Schools

Firm Withdraws Contract Due to Parents' Complaints

Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Ed to re-advertise for special education services.

The Caldwell-West Caldwell School District's superintendent and Board of Education heard loud and clear in a meeting last month the concerns parents of special education students had regarding the proposed vendors for occupational and physical therapy services.

So did one of the recommended providers.

According to Board President Mary Davidson, Advance Education Advisement Corp., which was the proposed provider of occupational therapy services, withdrew its contract with the district that was approved last month to provide applied behavior analysis, speech and language therapy and board-certified behavior assessment services for the 2010-11 school year after receiving several phone calls from disgruntled Caldwell-West Caldwell parents.

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In a letter, the firm expressed concern working with the school district and pointed out that three of its sub-contracted therapists resigned because they felt uncomfortable with the situation and others asked to not be assigned to the district because of the parents' complaints, Davidson told The Caldwells Patch.

At a June 28 meeting when an outpouring of parents of special education students raised concerns over the district's proposed change from Caldwell Pediatric Therapy Center, the board tabled a vote to approve the Forked River-based Advance Education Advisement Corp., to provide occupational therapy services and Roosevelt-based Therapeutic Outreach for Children Inc., for physical therapy services.

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While it wasn't pointed out during Monday night's special meeting, both vendors each withdrew their proposals after the June 28 meeting due to an insufficient amount of staffing, Ronald Skopak, the district's business administrator and board secretary, told The Caldwells Patch.

As a result, the board accepted Monday night Advance Education Advisement's contract withdrawal for the services that were already approved, rejected all of the remaining proposals for occupational and physical therapy services and agreed to re-advertise this week for Requests for Proposals for all of these services.

"As a group of parents, as individuals, we always have the right to express ourselves and say what we want to say. But how we say it sometimes can create a lot of negativity. I do have to stand up for this particular professional group that Mr. [Nicholas] Del'Re made the recommendation for because while we did have some concern over the issues you brought to our attention and they were certainly valid concerns, I was concerned when we received a letter back from them," Davidson told the large group of parents Monday night at Harrison School.

"They are justified concerns, but this is a person who is running a business. We have to respect other professionals. We don't know whether this is the same service you are used to having—it may be better or it may not be. But we don't know that and to make that kind of decision just because it's a change and you're afraid of change, and I understand that, is not fair to these people. I really would like to just ask that in moving forward, whatever decisions we make, we do it with respect to everybody involved."

Advance Education Advisement stated in the letter that it would, however, consider making another proposal when the new RFPs are due in mid-August, Davidson told The Caldwells Patch.

With Advance Education Advisement's withdrawal, the board approved to extend the contracts of Lovaas Institute, the Cherry Hill-based provider that previously offered applied behavior analysis services to the district, and Douglas Outreach/Douglas Developmental Disabilities Center of New Brunswick to provide board-certified behavior assessment services until Aug. 31.

According to Skopak, the district is providing in-house speech and language therapy services throughout the summer program until a new provider is appointed for September. 

While Del'Re, the former interim director of special education, made the previous recommendations, Paul Palozzola, who took over as supervisor of the special education department on July 1, will review the new proposals and make recommendations that the board expects to vote on at its next meeting on Aug. 30.

However, some parents expressed concern Monday night of the quick turnaround since the contract that has been extended through the summer with Caldwell Pediatrics will expire on Aug. 31.

In addition, Anthony Bonanno, a West Caldwell parent, also requested that if the new provider is not Caldwell Pediatrics, that the vendor have a local facility—unlike the previously proposed firms—and that a complete transition plan be instituted.

Another parent, Mark Henderson, also asked what steps would be taken to ensure continuity with the children's therapy programs.

"Any services that we provide for the children, there's a carryover into the classroom," Del'Re responded. "The kids employ the skills that they learned in the therapy sessions into the classrooms. That's what they call generalizing of skills. The teachers are well aware of the personalities of the children, they are well aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

"They would really be the frontline individuals to go to, regardless of who the therapist was. Even a therapist who has been working with a child for a while will still rely on the teacher to fine tune, modify and make sure what they are implementing in the therapy session is consistent with what the teacher is seeing in the classroom."

For approximately one hour, about 12 parents and even West Caldwell Councilwoman Rosemarie Sutherlin questioned the board, Superintendent Daniel Gerardi and Del'Re, who provided some insight to parents' concerns that were not able to be addressed at the previous meeting when he did not attend.

While Gerardi estimated at the previous meeting that the district would save approximately $35,000 by switching from Caldwell Pediatrics to Advance Education Advisement and Therapeutic Outreach, the actual savings would have actually been about $55,000, Skopak said.

"I had an opportunity to sit down and go through and do a general analysis of the overall costs that were provided for and paid for by the particular vendor that we're talking about. That's where that total dollar came out," Skopak said.

"The original figures were based on the minimum number of hours that were placed in the bid that we were asking providers to provide. Those numbers were the basis for the RFP that was put out there by the special services."

While Caldwell Pediatrics has served the district for the past 19 years, the state mandated last year the RFP process for all professional services in each school district, Skopak pointed out.

As a result, each year the district will need to go through this process, which concerned parents since a potential change each year could cause significant ramifications for children with special needs.

"If you're not a parent of a special needs child, you cannot even fathom the word 'change' in your life," West Caldwell parent Pam Donovan said. "I know we go from teacher to teacher, and even that is difficult. Caldwell Therapy has been in some of these children's lives since they entered into the school program.

"It's absolutely impossible sometimes when you consider the word transition and not seeing that familiar face. I don't think you could fathom it. I don't think you could have a child who does not have autism and begin to understand the ramifications that are going to come out of this. The regression can be almost just beyond your imagination."

Considering the recommended vendors were from South Jersey and were planning to use therapists who were sub-contracted from this area, Madeline Brown, a West Caldwell parent who once attended the Caldwell-West Caldwell School District, questioned Del'Re's decision to switch from Caldwell Pediatrics.

"So at this point, after 19 years of dedicated service, why did you decide that these other vendors might be more beneficial than Caldwell Pediatric? Everybody here wants to know why," she said.

"This is the question that was not answered last meeting. Can you explain it? It sounds to me, the way you just explained it, is that we now have the possibility of having people with outside subcontractors, which to me, makes me think the potential of having a different OT or PT each week is going to be there. They don't have consistent employees. That sounds like a reason to not go with these groups."

Del'Re responded by saying that he was simply fulfilling a requirement.

"All I did was respond to a code requirement, which was to develop a proposal based on the related services that were required and submit the proposal, wait for the proposals to come in, evaluate them and then make a recommendation. That's what I did," he said.

"It was an opportunity for a number of vendors to provide us with their service—what we look at is the lowest responsible proposal. There was nothing done other than to provide the requirement that we needed to. That's all I did. All I did was make a recommendation. All I did was fulfill a requirement."

It was an answer that didn't satisfy Brown.

"I've been in this district for 35 years," she said. "I was born and raised and came back to this district. Tonight, I'm almost ashamed to say it."

However, Gerardi reminded parents that the overriding factor was the difference in cost. According to Gerardi, while most of the district's consulting firms reduced their fees for next year, Caldwell Pediatrics was one of the few to raise its rates.

"Cost is certainly a variable that we have to look at," Gerardi said. "A $55,000 or $57,000 variable is a lot of money. Under the constraints that we find ourselves in and that we will find ourselves in for budget building for this year and going into the future, that has to be a consideration that needs to be look at along with the quality of the service."

While Del'Re pointed out two face-to-face interviews and one "extensive" phone screening was done before selecting the previously proposed vendors, Ray Castellano, a West Caldwell parent, requested the district conduct a more thorough evaluation when the next proposals are submitted.

"I think the board, to satisfy us, needs to probe a little more and maybe ask some questions. I heard at the last meeting that [Advance Education Advisement] had a facility in West Orange. Mr. Del'Re, have you gone to that facility? I'm not questioning his research, but we came up with so many questions about these two companies that nobody on the board had an answer to one of them, so I think it's your responsibility to probe a little bit more. This isn't a proposal to buy paper for next school year," Castellano said.

"This is much more than that. I think you guys owe it to us to make sure that when you take the proposal, you ask some questions. We were here on June 28, you were ready to give it to a company and they weren't even staffed. I'm not saying who you have to give it to, although you know where our heart is, but I think you owe it to us to make sure this company is the most responsible." 


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