The following press release from Huntley School District 158 might be of interest to some readers:

Notice IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)

Mrs. Karen Aylward, Director of Special Services for Consolidated School District 158, of McHenry and Kane Counties, Illinois announced that School District 158 will be sponsoring an IDEA 2004 Consultation meeting regarding Private School Students with disabilities on Monday, September 27, 2010 at 10:00 AM in room 180 at the Administrative Building, 650 Academic Drive, Algonquin, Illinois.

This meeting is in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.

Parents of homeschooled students having or suspected of having disabilities residing in School District 158 are invited to attend. For further information, contact Mrs. Aylward at 847-659-6158.

I wrote about how Karen Aylward, now the top special ed administrator in Huntley 158, objected to having the meeting with special ed parents run five or ten minutes longer last month.

Ninety minutes. That was the time limit.

This month the Supt. John Burkey administration seems to want no misunderstanding whatsoever about strictly enforcing an hour and a half time limit for the Parent Advisory Committee meeting.

Pretty heavy handed about a 90-minute meeting that doesn’t allow for a question and answer period…unless it is specifically on the agenda.

Maybe the committee should be renamed the “Advise the Parent Committee” rather than the “Parents Advisory Committee,” inasmuch as administrators don’t want to listen to parents about something as simple as being flexible about when the meeting ends.

Fortunately the teachers of special ed students in Huntley are far more dedicated and less time rule obsessive than administrators.

Meanwhile Supt. Burkey likely feels it’s so unfair that parents don’t trust him or his administrators.

Apparently Burkey has opted for the “containment” approach to parents.  A new model in community outreach, I guess.

As opposed to last summer’s Special Education Town Hall Meetings, where at least some school board members listened.

Common sense might dictate that, if an administrator has to leave promptly on a given night, he or she does that.

Huntley administrators leave board meetings early all of the time, so this would be hardly something new.

But this seems to be about more than just getting home to see the wife/husband and kids.

It’s about making the meetings as meaningless as possible, while being able to publicly tout the sincerity of how administrators are listening to parents…if only for a part of ninety minutes

Here’s the limitation on the meeting, which can be found here.

Any community member interested in adding items

to the agenda please contact kaylward@district158.org

(*Note- Our meetings will begin and end promptly

as scheduled, allowing staff and community to

respect professional and personal commitments.

“Please drive safely, everyone.”)

Yesterday I showed you the terse resignation letter of Huntley School District 158′s Special Education Director Cheryl Kalkirtz.

As you can see from this article, District 158 seems to have a difficult time keeping such employees.

But, back to the question:

Does the Huntley School District need a full-time “certified” Special Ed Director?

My research says it doesn’t.

It doesn’t even need the part-time one it recently hired.

The reason is because Huntley School District 158 is a member of SEDOM, the Special Education District of McHenry County, and its Superintendent, Kathy Wilhoit, has the necessary “endorsement.”

Superintendent Wilhoit wrote,

“Regarding requirements, if a district has a full time special education administrator, that person must have a state director of special education endorsement.  If the position only works with special education part time, the endorsement is not required.“All districts who are members of a special education cooperative operate under the director of the cooperative as the state approved special education director.”

Indeed, Wilhoit told me she signs all the state grant applications.

So, it appears that Kalkirtz’ leadership abilities could have been utilized with no problem from Springfield by just changing her title.

That still leaves the question of why there was a parting of the ways.

The rationale used to appoint a part-time Special Ed Director was that she had the proper “endorsement.”

As you can see from Superintendent Wilhoit’s statement, that was not necessary.

Even though Karen Aylward’s appointment as Interim Director seemed to run into problems when it was discovered she did not have the endorsement, Wilhoit’s endorsement would cover for her with only a title change.

A May 2009 memo to Huntley District 158 from the State Board of Education should have made that clear. In part, it reads:

The above regulatory citation at 23 IAC 226.800(g)(3) also requires that “Each school district, or the cooperative entity of which it is a member, shall employ a full-time director of special education…” (emphasis added)

I did notice that all of Huntley’s “Assistant Director” of Special Ed job titles were changed to “Coordinator” after I pointed out the day of the meeting, citing state law, that all Directors and Assistant Directors have to have an endorsement for Director of Special Education.

This wasn’t the original plan, as evidenced by the planned personnel changes that were in the original board packet.

What did come out was Supt. John Burkey’s having to admit the lengthy amount of time that it takes for the State of Illinois to review and approve a Director’s endorsement.

This pretty much debunks any implication or cover that Cheryl Kalkirtz had to be let go or had to resign from the district because she didn’t officially have a director’s endorsement yet.

Maybe the real reason will come out later.

Kalkirtz’ on the job performance was well respected and Burkey publicly pretty much ruled out any inappropriate behavior on Kalkirtz’ part.

It is entirely possible and looking more and more likely every day that Kalkirtz did everything right, disclosed everything up front about not officially having a Director’s endorsement and was performing admirably in her job every day. For whatever reason, parents were told she had that endorsement.

So what’s left?

Is it possible Burkey got more than a little irritated that Kalkirtz was a professional who was good at advocating for her special services students.

If that’s not how a superintendent really wanted someone to perform in that position, it might be like having two tectonic plates awaiting a breaking rupture.

So far, there has been no tsunami bigger than the one that hit Hawaii. But you can bet similar swift underground waves are still bouncing around the District 158 basin.

It is so unusual for a middle level school administrator in Illinois to leave in the middle of a school year contract, that barring death, indictment or felony arrest.  It’s safe to describe what is now publicized as a resignation was apparently the result of an an internal power struggle, which Burkey won.

Whether the students will end up on the winning side remains to be seen.

When I filed a Freedom of Information request for board emails, I saw no indication that Burkey had informed board members prior to the resignation.

Based on people talking about how Burkey begged Kalkirtz to stay in January and then, weeks later, he accepted her resignation, you may want to wager an abrupt turn occurred.

Coincidentally this apparently happened after Burkey got his new three-year contract.

The interview process for hiring a new Special Ed Director in Huntley District 158 included parents. They got to interview the final three candidates. This was after administrators conducted initial interviews, checked out candidates’ credentials and recommended three final candidates.

Lauren Smith, Chief Human Resources Officer, emailed parents who were in on the interviewing, the document at the bottom of this article.

As you can see to the left, the District represented to parents that Cheryl Kalkirtz already had her endorsement for Special Education Director.

This was the administration’s document and the district’s representation.

There was no footnote of “pending,” “applied for” or “based on applicant’s application.”  (See bottom of this article for the all the information supplied parents.)

Administrators were telling parents before hiring Kalkirtz that Kalkirtz had the Director endorsement.

Karen Aylward apparently also made such a representation to parents for herself at the August Parent Advisory Committee meeting.

What is more interesting is how the job description that was used to hire for the position omitted any requirement for an endorsement for Special Ed Director.

Reprinted below  is the job description that was used last year.

You have to wonder

• Why parents were told in writing that Kalkirtz had her endorsement
• Administrators apparently omitted the requirement from the Director job description.
• Why Supt. Burkey and top administrators thought it was acceptable to show parents that Aylward had a Director’s endorsement when it turns out she doesn’t.

Meanwhile knowing this, Burkey is quoted in the Daily Herald today,

“The director of special education does have to have the director endorsement,” Burkey said. “We would only hire someone if we believed they had those qualifications.”

Really?

Shouldn’t the law be quoted correctly in a newspaper?

You can go to the applicable state law

ISBE 23 ILLINOIS ADMINISTRATIVE CODE 25.300 SUBTITLE A SUBCHAPTER b SUBPART E: REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CERTIFICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND SUPERVISORY STAFF

and read

g) Nothing in this Section is intended to preclude the issuance of a provisional certificate under Section 21-10 of the School Code.

(Source: Amended at 34 Ill. Reg. 1582, effective January 12, 2010.)

So when the Daily Herald quotes in a February 18th article,

“”The district cannot lawfully employ someone in this position who does not have this certificate,” state board spokeswoman Mary Fergus said.”

Fergus apparently forgets about provisional certificates.

The newspaper could have been fairer to Kalkirtz and its readers by pointing this out.

The allowance of a provisional certificate could hardly be more plain.

When she was selected last year, administrators and parents thought Kalkirtz was the best overall candidate and the board gave her a one year contract. They hired her.

Mere mortals cannot put themselves into Supt. Burkey’s mind, of course.

We do know that District 158 told parents that Kalkirtz had the endorsement in question and we know that there is an exception under the law for a “provisional certificate.”

And we know that the requirement for the “endorsement,” now being trotted out as the reason Kalkirtz is no longer with the district, was not important enough to include in the job description when she was hired.

We do not, however, know the motivations for Kalkirtz’ leaving the district.

Neither do we know the motivations for Burkey’s current behavior.

Maybe she was getting too close to the parents’ negative point of view of the Huntley School District’s Special Education services.

I had heard that she submitted a resignation letter which Burkey refused to accept. That was two weeks before she left. Maybe she was fed up with the lack of support from the administration.

By the way, Assistant Directors also have to have their Director’s endorsement under the same law:

“Section 25.365 Director of Special Education.  This endorsement shall be required for directors and assistant directors of special education beginning July 1, 2005.”

This is at least the second year that Assistant Director Aylward doesn’t have this endorsement as an Assistant Director.

For some reason, the Daily Herald reporter did not mention the exception in the law or the other documents in this article.

It would have been nice if the article had included

• a more complete picture of the applicable law,
• how Huntley made an exception for Kalkirtz and is
• is now making an exception for Aylward, not to mention
• what went on when Kalkirtz was hired.

Burkey appears to be treating former Special Ed Director Kalkirtz and eventually-to-be Interim Special Ed Director Aylward very differently when it comes to not having a Director’s endorsement.

One can only wonder.

= = = = =
Qualifications of three candidates for Special Ed Director emailed to parents before last year’s selection of Cheryl Kalkirtz:

Candidate #1

Positions Held

• Social Worker
• Assistant Principal
• Principal
• Experiences in both K-12 Districts and Special Education Organization

Certifications

• General Administrative
• Director of Special Education
• School Service Personnel – Social Work
• Non-violent Crisis Intervention

Candidate was responsible for the introduction and implementation of informal reading and spelling assessments for baseline instructional planning and progress monitoring of students. Other strengths/achievements include the introduction of scope and sequence documentation for grades K-12, integration of PBIS, worked on curriculum committees, participation on Transdisciplinary [SIC] Special Education/Regular Education initiative team, and the recruitment of related service personnel (speech pathologist, social workers, psychologist, and physical/occupational therapist), and on-going professional development.

Basic experience includes social work, compliance, staff evaluation, professional development and budget responsibilities.

17 years experience in the field of education, more specifically in relation to special education. Highly-qualified, candidate has earned an M.S.W. degree from University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin. Administrative degree from Northeastern Illinois University.

Languages – French (Polite)

Candidate #2

Positions Held

• Teacher
• Principal
• Coordinator of Special Services
• Special Education Director

Certifications

• Teaching 09/10
• General Administrative
• Director of Special Education

Strengths include implementing district run special education programs addressing all levels of disabilities. Other strengths/achievements include the development curriculum, implemented regular education teams for pre-referrals, the recruitment of related service personnel (speech pathologist, social workers, psychologist, and physical/occupational therapist), and on-going professional development. Developed an active parent advisory organization.

Basic experience includes design of service delivery and curriculum, grant writing and maintenance, compliance, staff evaluation, special education identification process (from pre-identification to IEP) and budget responsibilities.

Over 20 years experience in the field of education, more specifically in relation to special education. Highly-qualified, candidate has earned an M.S.E.D. degree from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor’s degree from the Drake University.

Candidate #3

Positions Held

• Teacher
• Parent Advocate (official position assisting families during IEP conferences)
• Special Education Consultant
• Principal
• Coordinator of Special Services
• Special Education Director

Certifications

• Teaching 09/10
• General Administrative
• Director of Special Education

Strengths include educational leader for school wide curriculum. Candidate has had responsibility for the management of education and operations of educational facility and the implementation of IEP and Medicare software and management. Other strengths/achievements include the development, team, and development of RtI in multiple schools, development curriculum, providing parent support through the experience of parent advocate and special ed consultant, the recruitment of related service personnel (speech pathologist, social workers, psychologist, and physical/occupational therapist), and on-going professional development.

Basic experience includes service delivery and coordination of Special education, ESL, Gifted, TPI, and ESY. Grant writing and maintenance for IDEIA, extracurricular and community based programs, compliance, professional development, parent and community partnerships, staff evaluation, special education identification process (from pre-identification to IEP) and budget responsibilities.

Over 15 years experience in the field of education, more specifically in relation to special education. Highly-qualified, candidate has earned masters degree from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree from the Northeastern University.

Literate in Spanish

NCLB Highly Qualified in 23 subject areas

Last Thursday night the Huntley School District’s Parents Special Education Advisory Committee met.

It was under the shadow of Huntley’s Special Education Director’s Cheryl Kalkirtz’ recent unexplained parting of the ways with District 158.

Now, the district has its 3rd (albeit interim) Director in seven months, Karen Aylward.

Although Special Ed parents invest a lot of time communicating with special ed administrators, there was no explanation of Kalkritz’ absence from the man she reports to, Associate Superintendent Terry Awrey, who attended the meeting.

“Our resolve to inspire, challenge and empower has never been stronger,” he told those gathered.

The meeting was evidently something for the administrators to “get through,” as more than one mentioned goal of ending it by 7:30 so they could get home.

One parent specifically asked,

“What’s the rush to get out of here at 7:30?”

She then said,

“We’re here, you’re here.”

Parents started asking polite questions after Aylward introduced herself as the Special Ed Director pending board approval. She repeated it three times in two brief paragraphs as if the roomful of staff and parents were unaware. Aylward when asked, confirmed she did not have an endorsement for Special Education Director.

Aylward now makes $65,383.93 as Assistant Director of Special Education for working 215 days. I haven’t figured out how much her salary will increase in the new interim directorship position.

At the meeting, a parent asked about accounting for the (Federal Stimulus) ARRA funds.  Parents bristled when Aylward pronounced,

“All of that can be FOIA’d.”

Aylward said,

“My goal is to spend it the way it is supposed to.”

A parent in the audience then asked,

“Isn’t it your duty?

Parents started asking polite questions after Aylward introduced herself as the new Special Ed Director, pending board approval. She repeated it three times in two brief paragraphs as if the roomful of staff and parents were unaware.

After another question Associate Supt. Awrey gave Aylward a gesture to move on with the agenda. That’s when Aylward said she has to stick to the agenda and questions and answers are not on the agenda.

One parent sitting near Awrey asked Awrey why he signaled Aylward to not take questions.

Awrey denied he did this, but insisted they had to stick to the agenda.

Parents Linda Betzold and Sara DiFucci made a joint presentation on autism. One person attending described is as “an incredible performance, rich in content, holding the audience’s interest and at times making the entire room laugh.”

A loud round of applause followed their talks.

After the rendition, parents began asking questions and making comments. Parents who were new to publicly speaking out asked questions and commented.

One of the first parents commenting said how there was a “huge lack of information and communication.”

Another asked if items and notices of meetings could be included in the newsletter.  One parent pointed out how the district uses the Honeywell Emergency Alert system to notify parents how their student’s lunch card money balance is low, so why not use it to notify parents with IEP’s about the PAC meeting?

A parent described how administrators don’t want to be responsive to sensible suggestions even when they are repeated again and again. She pointed out how administrators have special ed staff members on their web site who haven’t been employed in one instance for two years and one of more instances not employed for 18 months.

A parent said,

“With all due respect (Supt.) Dr.(John) Burkey never comes to our meetings.

“It’s become a joke among parents how he runs and hides after board meetings.

“Can you find out if he will be here for our next meeting?”

Another parent talked about the staff members’ workload – caseload and said,

“Lauren Smith was driving it, but this doesn’t mean she knows what she’s talking about.”

Lauren Smith presented recommendations on Special Ed staffing to the board from a committee of administrators and teachers. Parents found out the committee members did not meet before Smith presented the committee’s recommendation to the board.

Plenty of parents talked to Awrey after the meeting for quite some time. Some parents wonder what will be passed onto the Superintendent.

Meanwhile Kalkirtz is no longer employed, even though the board has taken no action on her departure.

I’m not an expert in personnel policy.

Maybe it is customary in school districts for contractual certified administrators to leave without board action.

Saturday McHenry County Blog wrote about Special Education Director Cheryl Kalkirtz’ leaving the Huntley School District administrative building.

In a Monday article, it was revealed that Karen Aylward had been appointed Interim Director.

In that article, I told of not being able to find a certificate endorsement for her to be a Special Education Director.

A person commented under the article:

“I believe that is why this is an interim position. Either Karen Aylward will be required to get her certification or it will be filled by a qualified candidate come July 1. The state can grant probational status on candidates who do not hold the correct endorsements for a period of 1 year. Which in my guess is what is happening here.”

That makes sense to me.

What is raising my eyebrows today is what you see below, presented at the August 13, 2009, Special Ed Parent Advisory Committee meeting:

What is a “Type 75 Director of Special Education Endorsement?”

So far, neither of the Heralds have written a story about the revolving door nature of Special Education administrators in District 158.

With Cheryl Kalkirtz no longer being Huntley School District 158′s  Director of Special Education, the question arises as to who is in charge.

After I asked if Karen Aylward had been appointed Interim Director, Community Relations Coordinator Lori Woods confirmed that she had been.

A relevant question might be whether Aylward is certified to hold the post.  If that interests you, then you might be interested in seeing the results of a public search on the Illinois State Board of Education’s web site below (click to enlarge):

Aylward appears to have had her administrator certificate for over one year, but this public record doesn’t show any endorsement to be a Special Education Director.

Renee Erickson was one of the Assistant Special Ed Directors who left Huntley School District 158 at the end of last school year. (Three Special Ed administrators left at the end of the last school year.)  Erickson received her endorsement to be a Special Ed Director last June, as evidenced by what is on the ISBE’s web site. She now works for Palatine District 211, according to the State Board of Education web site.

Does anyone in Huntley District 158 have a Special Ed Director administrator endorsement?

If not, wouldn’t that strike you as unusual?

Apparently none of the four top administrators have a Special Education endorsement.  That’s what the Illinois State Board of Education web site indicates.

That would include

• Superintendent John Burkey
• Associate Superintendent Terry Awrey
• Chief Academic Officer Mary Olson
• Chief Human Resources Officer Lauren Smith

Controller Mark Altmayer is not listed on the educational certificate data base, although that doesn’t seem terribly important. (I remember voting against the first bill—usually passed as a courtesy—that State Rep. Dick Mulcahey passed after his Watergate victory. In the middle of a recession, it required school business managers to have a master’s degree in education. It was obviously a teachers’ jobs’ bill, but what a waste. Financial talent was being laid off all over the place, but, state law forbid that anyone outside of the educational establishment be hired!)

Huntley had not posted a job opening for a Special Ed Director by Monday noon.

The news last week was that Huntley School District Special Education Director Cheryl Kalkirtz was no longer with the Huntley School District.

When I first asked about all emails commenting about her resignation, I was told by District 158 that the search capability did not exist.

Strange, since School Board President Shawn Green had told me that when he talked about my appeal of a Read 180 Freedom of Information request with Superintendent John Burkey, Burkey had a stack of information, including emails on the subject, sitting on the table in front of him.

Regardless, now Kalkirtz and Perry Yates are gone.

Perry Yates was a Special Ed administrator on Kalkirtz,’ team, as you can see from the photo still on the District 158 web site.

It is extremely unusual for an administrator to leave midyear while under contract.

The district has issued no public statement about either administrator leaving the district.

Kalkirtz started work in July, at the beginning of the district’s fiscal year, right about the time spending the Federal Stimulus money was the fat hitting the hot frying pan.

See

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 1

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 2

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 3

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 4

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 5

A couple of weeks after I asked, the Daily Herald got Supt. Burkey to confirm Kalkirtz’ no longer being at work on Tuesday, the day of the Financial Advisory Committee meeting.

Unlike last time, Controller Mark Altmayer showed up for Tuesday’s meeting.

“I want to be as transparent as possible,” Altmayer said.

There were three new committee members at the meeting.

The question came up,

“Did the Special Ed Director leave?”

A group of parents with special needs students wanted to know as part of a public comment.

Altmayer said he didn’t know if he could comment.

No one had informed the committee members that Cheryl Kalkirtz was gone let alone when.

This was in spite of the Federal Stimulus (get ready for the initials) IDEA ARRA spending for special ed was topic on the agenda.

Members of the audience looked stunned at the possibility that the statement was true.

Someone in the audience said the Daily Herald had reported Cheryl Kalkirtz had left the district.

Financial Advisory Committee and School Board member Michael Andre came to the defense of the district, sloughing off such as report as coming from a newspaper.

That’s when another audience member said Supt. Burkey was quoted in the newspaper.

More tomorrow.