I’ve decided that 2010 is the year that, when possible, I’ll stop waiting around for things to happen and do everything possible to move them along at something other than a snail’s pace — or at least try.  Last night, in an effort to put some closure to an issue that has been dragging on way to long.  Here’s what I had to say to the Board.  Now let’s see how they respond.

(The following are comments, as prepared, delivered to the Orange County Board of Education at their Jan 4th meeting.  I have audio of what I said, which only deviates slightly from this, and hope to figure out how to post that later.)

Members of the Board and Superintendent Rhodes, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak.

About 6 months ago, I first stood before you to introduce myself and address what is still an ongoing due process case. I come here tonight not about this case but about another matter that, I fear, if unresolved, may result in the filing of another complaint against this board – something I do not what to do but may feel compelled to do so if this matter is not properly addressed in a timely fashion.

Last July, our son’s IEP team met to address the issue of Extended School Year services (ESY) – a matter that should have been dealt with back in February, but was not due to ongoing litigation. Together the IEP team – school representatives and parents TOGETHER – determined that our son was eligible for services and proceeded to develop an IEP for ESY.

Because half of the summer had already passed, and the schools had not been providing services but we had, it was determined (and first suggested by your lawyer at the time) that the school district reimburse us for the services we had already been providing our son during the summer months. It was also determined that the school district would reimburse us for any other services that our private therapist provided our son going forward to meet his ESY needs – our private provider would pick up the hours that the school district could not provide due to staffing issues during the summer.

In August a letter and invoices for placement and services was sent to your lawyer, as we had been instructed to do so. Over the past 6 months we have made repeated attempts to address this.

To date we have still not been reimbursed.

I want to believe that this is just an oversight and that because of your change in lawyers handling the due process case, this matter simply fell through the cracks.

I urge the members of the board to look into this and honor the agreement that was made with my son, per his IEP.

As we now approach the time when ESY for the upcoming summer is addressed I would very much like to have this issue closed so that I head into my son’s next IEP meeting with the belief that agreements made by the board in good faith are in fact honored.

thank you.