I have 6 year old twins with autism and we live in Normal. Our
school district (Unit 5) has contracted with Margie Jobe, retired
special ed director from Champaign for consulting services
to "evaluate" special ed services in our district. At first I was
supportive of having an outside evaluation as our district is very
unsupportive of ABA training for teachers, aides, and occupational
and speech therapists. In fact, they won't even use the
term "applied behavioral analysis" in an IEP, inventing the term
prompt-cue-response as a synonym that apparently covers them from
claims that their procedures are not consistent with ABA.

So I was pleased that we are getting an outside review but then I
read the comments of our district's board president from last year,
Scott Lay, that are giving me second thoughts. According to our
local newspaper

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/09/27/news/doc46fb3a684079412
6037689.txt

"The other consultant, Jobe would be hired "for another form of
expertise the district needs" in the area of special education,
Niehaus said. She will look at the process to identify students with
special-education needs and other aspects of special education in
Unit 5.

She also has experience in "program reviews." The Champaign district
reviews 25 key programs, including special education, on a five-year
rotation to update the school board and administration and recommend
changes. Hiring Jobe would provide long-term cost savings, Niehaus
said.

"I enthusiastically support this," said board member Scott Lay. He
has been concerned with the rate of growth in the number of special
education students in the district. Lay said that if the rate of
growth continued at the pace it was at a few years ago, there would
be more special education students than regular students at some
point. The district spends 13 percent to 15 percent of its budget on
special education, he said."

It sounds to me like he is hoping to serve fewer students and cut
costs while the hope of parents is that district staff will start
learning how to teach children with autism. Have any of you in
Champaign had any experience with Margie Jobe, good or bad?

Thanks!

Vance Laine