School committee presses for fixes to Bartlett accessibility and special‑education staffing

Members of the Lowell City School Committee and district special‑education staff discussed concentrated accessibility problems and staffing shortages affecting students served by special education, focusing on the Bartlett Partnership School and districtwide program placement.

Committee member Jackie Daugherty reminded the group that a June 14 motion she made to send the special‑education improvement plan (agenda item 8.11) to a special‑education subcommittee had been seconded by Miss Del Rossi and was reported in the meeting record as passed. The committee then discussed concerns about the placement of students with mobility needs, urgent facility repairs and hard‑to‑fill special‑education positions.

The special‑education administrator said Bartlett operates K–8 programming that historically served as a hub for students with mobility needs and noted the building’s layout and multiple levels make access difficult. The administrator described a pattern of failures and constraints at Bartlett: a frequently broken elevator, a single ramp at arrival, no designated handicap parking spots and classroom locations that require additional lifts or travel inside the building. The administrator also said the district has conducted school tours and is exploring alternative locations and programming, including preliminary consideration of the STEM Academy as an option because of its accessible drop‑off and circulation, though that school also has capacity constraints and recent temporary construction spending of about $8,000,000.

Committee members and staff emphasized the need to involve frontline stakeholders — teachers, paras, therapists and families — in any planning and to avoid making program placement decisions “in a vacuum.” The committee asked that the district assemble a task force including special‑education administrators, relevant service providers and facilities staff and provide the committee with a list of task‑force members and a progress update at the next meeting. Facilities staff member John Leahy was named in the discussion as touring Bartlett with administrators.

Staffing shortages were a second major focus. The administrator said the district is struggling to recruit and retain specialized program teachers, occupational therapists (OTs), speech‑language pathologists (SLPs) and school psychologists; those roles were described as difficult to fill both locally and regionally. The district has used contracted providers and agencies to reduce caseload pressure but noted the higher cost and budget implications of that approach. The district reported plans to examine caseload distribution and to convene cohorts of school psychologists, BCBAs, SLPs and related staff to identify short‑term and longer‑term strategies.

Committee members requested regular data to substantiate any future budget requests: school‑level caseloads, breakdowns of which schools have elevators or other accessible spaces, counts of students in mobility‑impacted programs (LEAP, CSA, language‑based programs), and the number and status of difficult‑to‑fill positions. The administrator said the district is building more consistent data collection so those reports can be produced and suggested an initial near‑term update from the task force (rough timing discussed as about two weeks to a month) and a standing progress report cadence; committee members asked for an executive summary of state monitoring activity and the district’s corrective timelines.

No new program placements or budget approvals were decided at the meeting. The committee closed the discussion with agreement that staff will return with a list of task‑force members, facilities options under consideration and periodic progress reports so the committee can evaluate any funding or policy follow‑up.

The committee motion to adjourn ended the meeting.