From the Concord Monitor
District wants him in classroom; they don’t
The parents of a Deering boy with severe disabilities want to know why the Hillsboro-Deering School Board won’t discuss a decision to place their son in the public school system against their wishes.
Joel and Cindy Durham told the Hillsboro-Deering School District in October that they would be moving from Henniker to Deering. Their son Joel, 17, has autism and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome: a severe form of epilepsy that requires constant, specialized care, which he’s received from the Crotched Mountain rehabilitation center since age 10.
Cindy Durham said that she set up a meeting to discuss Joel’s condition with staff from the district’s life skills program but that the officials went to Crotched Mountain to observe Joel before the meeting and without telling her. She went, too, after the Crotched Mountain staff called to tell her the district representatives were there. She said the life skills staff never got a true sense of her son’s disability.
“Joel had happened to have a big seizure that morning. He was asleep when they arrived. He woke up and wasn’t himself,” Durham said. “We went back to their school to have a meeting. They all just looked at me and said, ‘We can implement him in the school. We’re excited to have him here.’ They’d already made a decision. It started there.”
After a nonpublic session in May, the school board decided, 3-2, not to vote on a decision by the life skills program and the superintendent to bring Joel into the public school system.
The Durhams want to know what the board discussed at that meeting. Last month, they filed a right-to-know request with the district. They received a reply from the district’s business administrator stating that because the minutes were sealed, the board is not required to disclose what was said.
“We’re looking for the meeting minutes. It has to do with our son, and we feel we have a right to know what was discussed,” Cindy Durham said. “If they aren’t going to make a vote on a decision, we want to know why they’re not going to do that.”
Ed Naile, chairman of the New Hampshire Coalition of Taxpayers, a group that is representing the Durhams, said the school board has the authority to overrule the decision. He also said there’s no reason to seal the meeting minutes out of respect for the family’s privacy because the Durhams gave permission to use their son’s name. If the dispute is not resolved by the end of the week, the Durhams will file a right-to-know lawsuit in superior court.
“I asked the school board to overrule the life skills team’s decision. They have the authority to do that. They say that’s not the case,” said Naile. “I’ll ask them one more time this Thursday; then we’ll bring it to court.”
Joel’s parents have also filed for due process several times with the state Department of Education to postpone his entry into the school system, which they say is not equipped to handle their son’s disability.
The Durhams want their son to remain at Crotched Mountain for the next three years and say a transition to a new school could worsen his seizures.
“We have letters from two of (Joel’s) neurologists saying this kind of transition is a risk to his health,” said Cindy Durham. “The board won’t acknowledge that. It’s all hush-hush and quiet. Joel is our son. We’re not ashamed of him. If I need to, I’ll get more letters from neurologists.”
Durham said Hillsboro-Deering’s programs are not designed for children with severe medical conditions like Joel’s. He requires a place to sleep after his seizures. She said the classroom at the school where Joel would be is the size of a kitchenette.
“We have special-education programs within our system that will serve Joel’s needs,” said Superintendent Barbara Baker, who said she was not aware the family plans to file a lawsuit if the board does not provide the minutes. “There is a process that the parents can use and are using. It’s not even in the board’s hands at this point.”
In May, when the school board voted not to intervene and, subsequently, to seal the minutes, then-Chairwoman Babette Haley said it was not the board’s decision to make and that due process proceedings were the appropriate route to take, Durham said. Haley has since resigned from the board, citing difficulties with other board members, specifically John Segedy, who made a motion to overrule Haley’s proposal not to consider the issue, which the board voted down, 3-2. The school board meets again Thursday.
Naile said the coalition became involved because it will cost taxpayers more to bring Durham into the school district than to keep him at Crotched Mountain, which costs about $128,000 a year. Some of the costs are offset by government funding, he said.
“We have an investment so far at Crotched Mountain. We think it’s a bad idea to create a program when we have one that’s already in place,” Naile said. “It just seems like they’re making this up as they go along, and that’s not good for Joel.”