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District outlines partnership with South Bergen jointure for special education services; parents press for details
Summary
Director of special services Darius Pemberton described a new partnership with the South Bergen Jointure Commission to provide related services and shared programs; he said IEPs will not be amended and class sizes remain compliant. Parents and staff raised questions about contractor spending and service levels.
Darius Pemberton, the district's director of special services, told trustees the district will partner with the South Bergen Jointure Commission to provide specialized classrooms, related services and ESY programming beginning in the next school year. He described the jointure as a special-education district that brings staff capacity and shared transportation advantages, and said the district will have seats on jointure boards to increase coordination.
Pemberton emphasized the district is not treating the jointure as a vendor that changes student IEPs and stated, "All of our class sizes and self-contained classes and our ratios are fully compliant. We haven't asked for any caseload to go up for case managers," and that "we haven't had to make any adjustments to IEPs because of this shortfall." He also said roughly two-thirds (0.667) of paraprofessionals had already been part-time, which he presented as easing implementation of schedule changes.
Several members of the public pressed for specifics. Online commenter Lauren Alberta (a middle school speech-language pathologist) asked why, if SBJC can fully staff services as the district claimed, agenda items c18 and c33 seek approval for two additional outside agencies at a combined cost of $800,000. She asked for transparency on how contractor spending aligns with the district's projections and whether additional agencies indicate prior staffing projections were inaccurate.
Administrators acknowledged questions from parents and staff and said they would follow up with specific details. The board also said the SBJC superintendent would be invited to give a more detailed overview at a future meeting.
