NJ Education Report

 I told you all a year ago that my daughter was experiencing extreme mental and emotional distress. It’s been a year. Hasn’t the toll our children suffered — enough. I see no indication our superintendent nor this board [is prioritizing] our children. Exactly how dedicated are you all to our children, our disabled and needy children. Why are you all here?…..You do not have children in the District. So, you have no skin in the game.

That’s Janet Cerullo, mother of a 19-year-old girl who attends Mercer County Special Services School District, speaking at a School Board meeting last night where parents, distraught and overwhelmed after a full year of remote instruction, castigated the Board and administrators for failing to respond to their concerns.

According to the Trentonian, the meeting was “intense, tear-dropped and terse as parents accused the Board and administrators of “being severely detached from the realities of rearing and teaching special needs children.” Twenty parents spoke. Cerullo was in the midst of her remarks when the Board muted her audio. (It was a remote meeting.) She still had a chance to say,

I’m asking you all in sincerity, why are you here. I think you need to ask yourself that question because the welfare of so many depend on it…..Have you made the effort to see how other districts are doing it because other districts are doing it. In fact, my sending district, West Windsor, has provided a special needs, in-person program five days per week since September. What exactly have you all been doing for the past year while our children and their families have been struggling on a daily basis. Thank goodness for our teachers and therapists who have supported us. They have repeatedly advocated for our children and they are disrespected and dismissed by the powers that be in this district. I can understand their frustration regarding the lack of communication in this district because that has been my experience as well. I’m so disheartened by how you all have handled this challenge. The response to this pandemic by our superintendent and board has been lethargic and appears so uncaring.

Parents had a number of complaints: the surprise announcement of lay-offs of 31 special education staff members, failure of Board members and administrators to respond to emails and other communications, the district’s lack of a state-required parent group, and the continued closures. (The district is supposed to open in a month.)

The meeting ended after the president of the local teachers union, Mercer County Special Services Educational and Therapeutic Association, announced that staff passed a “no confidence” resolution for Superintendent Kim Schneider.