Special Education

Teachers and students at William Penn Middle School in Yardley are mourning the loss of two teachers who died less than a week apart. Janine Giuliano, with the Pennsbury School District since 1992, died at home last weekend, according to school officials. She taught seventh-grade math at the time of her death. Marguerite Ferraro, 40, a seventh-grade teacher hired last year, died May 9, according to her husband, Mark. Principal Paul Meehan called Giuliano "a colleague and friend to everyone on our staff, and a true inspiration to her math students.

DON CLARK was a "fighter for the underdog. " That was how he was described by associates and family, who said his life was defined by his devotion to the people who need strong advocates to assure their rights as citizens. Dr. Donald L. Clark, president of the Willow Grove branch of the NAACP who was active in numerous other organizations devoted to civil and human rights and the African-American heritage, died April 21 of cancer. He was 75 and living in a hospice in Warminster.

The Cherry Hill school board has chosen an administrator from within the district to succeed superintendent David Campbell, who will retire June 30. Maureen Reusche, a district assistant superintendent since April 2007, was selected from seven finalists out of an initial pool of 19 applicants. She now supervises the offices of curriculum, assessment and research, special education, and student services. She received her bachelor's in education from Villanova University, a master's in technology in education from Rosemont College, and a doctorate in educational administration from Widener University.

When Manuel Gonzalez started kindergarten, his mother, Jasmin, told administrators at Elkin Elementary School in Kensington that he'd been diagnosed with a learning disability while in Head Start. But a school psychologist tested Manuel and told Gonzalez that he was only having trouble speaking. They enrolled him in a student assistance program called CSAP and said he would attend regular classes. This way Manuel would not have to endure the stigma of being labeled as learning disabled.

The College of New Jersey, backed by a $1.28 million federal grant, is working with state high schools to spread a hopeful message to students with intellectual disabilities: College is possible. TCNJ's Career and Community Studies (CCS) program, which offers a four-year certificate for students with a range of intellectual disabilities, including autism, Williams syndrome, and Down syndrome, has partnered with the Haddonfield and Hopewell Valley Regional School Districts to encourage such students and their families to consider a college education.

A lawsuit filed more than three years ago by several Lower Merion School District students and parents contending that some African American children were improperly classified as special education students or placed in "low-expectation" courses has been scheduled for trial. The trial is to begin on Nov. 1, barring a settlement. Mediation efforts went on over much of last year but ended in December with no agreement. The Lower Merion district, in a statement released Monday by spokesman Douglas Young, said it had "acknowledged . . . historical concerns surrounding minority achievement and supports.

In his latest audit of the School District of Philadelphia, City Controller Alan Butkovitz said serious questions surround the district's failure to document $50 million in transportation costs for special education. When auditors requested documentation to determine how bus attendants' payroll costs were determined, district personnel could not provide a copy of the study, according to a statement issued yesterday by Butkovitz. The audit, conducted for fiscal year 2009, also found that $1.3 million of $2.1 million in open contracts and orders was determined to be unnecessary.

Only 38 teacher vacancies remain for school district officials to fill before school starts one week from today, a district official reported yesterday. This is a drop in vacancies compared to 45 around this time last year, and 289 empty positions in 2008, according to district figures reported last year. A hiring freeze imposed this spring and lifted for most subject areas last Friday helped reserve enough jobs for the large number of teachers in need of new assignments in September, said Estelle Matthews, the district's personnel chief.

There are some times when the pain is bearable. And there are others when she can't control her tears, like the day this summer when yet another package she had sent her son reappeared in the mail, unopened and dented, filled with crumbled cookies. Melinda Kane, 52, of Cherry Hill, is the mother of a fallen Marine. Her son Lance Cpl. Jeremy Kane, 22, died Jan. 23 in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. He was a reservist in the Fourth Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. The Rutgers University-Camden criminal-justice major, a gunner on his first tour of duty, had long dreamed of being a Marine - unusual for someone in a community where young people rarely pursue military careers.

Even though the new state budget would increase the main public-education subsidy, the funding would not protect schools from making cuts next year, some school leaders say. Most have already had to reduce staff and make other cuts to balance their budgets for next year, which had to be passed by June 30. The large majority are also raising taxes, many by more than the rate of inflation. Cuts that were made to Gov. Rendell's proposed budget in the final version that passed Wednesday "just whittle more away from what was a bad scenario to start with," said Joseph Bruni, the superintendent in Delaware County's William Penn School District, which has already cut 28 teaching jobs and three administrative staff posts.