Parents’ concerned about bond direction with Bonneville School District

Bonneville School District 93 held a controversial budget hearing Wednesday night. The meeting left many parents upset about the direction the district may take with its special services programs.

At the budget hearing, three bond options were discussed for the future:

An elementary school with a special services “wing” attached to the building Option one, but with the addition of building a small middle school Building a larger middle school for 6th through 8th grade

“The board appears to be leaning towards looking at a six, seven, eight middle school. If we move toward a six, seven, eight, there is sort of a decrease in efficiency and a slightly increased cost per year for that choice,” Julian Duffie, the district’s director of special services, said.

However, this direction is not sitting right with patrons.

“One of the concerns is, as a parent of a child with special needs, the board is not looking at what’s more efficient for our schools. To have a program in place like this when my kid when in elementary school, it would be life-changing for him,” Holly Gilgio, a concerned parent of a child with disabilities, said.

The board’s direction in wanting a large middle school has the parents feeling like the needs of their children with disabilities are being left out.

“We pay taxes, we have a right to expect that our kids are going to get the same thorough process, the same planning — all of that stuff that a typical kid does,” Gilgio said.

According to the district’s demographics, in 2015, 9.6 percent of its students needed special services. That number increased in 2016 to 10.3 percent. The trend in population keeps increasing in all students year after year, but this also means the number of students with special needs will increase as well.

“I do understand why our patrons right now are slightly upset, especially potentially patrons that have kids with more severe disabilities, because essentially those students don’t have a voice. When we’re looking at middle versus elementary, yes, there is more efficiency at the elementary level for the special-services programs,” Duffie said.

“Our special-ed parents, we’ve been fighting — you know, you fight for your kid since day one. My kid was born with a disability. You fight for doctors, you fight for school support services. This isn’t something specific to District 93, this is across the nation. We’ve lived in many different states — same thing. Kids with disabilities are kind of pushed to the side,” Gilgio said.

No vote was made at Wednesday night’s hearing. As of now, the board plans to have a special meeting June 28 where it expects to make the final vote on which of the three bond options to move forward with.