By JEFF MORRIS //
At the July 31 meeting of the Bedford Central Board of Education, the board met the new outside consulting firm that will be reviewing the district’s special education program.
Only four board members were present, but Superintendent Robert Glass said the date was chosen in order to get started because “we really want to get moving.” He said even though parents may be vacationing or paying little attention to the schools at the moment, there would be limited time available at later board meetings, with the next one not scheduled until Monday, Aug. 26, and this would give plenty of time for review of the materials.
Leaders of a team from Public Consulting Group, a Boston, Mass.-based firm founded in 1986, appeared virtually at the meeting to give an overview of the group and its detailed project plan. Mauria Uhlik, senior consultant and project director, said PCG has partnered with over 5,600 districts and 27 state agencies, and that 25% of all IEPs in the U.S. are managed in PCG systems. “We have a large breadth and depth of not only practitioner experience, but technology experience, and we’re bringing all that to the table as it relates to the project,” said Uhlik.
The study is the board’s latest response to years-long criticisms of Bedford Central’s special education program, which were exacerbated by incidents of abuse of special needs students that occurred at Fox Lane High School in the 2021-22 school year. Those resulted in an independent investigation that led to an administrative shakeup including the eventual exit of the Fox Lane principal. Though the abuse was not tied directly to the special ed department, it accelerated the demand for changes.
In September 2022, Glass had revealed that the district was looking to Arlington, Virginia- based Hanover Research to do an outside evaluation of the special education program.
“This report does nothing for us. It does not help us in any way. We already knew everything the survey showed.” – Trustee Steven Matlin
By January 2023, Glass reported that Hanover consultants were in the middle of the special education program study, and that anything that would come out of it would be built into the 2023-24 budget “if there are any associated needs there.” But when Hanover delivered a culminating report in October 2023 on its year-long look at the special education program, it received a withering reception from the board.
“This report does nothing for us,” trustee Steven Matlin said at the time. “It does not help us in any way. We already knew everything the survey showed.” Then-board president Robert Mazurek called the presentation “almost overwhelming in its lack of precision,” and said it provided no specifics on what needed to be improved. And then-trustee Kristine Stoker, a longtime critic of the special education department who had pushed for an independent evaluation of the program before joining the board, echoed the criticism, saying, “We wasted a year in my opinion.” Stoker subsequently resigned from the board in May, citing personal reasons.
Gilian Klein, who is now board president, pointed out that Glass was new to the district when he picked Hanover, with whom he had worked previously, and not entirely familiar with the district’s special education history. She urged the board to learn from what went wrong and move forward.
In April, the district issued a request for proposals for “a qualified consultant or firm with experience in Special Education” to be awarded a contract for a 12-month period from June 2024 to May 2025. The requirements in the RFP called for an independent review with no conflict of interest to anyone involved or previous work undertaken for BCSD; a strong understanding of models of special education “which close achievement gaps, create a strong home and school partnership, and provide for unique learners through best practice programing for placement categories such as autism,” and a strong understanding of “legal requirements in paperwork, process, and timelines associated with best practice.”
Klein made clear that the requirements were developed in consultation with the Special Education Parent Teacher Organization and special education parents.
Those requirements were addressed by PCG, whose presentation also identified multiple areas to be studied in depth. “To PCG, a review is not just about identifying the challenges and offering recommendations,” PCG stated, “it’s about creating an intentional, ambitious, and urgent path forward for the BCSD community to improve the outcomes of students with disabilities.”
PCG presented a proposed timeline, which includes interview and focus groups, classroom observations, surveys and IEP file reviews in September. A draft report is scheduled for delivery in January 2025, with a final report in February, action planning in March and April, and a final action plan tentatively set for May. A board presentation would be made in June 2025.
New Board of Ed trustee Lisa Mitchell asked for assurance of linguistic diversity, especially for participation in focus groups. Uhlik responded that PCG engages in multiple languages. PCG’s senior advisor and qualitative content lead, Jennifer Baribeau, added that their forms are also accessible in those languages. Klein emphasized that ensuring multi-language accessibility was a priority in the district’s initial discussions with PCG.
Trustee Blakeley Lowry noted it was important to both the board and the community to have an action planning component. She asked if there would be the ability to implement some of the actions to be identified in March and April before the end of the school year. Uhlik said the PCG strives to identify initiatives that can be implemented quickly, particularly in conjunction with the district’s budget planning season.