School Board: 'Let's Get Moving' on Special Ed. Plan

The North Hampton School Board will use an upcoming retreat to hash out the focus of a subcommittee to help the district prioritize and continue progress on the 17 recommendations for improving the special education program.

The board discussed the subcommittee's focus Thursday night, although an official statement of purpose wasn't set because School Administrative Unit 21 Superintendent Bob Sullivan said he'll work to "put a little more building on top of" the "foundation" of ideas set forth Thursday.

Sullivan said waiting until the retreat later this month will give board members more time to "dwell" on some of the ideas — which include using the subcommittee as an advisory arm to help support ongoing work on the special education program, but not using it to reshape the entire program after the release of a critical evaluation.

Several school board members expressed a need to formalize the subcommittee as soon as possible. Anne Ambrogi said the board and North Hampton School as a whole has "a lot of things our plates" and that she feels like the board has "talked about this a lot now." Chairman David Sarazen and member Tamara Le agree, expressing a need to finalize the subcommittee's purpose by the end of the month.

"Let's get moving," said Le. "With more stakeholders at the table… we’ll be able to collectively put this together in a way that it fits our school and fits the program."

Thursday's school board meeting came hours after word broke that NHS' special education director will retire at the end of the school year.

Full details of the special education action plan haven't yet been shared with the public and weren't discussed Thursday night. Over the past month, district officials have either been unavailable for comment or told Hampton-North Hampton Patch they haven't had the time to discuss the plan.

The lack of full public disclosure and the undefined purpose of the subcommittee doesn't mean, though, that progress isn't being made and that parts of the action plan aren't being implemented, according to NHS Principal Peter Sweet and Sullivan.

"That's happening now," said Sweet.

NHS Assistant Principal Jan Scipione told the school board Thursday that the reason why the plan wasn't shared with parents at recent forum was because the district doesn't want it to "jade" any of the information being gathered by non-staff stakeholders involved in the process to improve the special education program.

Sweet said all school staff will meet on May 3 about the action plan to "get things on paper" and work toward items identified by staff as a "priority" within the school as the school board works with the community.

Board member Victoria Kilroy said the action plan's successful implementation "really comes down to us having input with educators and administrators" as well as the public, as she said "it’s not our role to create this program — it’s our role to oversee… what already is great program."

Le said she believes the community-focused subcommittee is the best chance at bettering the program, and urged fellow board members and the district to get the group established.

"I think if we get this piece right, a lot of good things will happen," said Le. "I think if we can get this, it’ll be a really big step."