School Board Hears Concerns About Special Education

Three parents of children with special needs appeared before the Lawrence Township Board of Education during last week’s special board meeting to express their concern about the leadership of the school district’s special education department.

Melissa Hitzel, Andrea Pennington and Amanda Tulumalo told board members they are very worried about the future of special education in the district following the recent resignations of Carol Webb, Pam Hernandez, and Michael Donnelly.

Webb, who was hired in July 2011 to serve as Lawrence Township Public Schools’ interim supervisor of special education, Grade 7 through graduation, resigned from the district in May to take a new job as director of the student services department in the Branchburg Township School District.

Hernandez, who worked in LTPS for 14 years and during the past school year served as the district’s interim supervisor of special education, preschool through Grade 6, resigned in July to take a position as principal of one of the elementary schools in Hamilton Township.

The resignation of Donnelly, a longtime school psychologist at Lawrenceville Elementary School, was accepted by the board at last week’s meeting. District officials would only say that Donnelly was resigning for “personal reasons.”

The district’s treatment of Donnelly was something that was particularly upsetting to Hitzel, Pennington and Tulumalo. They noted that the agenda for the board’s July 9 meeting indicated that Donnelly was going to be appointed to fill Hernandez’s post but that changed just prior to the meeting and he was only approved to fill a temporary summer supervisory position.

The three said they expected to see Donnelly’s appoint to replace Hernandez on the agenda for the July 26 meeting and were shocked to see that he was resigning and that a newcomer to the district, Pearl Charatz, was going to be appointed as interim supervisor of special education, preschool through Grade 6, at a per diem rate of $555 from Sept. 1 through June 30, 2013.

“I had attended the [July 9] meeting with the intention of offering my congratulations to Mr. Donnelly, whom I have known through the years to be one of the best child study team members that this district has to offer. His knowledge, compassion and dedication to the students of Lawrence Township Public Schools are just a few of the reasons why Mr. Donnelly has earned my respect,” Hitzel, a resident of Glenn Avenue, told the board.

After Donnelly’s appointment to fill Hernandez’s post from struck from the July 9 agenda, Hitzel continued, “I questioned why the change was made and was told it was determined the board felt the decision was being rushed and additional time was needed to make a final decision about the position. When reviewing the agenda for tonight’s meeting I was anticipating Mike Donnelly’s appointment to supervisor of special education, pre-school through sixth grade. After all, why would the district not make the appointment after making such a humiliating change to the July 9 agenda. Instead, I see that Pearl Charatz is being appointed…

“I am sure that she is qualified to be in this position – after all, I did Google her – and that there are many reason that the public will never be privy to as to why this decision was made. However, we have people in our district who are qualified, have proven track records and have been loyal to Lawrence Township Public Schools and are respected by parents,” Hitzel said. “The fact that this district goes and hires strangers to come here to work temporarily without any knowledge of our kids, the district and, most of all, have a vested interest in Lawrence Township Public Schools, is beyond my comprehension.”

Hitzel added, “Whoever placed the item in the July 9th agenda should be ashamed for having, I believe, embarrassed and humiliated one of the best employees of the district. To say that I’m disappointed in this administration and board is an understatement. I, for one, do not see any improvements in the student services department since last summer. If anything, we are now losing respected and qualified staff due to the instability of student services. When can we expect to see the chaos end? Stop making excuses and start making decisions – hopefully before the rest of the respected employees jump this sinking ship.”

Pennington, a Gedney Road resident, agreed, saying of Donnelly, “I have great respect for him. I’m very sad he won’t be in the district. I think he would have been very good at any job he would have been given.”

She urged the board and district administrators to do a better job informing the public well in advance of their voting on significant staff appointments such as that evening’s hiring of Charatz.  

“There has to be some dissemination of information to the people in this township who pay taxes to understand why this is happening,” Pennington said. “Parents of children with special needs – we are very concerned. We are very concerned… It doesn’t taste right… The rumor mill is running… I feel very concerned about the direction that things are going.”

Tulumalo, of Hoover Avenue, echoed those sentiments in telling the board, “You need to know, it looks bad. You look bad. And we’re concerned. We’re concerned for our own children. My son’s in third grade, so this supervisor doesn’t know him, doesn’t know anything about the school district. I’m really concerned about that. It doesn’t make any sense to me at all. And it doesn’t make any sense to me that you would again put an interim in place for a whole year. It doesn’t make any sense to me that Erin [Servillo, LTPS’ director of student services] was an interim for as long as she was. It doesn’t make any sense to me that Pam and Carol were interims for as long as they were. Why aren’t you committing to something? Make a commitment. Interview somebody that’s capable of the job that can serve our students and hire them. You look bad…

“People are angry. You’re going to start seeing more people in here if you don’t start doing something. I actually want to urge you not to hire this person tonight. Table this. Put this back out there and interview somebody,” Tulumalo continued. “I don’t understand. What a waste of money. Why are you wasting my tax dollars on somebody who doesn’t know my child, who doesn’t know any of the other children in the school district? Why are you wasting money on temporary people?”

Board of Education President Laura Waters told the women that she and her fellow board members share their concerns.

“We have been looking really hard for people to fill the supervisory positions in special ed. I understand you’re upset and interims make people nervous and that it projects instability. I get that. However, we have been looking really hard.”

Waters said, by law, she could not discuss personnel matters such as the situation involving Donnelly.

But district Superintendent Crystal Lovell explained that the district interviewed 15 people to fill the position left vacant by Hernandez’s departure and that they were still working hard to find a replacement for Webb.

Most of the best candidates for supervisory jobs such as theirs become available in March and April. At that time this year, the district’s efforts were focused on finalizing the school budget, then revising it after it was rejected by township voters. It wasn’t until later in the year that Webb and Hernandez resigned by which time, she said, the pool of available candidates had dwindled.     

Lovell said that she, Servillo and their staff have been working tirelessly and networking with peers in other districts to find the best possible candidates. She noted that Charatz comes highly recommended.

Charatz retired from the Shrewsbury Borough School District as assistant superintendent in 2010.

“All of us share your sentiment,” Lovell said. “We all want the best-quality people for our kids. It’s very disturbing to all of us when we have unfilled positions and we’re struggling to find quality candidates, whether it’s for a supervisory position, an assistant [principal] position, whatever that position is. So I don’t want you to think there’s not work being done behind the scenes. Granted, we can’t share all the details with you regarding that, but we are working as diligently as we can.”

“We take it seriously,” Waters said added. “We know how much is at stake. At the same time we want to move swiftly and deliberately, we also want to be cautious. And maybe we’re being too cautious. Maybe you’re right. But all we know is we want to make sure that we have the right person for the job.”

With all board members present with the exception of Deborah Cherry, who was said to be ill, the board then went on to unanimously approve the appointment of Charatz as interim supervisor of special education, preschool through Grade 6.

A copy of the meeting minutes can be found in the media box above, together with an audio recording of the meeting.