Special Education in Granite City-very disturbingArchived Message
Posted by Jeff on May 3, 2011, 9:08 pm
Hello to everyone. I wanted to share with everyone some issues that have come up regarding the Special Education Department in the Granite City School District.
I will retell what I was told about the people involved-then continue with explaining the events as they were relayed to me. Mrs. Diak-a long time teacher in the district worked her way up the ladder to become an administrator. She is smart-works well with people-and has the respect of the teachers and parents with whom she has worked. The other administrator is Mrs. Hubbard. Mrs. Hubbard is the daughter of former GC Mayor Paul Schuler. Mrs. Hubbard-never worked as a certified special education teacher-she taught as a classroom teacher for a brief time as substitute teacher at Coordinated Youth. She then became an administrator at Coordinated Youth-an administrator with no teaching certification other than substitute certified and no administrator training. Mrs. Hubbard has a sister that runs Coordinated Youth. A year or two before Mrs. Hubbard was hired by the school district-she completed a teacher certification degree and an administrator’s degree. Coordinated Youth is not under the same rules as public schools because it is a social service agency. Mrs. Hubbard has no experience working with disabled children other than Behavior Disabled. She has no experience working with children with mental retardation, physically disabled, blind or deaf. Mrs. Hubbard has another sister that works as administrator in Granite City. When she was hired by Granite City School District-she was up against candidates that much more experience and education. Obviously none of those other candidates had a father who used to be Mayor of Granite City.
The incident occurred during a recent meeting of Special Education teachers. I am told occasionally there are meetings. The meetings are for a few teachers from each school to come and get information regarding updates-professional discussion-and share teaching stories that work with certain children. The idea of having these meetings is great. What I learned actually occurred is not great-actually it is quite disturbing. At a recent meeting Mrs. Hubbard lost her cool-screamed at Mrs. Diak and stormed out of the room. Mrs. Diak said something about some misinformation that was mistakenly announced at the previous meeting. The teacher’s in attendance had no idea why Mrs. Hubbard became red faced and left. It was later learned that Mrs. Hubbard was still stinging from being screamed at by Mr. Bowler. What I was told happened is that a couple of weeks before this meeting-Mr. Bowler became angry at a teacher. Mr. Bowler was allowed to believe the teacher made decisions regarding a student that were not in the student’s best interest, were not based on experience, and did not allow that student to learn to the best of his/her ability. Mr. Bowler called the teacher and yelled, screamed and threatened the teacher until she was in tears. The teacher then went to the principal-who then called Mr. Briggs. The union became involved because Bowler created a hostile work place. An investigation was conducted. The teacher was cleared and Mr. Bowler was made to apologize to the teacher. The investigation showed that Mrs. Hubbard made the decisions regarding the student that were wrong. It also came to light that Mrs. Hubbard allowed Mr. Bowler to believe the teacher was at fault. Mrs. Hubbard never took responsibility-until made to do so. Mr. Bowler had to apologize which didn’t sit well because Mrs. Hubbard received the same treatment as the teacher that she allowed to take the blame.
There we have it. Three special education administrators. The one in charge bullies women and has a dubious work and personal history. The second in command has no experience-makes poor decisions and allows others to take blame for her shortcomings. The third person has the experience, the education and possesses the respect of the teachers and parents-but because she is not related to any one-will never be allowed to rise above her current position.
I ask the members of the Board of Education to take a serious look at the current state of affairs and to do the right thing. Please get some people in those positions that know what they are doing-or in the very least get people that will quit causing harm.
on May 3, 2011, 9:08 pm