NORWICH – Standing before the Norwich City School Board voicing their concerns Tuesday were three parents wanting to discuss curriculum, funding and education services for students with disabilities.
Penny Towner, a Norwich district parent, wanted to discuss statistics she had researched and how they affect the students.
Towner said, “Almost half of Norwich fourth graders are failing English language arts (ELA). Students in Norwich aren’t failing; Norwich is failing its students.”
Compared to state standards, Towner said Norwich’s 46 percent of students who are below the average range is 17 percent higher than the state’s average of 29 percent.
Towner says there are predicators for identifying students with learning disabilities, and students can begin to be identified as young as age five.
“Children who are classified in first and second grade catch up with their peers sooner and have a better chance at success,” Towner said. “I’m quite sure if you look at the numbers of children classified and at what grade they are in at the time of classification, you will see that Norwich does not do this.”
Towner says Norwich does not have a standardized teaching method administered to all children K-2. She pointed to the “100 Book Challenge” as a unified system for independent reading. “Children struggling with reading .... working independently does not help them ... they need instruction. More books don’t make better readers; better reading instruction makes better readers.”
Towner wanted to also inform the board that according to research she found, the typical time frame to correct a learning disability is one to three years.
“So why is it that with two plus years of Committee on Special Education (CSE) instruction, my son has gone from being two years behind in his reading to two and half years behind?” she asked. Towner said she believes her child is not alone when it comes to the problem, and said she wanted the board to closely review what she had discussed.
“When children don’t get proper reading instruction in the early years, it places an undue burden on their educators in later years,” Towner said.
Jacqueline Williams, a mother of two students attending Norwich, also voiced her concerns. She stated her daughter is currently in the middle school and is part of the ACES program for students with disabilities. She said the program, which is new this year, has been an asset to her daughter and to others as well, but she is uncertain how her daughter will transition into high school next year, due to the fact that there is no ACES program in that building. She asked the board to consider funding it at the high school level and keep it going at the middle school level.
Danielle Peterson took the floor next, saying she moved her family into the district based on information CSE administrators told her, which she said since she has found to be untrue. Peterson said her second grader is learning disabled and not get the services she is entitled to. She said she had previously met with Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan and has not seen a change.
Wednesday, school board President Dr. Christopher Frank said the board would be looking into the matter and the information presented. Both Frank and O’Sullivan said they agree parents coming to the board and voicing their concerns is the best way to address problems and all input is valued.
“Having public comment is one of the best ways to keep an open collaborative school district,” O’Sullivan said. He said the administrator’s job is to look at a problem and try to fix it.