Any other parents out there who are not receiving back the calls, emails, and letters you've written about the needs in your child's IEP or 504 not been met? I don't want to hear she is away. This has been going on the entire year. I am not the only one. Friends who also have special needs children are all facing the same dilemma. Patty White Lambright and her staff are incompetent baffoons who need to be given the axe. Shame on them for the disservice to our most vulnerable children.
Dear PPS parents:
This situation has been going on for years. It is devastating for the children and their families, and there simply is no excuse. The refusal to deliver PPS services is also a violation of a number of laws.
The administration always has an excuse (Summer, Vacation, Christmas, power outage, construction, Administrative Retreats to the Nail Salon, etc.) for why they do not do their basic YEAR-ROUND duties. Time to hold them accountable and RETURN to SENDER their perennial excuses.
My recommendation: Call or write to Mrs. Kourkoumelis, the school board member who cares and who included this very criticism (i.e., failure to hold accountable those who do not even return phone calls) in her recent Superintendent Evaluation. She can be trusted and will not divulge anything confidential. Call her or email her (ckourkoumelis@cityofmelrose.com) with your contact information, keep a log of all unreturned communications (or inadequately addressed concerns). She can help so that you can get some help for your children. You parents need to be organized and present your case together to the community. There truly is power in numbers, and this is the only way this administration can be forced to do its job. It's also the only way the community can help you. These administrators need to be forced to resign! Instead, the rest of the School Committee just keeps giving them bigger raises and more contract extensions. It's an outrage, and it's time that children here get the help and education our tax dollars have paid for.
Good luck!
Same old same old.....Same charges leveled at PWL and her staff for years. If your child has the need for accommodations and extra services get out now to save them. Neighbors (with a child at Lincoln ) will put their house on the market next spring, if services are not delivered this academic year. They are voting against the Override because of PWL and CT. Incompetence should not be rewarded with high salaries and bonuses.
In June (if I remember correctly) the School Committee gave Taymore another $48,000 for "a pot to award administrative raises"! On top of that she's asked for individual big raises for select administrators. Tuesday night they voted to award the business manager (probably the most incompetent ever hired by this district) a contract extension. Next meeting they will probably vote to give him a big raise, right along with another huge one for the superintendent, who most of the committee gushes about instead of holding her accountable and calling for her resignation (which would be appropriate given the actual facts, lawsuits, civil rights investigations, etc.).
A previous poster is right. Organize. Get CKK and Monica together with a mob of parents, grandparents, caring senior citizens, and get a community gathering to do something actually meaningful (not just vote down that boondoggle of an override). Show everyone that Melrose actually does care! It's not that hard to do. I'll be there with pen and wallet in hand. But it has to start with the parents who know and have the facts.
Although CKK is a wonderful advocate, if this is a problem of the system not answering questions or providing required services in a timely fashion, the call should be to the DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education). I teach in a town where this simply would not happen, because everyone in the SPED department knows that if they don't do their job, the parents will call DESE. You and your children deserve communication centered on the IEP, and if they are not answering phone calls or addressing your concerns, it is your right to go to the DESE and force their hands.This is too important to let go.