WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown Elementary School officials on Monday continued to face questions about their decision to restructure the school's special education program.

 

The fiscal 2017 budget season was marked by strong criticism of and confusion about the district's decision to eliminate a full-day program from Side-by-Side, a preschool program intended to address special needs students.

 

The debate continued on Monday at a special School Committee meeting.

 

Although Side-by-Side was not on the committee's agenda, two of the most outspoken critics of last spring's decision took the opportunity to raise the issue during the meeting's public comment period.

 

Sam Crane and Steven Miller each reiterated questions that they posed last year at meetings and on social media.

 

Crane, who made a successful motion for a protest vote on the floor of May's annual town meeting, challenged the school's administration to explain its rationale for seeking a one-to-one ratio of special needs children and typically developing children in the preschool classroom.

 

Crane harkened back to a May 6 letter to the community cosigned by Superintendent Douglas Dias, then-Director of Pupil Personnel Services (now Assistant-Superintendent) Kim Grady, School Committee Chairman Dan Caplinger and Principal Joelle Brookner.

 

In the letter, the officials wrote, "Ideally a target ratio of students with special needs to typically developing peers would be 1:1."

 

On Monday, Crane said that assertion was at odds with several authoritative studies he cited to the committee.

 

"When I look at a variety of different studies … I don't find support for the idea that 1-to-1 is the ideal ratio,” Crane said, reading excerpts from reports the U.S. Department of Education and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

 

From the latter, he read a passage stating that typically-developing children must be in a majority relative to children on individualized education plans in order for an environment to be inclusive.

 

"One-to-one is clearly not a majority," Crane said.

 

Miller took a different tack, questioning the committee about its process for setting budget priorities. He also made the oft-repeated claim that unidentified town residents have pledged "$35,000" to save the full-day program and asked if a full-day program would be more "financially sustainable."

 

Miller challenged the School Committee's decision this summer to add a math specialist, a decision growing out of an unanticipated windfall because of a retirement. He asked whether the committee had considered adding the math specialist before adding the half-day preschool section announced in the May 6 letter.

 

"What are the relative needs of the third half-day population versus those served by the math interventionist?" Miller asked. "What are the top priorities for WES this coming year?"

 

Caplinger asked Dias whether he wanted to respond to the questions raised by either of the speakers during public comment, to which the superintendent answered, "Not at this time."

 

Caplinger indicated he, too, might have more to say on both topics at a later date.

 

"On Sam's point, there's some research I'd like to do in putting together a response," Caplinger said.

 

Miller's comments about budget priority-setting likely would be addressed in the School Committee's Finance Subcommittee, which the committee formed in the spring at the conclusion of the rancorous budget season.

 

In other business on Monday, the School Committee unanimously approved some state-mandated policies on drug and alcohol abuse and education. The special meeting was called for the purpose of having those policies in place before the start of the school year on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

 

The committee also decided to alter its meeting schedule for the rest of the school year at least.

 

The School Committee will generally meet on the fourth Wednesday of each month starting with its next meeting on Sept. 28.

 

Dias requested the committee change its meeting schedule as part of a reorganization of the meeting dates for committees in the Williamstown-Lanesborough Tri-District. The Mount Greylock School Building Committee is planning to meet on the first Thursday of each month during the building project to align its schedule with the Massachusetts School Building Authority's reimbursement process, Dias said.

 

The introduction of those meetings caused a domino effect on other committee meetings, which are staffed by Tri-District personnel like Dias and Business Manager Nancy Rauscher, who both serve on the School Building Committee.