Westland Middle School

Testimony before the Board of Education 

Alysa M. Emden 

President, Westland Middle School PTA 

January 19, 2011 

Good Evening Board President Barclay and members of the Board. My name is Alysa Emden and I am here tonight on behalf of the Westland Middle School PTA.  We certainly appreciate your time, and the commitment and interest of all of those who are here tonight.

My testimony tonight focuses on one specific aspect of the proposed operating budget, but I want to preface my comments by saying that Westland, like other schools in the B-CC cluster, strongly supports the maintenance of effort budget presented by Superintendent Weast. We also certainly realize that these are difficult economic times and that the State and County face tough budget choices, and we support the operating budget priorities set forth by MCCPTA as a guideline to making those choices.

For Westland, one of those six operating budget priorities has particular importance, and that is full implementation of hours-based staffing for special education students. As I’m sure you’re aware, “hours-based staffing” means that a school’s special education program is staffed according to the total number of instructional hours required under students’ IEPs (“Individualized Education Programs”), rather than according to the number of students in a particular special education program.

Hours-based staffing is in place in every elementary school in the B-CC Cluster. It is also in place in 32 of the 38 middle schools in Montgomery County. It has proved extraordinarily effective in promoting academic improvement and individual student achievement among students with special needs.

The proposed operating budget funds the hours-based staffing program at its current level. We strongly support continuation of this program at our cluster elementary schools. However, I am here tonight because Westland is one of the six middle schools in the County that does not have hours-based staffing.

Westland must staff its special education programs in the same way we staff our conventional classrooms – based on number of students. This model means that when students with special needs articulate to Westland from one of our six feeder schools, they experience a dramatic reduction in the staff resources available to implement their IEPs– at precisely the time they enter into a larger population of students and face heightened expectations for academic progress.

The numbers say it all. Westland currently has 130 students with IEPs and we are staffed with 4.8 special education teachers and one resource teacher. This means we have approximately 25 children per case manager. That represents a tremendous increase over elementary school student/staff ratios; also, by way of comparison, middle schools with hours-based staffing have a student/staff ratio of approximately 8:1. To put it somewhat differently, Westland special education teachers handle caseloads that are over 200% greater than those of their counterparts at most other County middle schools – and Westland teachers are held to exactly the same performance and achievement standards. Under the circumstances, our staff and students do the best they can. However, the MSA scores of our students with special needs trail the scores of students without special needs by 30% in math and 15% in reading.

Looking ahead, we see a number of factors combining to exacerbate the problem. An overall increase in student population (with a commensurate increase in number of children with special needs), budget limitations, and the recent closing of the learning centers resulting in an increase in the severity of the needs presented by our students, have the potential to combine to create a perfect storm. To top it all off, by 2014 – within just two school years – the federal “No Child Left Behind Act” requires all schools to have 100% of their students, including students with special needs, at or above “proficient” on the MSAs.

The current staffing model makes it extraordinarily difficult for Westland to provide special education services equivalent to what our students have come to expect at the elementary school level, let alone meet the “No Child Left Behind” requirement. Under hours-based staffing, our special education staff would almost double. That increase would enable Westland to provide a high-quality continuum of service as children transition from elementary to middle school – the same quality of service that the vast majority of all other middle school students in Montgomery County currently enjoy.  The hours-based staffing program is a vital component of the County’s special education programming, and we submit that it is only equitable that Westland be included in it.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.