What an idiot and liar. Both Crisfield and the Director of Special Ed have not taken a single status meeting with MSPEC this year despite promising to (in front of witnesses), cancelling the one scheduled and refusing to reschedule it despite numerous requests. They are the ones creating an adversarial relationship, not MSPEC. This is most likely in response to the court case that Millburn recently lost in a HUGE way to parents of a Special Ed student, harshly incriminating them for inadequate services and responses. Where is the outrage over the legal fees spent (and the court mandated reimbursement for the parents) in defending a program that is below par, and who’s directors would rather create a hand-picked committee than even listen to much less answer the legitimate outrage of parents.

Well stated Dr. C. Heavens forbid a family with a special needs child not receive a full time teacher assistant to follow them around all day. I think the district does a great job providing for ll our students. If anything, our Special Ed costs are rising faster than every other cost in the district. To portray themselves as victims is offensive

This guy is a dictator. Warren Township BOE, was sued and settled because of Commander Crisfield's actions and now it appears Millburn has become a victim of his tyranny. The Board and Commander need to start listing to the voice of the parents who pay their salary.

What I find so disgraceful is Dr. Crisfield uses his "letters to the editor" as a way to divert his inappropriate actions and shortcomings. Has anyone taken notice to how many letters he has written when the public questions his actions? How about you take action and listen to an idea other than your own??

AParent and Milke Millburn...if you want to be taken seriously, use your real name. I bet that AParent would be hesitant to spout such slander if he/she was not anonymous.

As far as I am concerned, Dr. Crisfield is a wonderful addition to Millburn.

Yes JS, we know you are a Crisfield minion, however I can express my opinion however I choose. Most fools publish their real names online, I see you fall into that category. You seem to be the only one here who thinks the Commander's actions are justified.

When you want to post your real name, I will reply. Until then, your notes are the ramblings of a coward.

AParent....I think it is hard to take a person seriously when they are rude and disparaging in their comments. It is more than fine to disagree with each other and have discourse about it, but the name calling is unnecessary and counterproductive. I am new to this community and find this quite disheartening.

Dr. Crisfield continues to use his "letters to the editor" as a venue for communicating to township residents, not as a means of diversion.

I believe his top priority is to do what is best for students, parents and teachers of the district!

It is not an easy job and he excels at what he does.

JS it's great to see how you avoid touching the topic of Dr. Crisfield's disgraced past at Warren BOE. Why don't you touch on that??

Here it is for everyone that does not already know

http://nj.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20080304_0000365.DNJ.htm/qx

And that case was settled in favor of plaintiff

Great hire Millburn BOE!!!

If you look at the list of MSPEC programming, the majority of it deals with providing information and support to parents. MSPEC's new "fundraising" allows them to provide speakers and workshops. Previously, MSPEC was funded by donations from each of the PTOs in town. The change in funding did not change their mission. Dr. Crisfield and the Director of Special Services are looking for parents to rubber stamp their decisions, no matter how deficient. We don't provide the best in education when we don't listen to differing points of view.

The costs of special ed may be rising, but how much of that is due to litigation costs arising from the director of special services not fulfilling the requirements of students IEPs and in purchasing programs for the special ed population that are not designed for special ed? Dr. Crisfield should show us the amount of money the district has paid out over the last 5 years in settlement costs and in legal fees, yet those numbers are buried in the Special Ed budget.

Beware wading into the morass that is MSPEC. A great soap opera of backbiting and double dealing could be made out of it.

Dr. Crisfield: please release the percentage of special ed students in this district and their cost. Also please give a comparison to other districts' numbers. It seems that so many students in this town are special ed. Why? I don't want it to bankrupt our district.

M-SPEC essentially withdrew their relationship with the BOE once they became a fundraising 501c3 organization. Prior, they received funding from each school's PTO now, they are raising funds from private entity. They are ADVOCATING change as evident from their sponsorship of the BOE Candidate Forum this past election. This can be construed as "lobbying". This is direct contradition to their previous role of ADVISING which would be providing their opinion and advice. Since they now have voluntarily taken on the role of advocating, the BOE needs to separate their relationship to maintain the unbiased parity for ALL students; Special Needs or not. Otherwise, the perception that the BOE is working with an advocate (special interest) group might inadvertantly show bias and potential litigation from other group(s).

If the district did not want to hear from special education parents, it could have easily met with spec and then ignored everything they had to say and call it a day--legal requirement met. Instead, they are forming a new avenue for input.

too much fuss over nothing at all

PTO and Ed Foundation provide for the common good; M-SPEC is a special interest group. The work of the PTOs and Ed Foundation provides for the entire public academic community, equally. M-SPEC has a very specific objective for a specific group and does not benefit the whole. Once M-SPEC "broke away" from the PTO and created its own organization, they became a special interest group with private fund raising outside of the public school environment. I am neither against Special Ed nor am I or had I suggested that Special Ed programs are a financial burden. I believe every student deserve to obtain the best education possible. With that said, I firmly believe that the BOE should remain unbiased - maintain equality for all.

I don't believe that our percentage of special ed students and their cost are similar to other districts. Why are most of the kids on my street in special ed (as reported by their parents). Why do people write on the work mom listserv about good special ed lawyers. Something is really wrong here. It seems like Crisfield recognizes it. Why would I want my taxes to go to people who game the system? I know that there are legit special ed cases but come on, look around and talk to people in this town and you will realize what's going on pretty quickly. If your kid can't be g & t your lawyers and doctors can make them special ed so they get all kinds of accommodations and still get into Lehigh or wherever.

To WRR-what is "the PTO" that M-SPEC broke away from? I thought there were a number of organizations in the district, at least one at each building (at least 2 at the buildings with the preschool) that call themselves Parent Teacher Organizations. I was under the impression that each PTO advocates for themselves by advising the board on issues concerning their respective members- not issues concerning the "entire public academic community". How does the Deerfield PTO's advocacy for relief from Deerfield's oversized classes benefit the students in Wyoming? And why does Crisfield continue to advocate that the class sizes are fine the way they are? With his competing interest, I wouldn't want Crisfield hand-picking the "official" group of Deerfield parents advising the district on issues concerning Deerfield students.
And there is only a limited amount of space in the district. If one school's PTO successfully advocates for redistricting to achieve smaller classes, it means they are passing the issue on to another school's PTO to deal with. All the PTOs engage in fundraising, and all donations go through the BOE. We all liked to pretend that the board could remain impartial despite the disparity in funds the different schools raise and donate. Now that Crisfield confirmed that the fundraising compromises independence and creates a conflict of interest, it will be hard not to be skeptical seeing which school's PTO will get the most on their budget wish list.

I think Dr. Crisfield is doing a wonderful job in communicating all of his positions to the community through Patch and The Item, but why didn't Dr. Crisfield also tell us about that recently lost special ed case that Mspec wrote about? That's something of importance to the community since we're the ones paying for it.

Just got an e-mail re: an Ed Foundation event with Crisfeld and Siegel - it is $100/person for a good topic - stress in school transitions (open to parents of kids in 5/8/12). why isn't this open to the public? why is it a ridiculous $100 (hoity toity food selection they say). do the people who go get special access to crisfeld and siegel once go to this event the same way special interest groups get special access to politicians? why can't m-spec run an event like this - or did they do something to 'upset' dr. c? maybe theirs can be $200. does anybody else see this as a slippery slope towards bribing, I mean contributing to our educators for access?

and what's with the one-day notice? did the event invite go out to vip's earlier and then to the rest of us with 24 hour notice? what gives?

They sent out a district wide invite a few weeks ago. Just trying to help our schools. Thanks for the support.