To the Editor: Perrysburg parents worried about switch to Lucas County services

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Wood County Education Services has been the provider for Perrysburg students that require Individualized
Education Programs as well as typically developing preschoolers for many years. WCESC has worked with
children of Perrysburg to ensure adequate educational services and learning opportunities. Our current
students are being taught by teachers with Masters Degrees and multiple years of experience, along with
a multidisciplinary approach with effective communication between the subspecialties (speech, fine
motor, etc).
Perrysburg has decided to switch from our current provider to that of Lake Erie West (formerly Lucas
County Education Services). WCESC currently has one full-time psychologist, speech, occupational, and
physical therapist along with one part-time speech and occupational therapist currently teaching
our children. They also employ nine parateachers (classroom assistants) in addition to the 5 main
preschool teachers. Lake Erie is not currently planning on hiring any specialists or parateachers, yet
they will now have all of Perrysburg children in addition to Maumee students. All of the typical
developing children are being forced to incur an 84% increase in tuition to stay at Union.
Why the change? Money. We pay thousands of dollars for our children to be taken care of and yet we are
changing to a system for our children with needs that will ultimately hurt the future of Perrysburg and
our children. We pay Wood County and Perrysburg taxes, yet will be receiving Lucas County services,
which are cheaper, yet our taxes still remain the same.
WECSC had 46 children that received special services last year that are transitioning to kindergarten. Of
those, 43% of them were exited from needing any services next year and an additional 7% are
transitioning with less special education services than they required previously. Lucas County
statistics are unavailable.
While Tom Hosler, superintendent of Perrysburg schools believes that "no one will even notice a
change," those that know about this already have. Perrysburg schools made these changes without any
discussion, nor were any parents even informed of the possible changes. The Perrysburg Board minutes
from January to May have no mention, nor vote of this change in their documentation. Dwight Fertig,
executive director of pupil services, said they voted, unanimously, in either March or April. However,
he was unable to find this information in the minutes.
Take a second and help us reclaim our rights for the children of Perrysburg and visit
http://chn.ge/1njGpJz
Michelle Perkins
Sara Bassler
Perrysburg

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