Thread by @SEALS_065

I attended #WESELPA's Propaganda Fest at @CentralSD this past Thursday entitled: "Building Positive Relationships with Your School Community" - a training for parents led by Program Manager Anthony Farenga. It's was very troubling and just another way that the schools

think they own our children. I saw this in their core beliefs where Core Belief #1 was "teachers and parents have dreams for their students". I'm sorry but no teacher gets to dream about my child. They have no claim to their life and future. They need to focus on teaching them to

read, write and do math. Another Core Belief was "Families and Staff are equal partners". I at least wish this were true in the IEP meeting as it's supposed to be but it's not. School Admin bully parents and refuse to provide services that will actually benefit students with

#disabilities. Instead they prefer to line the pockets of lawyers from out of town. I shared with Mr. Farenga & the few parents (thankfully) in attendance that we are not equal partners. They get to help get my child through the 8th grade at CSD, after that the burden of getting

our children to adulthood and functioning as a productive member of society falls squarely on the parents shoulders. It's nothing more than platitude.
Mr. Farenga took time to point out the great expense #SpecialEducation is on the School District touting that only 40% of Special

Education funding came along with the Federal #IDEA entitlement act from 1973. What he failed to note is that the 40% is a supplement to the General Ed funding the district already receives from our local taxpayer monies. Check your next #PropertyTax Statement. Much of it goes to

the school district. For @CentralSD, currently there are 2 school bonds on that statement in addition to the regular #propertytax they already receive. School Districts give assurances they will provide appropriate services to #studentswithdisabilities in the least restrictive

environment that will allow them #equalaccess and #meaningfuleducationbenefit. But then they complain it's not enough money. It's never enough. And the problem is a large amount of the #specialeducation money is spent on lawyers to deny services. This is absurd - money intended

to educate students is used against them to deny an education!
I would prefer the #WESELPA districts educate our children instead of litigating against them to deny services. Farenga shared the enormous costs of attorney's but failed to acknowledge that WESELPA has a

1.3 Million dollar budget for them this year already.
Farenga shared a couple videos that I and the other parents found offensive. I felt it gave the district another way to shame and blame parents who speak up. Here's the link to one of them:
One parent

asked about this training being provided to school staff or what trainings at all were provided to staff. Farenga shared that there are trainings provided but they are voluntary. Another #WESELPA staff, Julie, stated that the public/parents were not allowed to attend these

trainings. I asked if we could be provided the documents/slides and was told no. I then proceeded to share with the room a slide from a law firms presentation to special education staff entitled: "Soup to Nuts" that I obtained. The nuts is their "humorous" take on parents who

raise questions or ask about the services their child is provided. The slide was a visual representation of the first tactic they shared that works with these parents: Aggressiveness! I have attached the photo to this post as well. The full slide presentation can easily be found

with an internet search for "Soup to Nuts LAUSD".
This is why we need parents on the school boards to take back control of our schools. Please take your vote seriously this year for school board races!

I support these candidates in #WESELPA districts:

@EtiwandaSD - Barkley Janal (Area 3), Matthew Gordan (Area 4)
@ChinoValleyUSD - Sonja Shaw (Area 3)
@UplandUnifiedSD - Peter Attwood (Area E)
@CJUHSD - Kassandra Wilson (Area 4)
@AltaLomaSD - Eric Chung (Area 1), Brie Kabia (Area 3)
@CentralSD - Chuck Cohn (Area 4)

And for @SBCountySchools Board of Education - Rita Loof (Area B)

#unroll @threadreaderapp