Former special education director says she’s ‘no longer proud to be a Dragon’
By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education meeting on Feb. 12 was their first regular meeting since supporting the administration’s recommendation to close the Oakland County special needs program at Pine Tree Center on Jan. 8.
And the decision led many parents and some current and former district employees to attend the meeting on Feb. 12 and protest that decision.
The decision was made because the building is unsustainable for the program – which serves students around the county with “significant needs in the area of autism and emotional impairment,” said Superintendent Heidi Mercer.
Although most of the meeting agenda’s topics took around 90 minutes to discuss, 14 people including parents, teachers, a student and former LOCS Director of Special Education Julie Gutman spoke for roughly an additional hour during public participation to voice their displeasure with the program’s closure.
Gutman, who spent more than 25 years with the district and worked as LOCS’s special education director from 2007 to May 2023, said she believes the district lost focus.
“I am born and raised a Dragon, and I have been so proud to be in Lake Orion and work for Lake Orion. I’m not anymore,” Gutman said. “The fact that you did this to families, staff and students, (with) less than five months (left in the school year). What can you plan in less than five months?”
The district will cease hosting the program at the conclusion of the current school year, according to a Jan. 8, Pine Tree Center update from Mercer.
A parent and former teacher of a Pine Tree student, also voiced concerns over what they considered a lack of planning.
Gutman said the district truly believed in educating all kids and treating each equally in the past. Still, Gutman said some kids needed more, which meant sending students to centers for special education. She said these centers were “not the Lake Orion way,” so the district created Pine Tree.
Working with staff, LOCS created a center that taught “great” lessons, taught kids they can trust adults, and they can have “a new day, that it’s unconditional love,” she said.
Gutman said the district also moved PHASES, a program serving post-secondary aged adults with disabilities, to Pine Tree. This move “created an atmosphere (of) what they deserved.”
Mercer said in January the PHASES program will stay in the district and be moved to another building.
Had the district taken a year to close the program instead of closing it at the end of the school year, Gutman said she would have personally spearheaded committees “to make great solutions.”
“But what we did, is we taught lessons to the kids – (they) can’t trust adults again,” Gutman said. “They let (kids) down again.”
PHASES teacher Rebel Molina said she saw a district that valued students with disabilities when she came to LOCS in 2022. Molina said her issue with the move is not just the closure, but how it is happening.
“We as staff were asked what we needed to strengthen our programs, and we were hopeful, we had ideas,” Molina said. “Then, weeks later, we were told we were being moved.”
Molina said this brings up memories of students with special needs being treated as an after thought, adding she does not believe that is the board’s intention.
Board Treasurer Jake Singer called renovations to the building “cost prohibitive” and “not practical” on Jan. 8, adding renovating and rebuilding would cost more money than he would be comfortable asking the community to pay for.
If the district decided to use future bond funds on the building, it would mean Orion taxpayers would pay taxes for non-district students. Three students of the 32 in the program are in-district students.
Sara Rosell, who has two children attending Lake Orion Schools, said she and her husband always voted for every school bond, but “recent actions have made us reconsider our future votes.”
Another parent, Nancy Halter-Austin, said she and her family moved to Oxford in July to be closer to the Pine Tree Center because her son’s previous school district, Royal Oak, was unable to accommodate his needs.
Halter-Austin said her son has autism and epilepsy, is nonverbal, cannot understand “simple tasks and commands,” requires 24/7 support.
“My son has thrived at Pine Tree Center because his teachers and all of the staff are trained to help the kids because they have the means to do so,” she said, adding she was told the Pine Tree Center was Bryson’s only option.
“The board seems more concerned about the money than the safety and welfare of the kids in the district,” Halter-Austin said before criticizing the board’s decision to “spend money on buildings that do absolutely nothing for the kids in the district.”
Student Mark Norman, 14, said the program has helped him control his feelings, and furthered his education far more than other schools he attended. When kids cannot control their feelings, Norman said it hurts their lives and people around them.
“The staff are equipped for when they have these (crises) and cannot control their feelings,” he said. “This school is also equipped for the way that these students learn because their minds work a bit differently, like mine.”
Another audience member was not able to speak because he did not sign a public participation sheet. The board of education has a policy stating those taking part in public participation must sign the sheet before the meeting, according to Board President Danielle Bresett.
The audience member called the board a disgrace, and asked if the board has any interest in the community.
To learn more about the closure search “LOCS board supports recommendation to close Oakland County special needs program at Pine Tree Center” on lakeorionreview.com.