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P.U.L.S.E.S.

P.U.L.S.E.S./Parents United Learning the Special Education System

Mission Statement

P.U.L.S.E.S. provides parents of children with disabilities with information/resources to ensure full participation in their children’s educational program including:

— Information about specific disabilities
— Information about the special education process
— Information about due process

P.U.L.S.E.S. connects special education families to existing resources and support systems in the Mid-Hudson Valley. P.U.L.S.E.S. promotes positive change in the special education services across the school districts in the Mid-Hudson Valley, New York.

Top Ten Things I Have Learned as the Parent of a Classified Student in the Warwick Valley Central School District, Kathy Silgailis

Your district will not recommend additional testing to better understand your child’s educational needs.

The teachers will support your district’s agenda rather than supporting your child’s educational needs.

Your district will offer a number of excuses to explain your child’s lack of progress including, “what do you expect; your child is not emotionally ready to learn.”

If you refuse your district’s placement, you will be called a BAD PARENT.

Your district will refuse to add related-services to your IEP, even if independent testing strongly suggests that these services are essential to your child’s educational program.

Your district will say that you are the ONLY parent in the entire district that they are unable to work with.

Your district will tell you that if you complain too much, your child will not receive adequate services, and it will be all YOUR fault.

Your district will claim to know your child’s educational needs better than you, even though they have never seen or observed your child in person.

Your district will attempt to drag out the impartial hearing as long as possible causing your child to suffer through another year of inappropriate services and/or placement.

Your district will spend more money litigating your case than educating your child.

 
 

MIDDLETOWN SCHOOL BOARD OPERATES OUTSIDE OF THE LAWS OF
NEW YORK STATE AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES:
In an unprovoked and outrageous violation of Constitutional Rights, the Middletown School Superintendent, Ken Eastwood, had the Middletown School Board President eject and subsequently arrest a visiting elected official to prevent him from speaking at a PUBLIC COMMENT PORTION of a PUBLIC MEETING.

Once More into the Breach, PRESS NOTICE:
MR. FRAN HOEFER, a member of the Oswego School Board, will address and substantiate the allegations he has made against Middletown School Superintendent Ken Eastwood at a press briefing to be held at 4:00 P.M. TODAY at Sussman & Watkins.

Ten days ago, Mr. Hoefer received a threatening letter from Greenwald Law Offices attempting to further suppress his speech. The letter claimed that Mr. Hoefer's allegations against Mr. Eastwood, which arise from the latter's superintendency in Oswego, are materially false.

Mr. Hoefer denies this charge and intends to present information supporting his claims in Goshen this afternoon. Mr. Hoefer also then intends to speak this evening at the open public session of the Middletown School Board meeting. Early last month, Mr. Hoefer was arrested and detained by the Middletown City Police at the request of the School District for attempting to engage in the same kind of speech. No charges were pressed against him.

Contrary to press accounts, the Middletown School District does have a specific policy permitting public comment at its meetings and this policy DOES NOT restrict such comment to residents of the school district.

All are invited to attend. Sussman & Watkins is located at 55 Main St, Goshen, NY, Suite 6. Michael Sussman

Middletown School Board Meeting: Thursday 8 April, 2010 at 7:30 PM

The Times Herald-Record story follows at the link below.
School trustee backer ejected from Middletown meeting
Calls M'town schools chief 'an evil man'
By Heather Yakin • Times Herald-Record • March 05, 2010

The Democratic Alliance of Orange County conducted a press conference on March 08 at the Law Offices of Sussman and Watkins. The following editoral subsequently appeared in the Times Herald-Record:
Dissidents in Middletown create another distraction
The Middletown school board was wrong to cut off a speaker the other night. The school board should make its microphone open to all who wish to comment.

But the dissident board members who insist on turning each meeting into some kind of inquisition about the superintendent cannot focus only on rights unless they also are willing to talk about responsibilities.

The man whom they invited to talk has tangled in the past with the superintendent in another school district. An independent hearing officer there concluded that the man's "willingness to dispense with the truth and his refusal to follow the law and board policies make him singularly unfit to serve as a member of the board."

The Middletown dissidents, figuring that any enemy of the superintendent is a friend of theirs, decided that it would be good to have him dispense with the truth once again for the local audience. The majority of the board and the majority of the community know what is going on.

If the dissidents want to keep going down this road they have chosen, the only ones they are hurting are the students.

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