Or feel free to call me at (309) 451-9215.

Vance

--- In cuan-listserve@yahoogroups.com, "Vance Laine"
<cheeseheadvance@...> wrote:
>
> 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
>