OPRF is terminating the contract of the assistant superintendent for pupil support services while it has renewed the contract for the director of special education. There have been numerous serious problems with the present director. Under her tenure, there have been many complaints by parents to other members of the administration, to the board of education, to the Illinois State Board of Education and to the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Special Education Programs.
In the spring of 2005, OPRF received written and verbal testimony from 10 former employees, honors graduates, and former TEAM students regarding the mistreatment of cognitively disabled TEAM students. The special ed director received all these statements and yet approved the promotion in October, 2005, of the individual with the most complaints. Promoting this individual was a clear example of how this director does not hold staff accountable and an example of how this director does not place importance on how the vulnerable, cognitively-disabled students are treated.
She has received two rulings against her from the Illinois State Board of Education this school year for inadequately staffing a TEAM reading class.
This week, the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs ruled that the letter the director has been sending to parents is not legal. The letter concerns the right of special ed parents to have a regular ed teacher present at their student’s IEP. OSEP contacted the Illinois State Board of Education and ISBE contacted OPRF this week stopping the director’s actions.
Another parent recently tried to follow up with a commitment the special ed director made at the January parent forum. The parents at that forum can attest that the director stated she would list on the school’s website the accommodations that are provided to students with disabilities. The director is now claiming to have no memory of making that important commitment.
APPLE parents fail to understand how an assistant superintendent can be terminated while this director’s contract is renewed again. We do not believe the achievement gap can be addressed at OPRF when this lack of professionalism is allowed to continue. The director is responsible for the IEPs of approximately 600 students. Such heavy responsibility must be carried by an individual with high standards of integrity and competence.
It is hypocritical and unjust to terminate the contract of the African-American assistant superintendent while renewing the special ed director’s contract. The African-American community will not tolerate the double standard that is employed at OPRF. The African-American administrator cannot be the “fall guy” for a special education department that is rife with problems. Responsibility must be shared by the non-minority administrator who consistently makes so many errors of judgment.
