New special ed boss to focus on parents

Teresa Hinds

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The new head of the Clark County School District's troubled special education division is being characterized as someone well-versed in federal laws who values parental involvement.

The School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to hire Charlene A. Green as the assistant superintendent of the special student services division, and Green said she hopes to start work by the end of February.

"I'm very excited," Green said in a phone interview Tuesday from her home in Indianapolis. "I'm excited about meeting with the staff and being a catalyst for change."

Green offered an African proverb to illustrate her philosophy of the give-and-take exchange between staff and a director: "A single bracelet doesn't jingle."

"You have to have those other bracelets to make a noise and hopefully it is a good noise, a joyful noise," Green said.

One thing Green, who will draw an $86,352 annual salary, said her focus in her new position will be communication with parents, whom she believes are the real experts.

Some parents of special education students in the Clark County School District have complained that their concerns are not listened to by members of the team of experts that comprise the IEP, or Individualized Education Program.

"When you sit down at the table, the parent is a very integral part of that process," she said. "We have to listen to parents and hear what they are saying to us and make our best educational judgement so that we build a program that has a complete group of people giving their best to make things happen in the right way for the children."

School Board President Susan Brager sat on the search committee for the special ed director, and said that she was impressed with Green's communication skills, her knowledge of federal laws and her "overall emphasis on children."

Brager said Green is "extremely aware of the IEP process and the legal ramifications. She tuned right in to thinking (the school district's) IEP form was a little more complicated than it should be" and offered suggestions on how to streamline the IEP process.

The special ed department's handling of the IEP process has come under fire recently by special education auditors Ed Sontag and David Rostetter, who allege interference by administrators in IEP placement decisions.

When asked how she would handle the allegations in the audit, Green said, "I really don't want to discuss the audit. I don't believe it's my place to discuss it."

School Board member Judy Witt, who also served on the search committee, said she was most impressed with Green's attention to detail.

Witt explained that all seven finalists were given "a volume of backup material" about the school district, and each candidate was asked what the district's strengths and weaknesses were.

"This woman, without a clue this was going to be asked, opened up the books and went and found areas where she detailed very specifically what she would recommend changing and what she thought was wonderful about the district, and that impressed me," Witt said.

Witt also mentioned that Green zeroed in on the IEP process as a weakness. "She had some definite opinions on things that would make the process more streamlined. The insight she had comes from working in a large district."

"I pray she has the courage to do what needs to be done here in the special ed department," said School Board member Lois Tarkanian.

She added that Green's actions as head of the special student services division will be the "most important thing (affecting) handicapped children in the history of our district."

Green, 53, currently serves as a consultant to several eastern school districts, including Stamford, Conn. She is also working with the Indianapolis Public Schools department on an attention deficit disorder study and with Indiana University on a program to train prospective special education directors.

She has worked in special education for close to 30 years and has served as an associate superintendent and assistant superintendent for special education with Chicago Public Schools, and as assistant to the deputy superintendent and acting assistant superintendent with Indianapolis Public Schools.

Green earned a bachelor's degree in elementary eucation at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1966 and a master's in special education at Indiana University in Indianapolis in 1975.