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Southington parent urges board to hire permanent director of pupil services after seven‑month vacancy
Summary
A resident told the Southington Board of Education the district has left the pupil services director post vacant for seven months after an investigation, cited a $25,000 investigation cost and rising special‑education rates, and asked the board to begin a transparent hiring process; the board moved into executive session on student matters after public comment.
Jillian Carlson, a Southington resident, told the Board of Education on Nov. 7 that the district must begin the process of hiring a permanent director of pupil services after what she described as a seven‑month leadership gap.
"Begin the process of hiring a qualified permanent director of pupil services," Carlson said. "It is now November, 7 months later, with no communication, no job posting, and no plan shared with families or the community." She told the board the former director was placed on administrative leave in April 2025 and left the district under a separation agreement in August 2025 after what Carlson said was an internal investigation that cost "over $25,000." Carlson said the vacancy is not a routine transition but a leadership crisis affecting more than 1,000 students served by the department.
Carlson also raised concerns about the district’s approach to special education identification and programming. Citing district correspondence and internal statements she said included comments by district leadership and union representatives, she said Southington’s rate of students identified with an emotional disability rose from 5.7 percent to 8.2 percent over five years while the statewide rate fell, and argued the trend suggests over‑identification rather than effective intervention. She cautioned the district’s recently announced elementary diagnostic classroom — funded through a special education grant and for which job postings already appeared — risked becoming "a holding tank" if existing programs are not first evaluated and improved.
Carlson invoked statements she said were made internally by district staff: she said Superintendent Medansky "had serious concerns about the special education department," and that Assistant Superintendent Pepe described problems as stemming from communication, planning and execution. Carlson also said the director of teaching and learning and the union relayed substantive problems and low morale within pupil services. Those internal statements were cited by Carlson as documentation of systemic concerns; no district official responded to her claims during the public comment period recorded in the transcript.
Board members did not take a public action on Carlson’s request during the meeting. Immediately after public comment the board voted to go into executive session to discuss student matters; the chair stated there were no public action items following that executive session and the meeting would adjourn.
The comments by Carlson were delivered during the public‑comment portion of the Nov. 7 meeting and were not followed by a recorded public response from district leadership in the meeting minutes/transcript. The board’s next public steps on hiring or evaluating pupil services leadership were not announced on the record at that meeting.
