During public comment at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, parent Tara Gonzales urged the district to increase transparency and family involvement after her daughter was moved from an elementary life‑skills program at the Hamilton building to a different placement. Gonzales said the move was communicated to her by email and removed her child from a program where staff and shared resources had supported the child’s development.

Gonzales said Hamilton’s elementary life‑skills program offered a team of teachers, paraprofessionals and therapists and allowed shared resources and staff collaboration. “The Hamilton program gave Rosie and our family the greatest gift that a school system can offer its families, trust,” Gonzales said. She asked the board to involve parents more fully in future program evaluations and to conduct a parent roundtable to compare secondary and elementary life‑skills services.

Gonzales described specific concerns about the change of placement: she said the move was not triggered by individual student needs and that some supports available at the elementary level had not been replicated at the secondary site. She said her daughter had made progress in the elementary program, including mobility, use of a communication device and social connections, and that the family was not given a clear explanation beyond a short email that mis‑spelled her child’s last name. Gonzales requested that the district evaluate secondary life‑skills classrooms to ensure they provide a comparable continuum of services and that families be included in program decisions.

Board members did not take a formal vote or action during public comment. Gonzales asked the district to provide a parent roundtable and to publish a comparison of the resources and services at the elementary program and the secondary site. The district did not commit to a specific timeline during the public comment period; staff follow‑up was discussed as part of subsequent agenda items but no formal board directive was recorded in the public transcript.