Special education at Shaker is, at best, incompetent &, at worst, negligent

To The Daily Sun,

To start, in the interest of absolute transparency, I am a graduate of Belmont High School, and I was employed by the Shaker Regional School District at Belmont Middle School as a “paraprofessional,” or more accurately, a one-to-one special education assistant. This letter is based on my experience as a student from 2009-2013, and as a staff member 2017-18. I resigned in protest of the following:

Shaker Regional enjoys a statewide reputation as one of the finest districts in New Hampshire, with particular praise being placed on Belmont Middle School, a recent earner of a Blue Ribbon of Excellence. It’s principal, Aaron Pope, has earned Principal of the Year, and the school currently in the running for Middle School of the Year. Taken alone, it’s quite impressive, even commendable, but it’s all in the appearances. Like all organizations, it's flawed, but in one place it isn’t merely flawed, it's an absolute sham.

The special education program is under the direct authority and control of the Office of Student Services, which is in turn run largely without any honest accountability by its director, who runs it akin to a personal fiefdom, frequently empowered, ever unchecked. The result is an entirely mismanaged, unproductive, and blatantly superficial program, designed to establish the appearance of quality and worth, without providing an education that all children regardless of their disabilities are entitled to.

Case managers and teachers are pressured to maintain appearances under threat of termination, prevented or rather, “discouraged” from sharing key information with parents regarding their children’s behavior, learning and outlook out of self preservation; aides go at best ignored, being told by the administration that it's “not our problem, you're the experts,” and are sometimes silenced when they bring concerns of their student’s behavior upward. Those who insist on these issues may find their schedules changed, or be told to “take a walk” to cool off. Parents go uninformed about their children’s behavior and learning, with all but the most severe incidents going unmentioned, and often unaddressed by the schools themselves, being placated with “We’ve seen some progress” or “We’ve made some inroads” or “I have some insights to share,” even if privately they lament, and acknowledge that they are at best looking at a certificate of attendance, rather than a diploma.

Students who are unprepared, or incapable of success in a standard general education classroom are nonetheless placed in those very classrooms, with only a small few being assigned an aide who can help support them, with even the most needy being left to fend for themselves, all while either being held to the exact standards as “typical” students, with only a couple of teachers providing a reasonable alternative they can potentially grasp, others still, give them busy work, leaving them to the side or backs of the room where they won’t bother them, left unengaged and ignored. Decisions regarding your children are made in a vacuum, with the director and supporting staff including a psychologist, and sometimes even the parents themselves, who left at the mercy of the information the schools chose to give them are left to accept their findings, or argue from a disadvantage, the findings of people who may have met their child once or twice, or seen them at a distance at lunch, or heard third-hand facts from second-hand sources, or rumor. The one person present who could give you the honest facts, the real outlook for your child’s future, the teacheris scared of rocking the boat and losing their livelihood, or worried about losing out on a stellar letter of recommendation, a self-serving and all to common reason this goes ignored, and even supported.

Sometimes they slip up, of course, and say what's on their mind. Then, they're quietly pulled aside and asked to watch their language in the future. As to any question that the district is doing their utmost, the director has only once sat in on a class between November and March, for five minutes, they were on their phone. This came a day or so after an aide complained of a teacher's conduct, indicating that they were merely there for the theme of this letter, appearances.

While many staff and teachers in the program are excellent, and ethical educators, special education at Shaker Regional is at best run by mediocrity or incompetence, at worst, and I suspect, negligence or disinterest.

“Engaging All Learners to Succeed In Their Ever-Changing World" — Shaker Regional Slogan

Justin Borden

Town of Belmont Budget Committee (2018-2021)