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Superintendent says ESE evaluation delays driven by staffing shortages; district investigating Noble summer-school placement and alleged firearm
Summary
After public comments about summer-school access and an allegation at Noble, Superintendent Dr. Vidi said the district assigned self-contained ESE students to two designated sites, is investigating an allegation that a firearm was brought into a school, and described ESE psychologist and speech-pathologist shortages as the main cause of IEP delays.
Parents and community members raised two related concerns during public comment: access for students with disabilities to summer school at their home school and an allegation that a parent brought a firearm to a school incident. The public commenters asked the board to ensure special education (ESE) students can attend summer school at Noble if parents request it and to explain how the district will prevent segregation of ESE students in summer programs.
Superintendent Dr. Vidi told the board the district added Noble late to the summer-school schedule after the school advocated to be included, but that Noble had limited air-conditioned classrooms. The Ballmer grant-funded summer program selects sites across the city that have air conditioning; Dr. Vidi said ESE students who require self-contained placements were assigned to two designated sites so the district could concentrate staffing and resources there. He said this was the reason Noble’s self-contained ESE students did not attend Noble’s summer program and clarified that “students don't attend all their individual schools” for summer school under the Ballmer grant model.
On the allegation raised during public comment that a parent brought a firearm into Noble, Dr. Vidi said the district is investigating and that the Department of FACE will pursue mediation with the parent. He also said local police were investigating the allegation.
Separately, in response to board questions about delays in ESE evaluations and services, Dr. Vidi cited workforce shortages as the primary cause. "Bottom line, we get it done. The issue is that we're not doing it. The issue is that there's delay. That's the main issue," he said on the record. He told the board that the district has increased pay for some positions, including a $15,000 recruitment/retention bonus for certain ESE ancillary positions, but that numbers remain short: the transcript lists approximately 15 psychologist vacancies (combined full-time and contracted), 24 speech-language pathologist vacancies (combined), one occupational therapist vacancy, and multiple other ancillary vacancies the superintendent said are delaying IEP evaluations and reevaluations. Dr. Vidi warned that recruiting for psychologists and speech-language pathologists is a national challenge and added, "I don't see us solving the psychologist's problem unless we go higher with salaries. I mean, bottom line." He also said the district is exploring process improvements to group evaluations and deploy teams in cohorts to speed evaluations.
The board asked for clearer communication with parents about timelines and case status when evaluations are requested. The superintendent said ESE runs monthly engagement meetings for parents and that the district will provide further updates; he committed to return to the board with a plan to refine evaluation processes and tracking.
No formal policy action or vote was taken on the public comments. The superintendent directed staff to pursue an investigation of the Noble allegation and to work with FACE on mediation, and he committed to return to the board with implementation steps to reduce evaluation delays.
