Hardyston school to alter preschool program

HARDYSTON — Hardyston Township Board of Education found itself unable to vote on the budget on Tuesday night, leading to another budget hearing.

A large crowd of parents and staff came out for the meeting based on rumors that the district's preschool program was being changed or eliminated. Superintendent Richard Corbett addressed the situation, saying the program will be changed, but that it is going back to the original intent of the program.

“Let me explain what the intention is in September," Corbett said. "Keep in mind that September is months away. We have to provide preschool education by law, especially for special education. We are intending to maintain a preschool special education program. We reviewed the roster and have determined that we can provide the needs for the population with an a.m. and a p.m. program."

Corbett said the district can support students who need more support in the morning. He said the afternoon progam will be integrated. Corbett said projections show all students can be accomodated with a morning and afternoon program.

If something changes between now and September – 20 more students with special needs come in, then things will have to change," he said. "It was never our intention to end preschool disabled program.”

This is going back to the original intent of the program, according to Corbett. He researched the original presentation and motion that was presented to the school board, and found that the original intent was to have an integrated preschool program, not a separate preschool classes for special education students and for general education students, as it currently exists.

That system seems to have developed in an organic way.

“There is a lot of history with this thing," Board of Education emmber Ed Blahut said. "We passed an integrated pre-k program but how that program was implemented is a different story."

According to Corbett, when the preschool program was enacted, there was a student who required intensive assistance, and rather than placing the child out of district, the board opted to bring him back into the district with a teacher who worked exclusively with that child.

“The program morphed, and more students were brought in," he said. "It was never approved by the board as a separate program."

Now, this student is gone, and Corbett said he would like to consolidate the program-having a morning program for special education preschool students, and a program that would have general education students and special education students integrated in the afternoon, eliminating one class each in the morning and the afternoon. He emphasized that every special education student would receive the education that is appropriate to their needs under the law, but parents were not impressed by the new plan.

“There is a vast difference sometimes between what is going on the multiple disabled preschool as opposed to the general education preschool," Laura Korn said. "There are some kids who will get the benefit of being with the mainstream group and some will not be able to work in that environment,”

Corbett said that those issues would be addressed as the year went on, because in actuality, the district won't know the exact composition of the classes until September. They will have to be flexible.

School social worker David Sasso said he was concerned at how the changes would affect students currently in the program. The district's obligation, under the law, is to provide the least-restrictive environment for special education students so they can achieve, but his concern is that with this move “as the board, you may be following the letter of the law, but not the intent of the law.”

Parents also questioned the financial considerations.

Ryan Healy, a parent who said that he specifically moved his family from Andover to Hardyston to take advantage of this program, asked for details on what exactly was cut from the program, and after much discussion, it was found that one teacher, one aide and associated supplies were cut from the budget for next year.

Several other parents also stood up to register their objections to the changes in the program, including questioning why the Board of Education didn't go over the 2 percent cap in order to keep the preschool the way it currently exists.

Blahut asked if this was even possible at this point in the budget process and School Business Administrator Jim Sekelsky said he needed to do more research to see if the budget could be approved to exceed cap at this point.

"It will cost us a meeting next week," Sekelsky said. "If you're going forward, it's finding ($96,314) for the teacher (and aide) for the pre-school. Worst case, you're here next week, you have to do it at the 2 percent cap and people aren't happy.”