Allowing director to telecommute from Washington, D.C., raises some eyebrows
By Vanessa Lenz
Contributor
The East Troy Community School District’s recent decision to allow its special education director to telecommute from Washington, D.C., next year has drawn statewide attention.
A Public Investigator article printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week ignited a lively debate in its website’s comments section that prompted a follow-up article this week, as well as a mention during a 620 WTMJ segment.
Despite the considerable media attention and subsequent criticism, District Administrator Dr. Christopher Hibner is standing by the job model, which he says was well thought out.
“It wasn’t like all of a sudden we just decided to do this,” Hibner said.
Hibner said the arrangement was developed shortly after Tim Peerenboom, 33, who serves as special education director and district assessment coordinator, announced his plans to resign from the position last September.
Peerenboom plans to relocate to Washington. D.C., to be with his fiancée while she completes a fellowship with the National Cancer Institute. He said he plans to return to East Troy in one or two years.
Hibner said Peerenboom’s resignation would have come during a crucial transition period for the district’s special education department.
“I was saddened for a couple reasons. I really believe that, with all employees around here, I want to attract and retain quality employees. The second reason I was saddened is there is a lot of transition going on with the Response to Intervention model in special education,” Hibner said.
Peerenboom said the district needs to adopt the RTI model as its new method for identifying children with specific learning disabilities by December of 2013.
“We are not only in the midst of transitions with our district assessments and how we are using them, but we are in the midst of the state assessments being transitioned for smarter balanced assessment,” Hibner added.
During the 2013-14 school year, the district will also be introducing specialized classes for early childhood special education, three new teachers at the secondary levels and incorporating a Project Based Learning model for grades four and five.
Thinking outside the box
In an effort to provide consistency in leadership during the special education reform and also keep a quality employee, Hibner said he started to think outside the box.
“The thought process started. What could we do to maybe do this differently? Could there be a model that we could look at?” Hibner said.
“My initial reaction was ‘Well it’s flattering and nice that you value me as an employee,’ but at first I was just like everybody else that I’ve talked to since, ‘How would that work?’” Peerenboom said after Hibner first brought up the telecommuting option. “But the more I looked into it the more and more realistic it started to seem.”
After assessing the current responsibilities of Peerenboom’s job, Hibner said they both realized a big percentage of the position doesn’t require a physical presence.
“A lot of it is reviewing, monitoring, consulting and planning,” Hibner said. “When you look at that type of responsibility and verbiage, it provided an opportunity … ‘Could a majority of those things be done in a different venue such as telecommuting?’ and we thought ‘Maybe.’”
Hibner said the new job structure also proved to be fiscally responsible with a reduction of Peerenboom’s 40 hour a week position to 28 hours.
“That brought us approximately a $35,000-$45,000 savings, which came from a reduction in his salary and reduction in health insurance,” Hibner said.
He said the savings will allow the district to invest in an additional full-time school psychologist to further meet students’ needs.
Board backs proposal
Hibner received the full backing of the East Troy Community School District Board of Education, which approved the measure unanimously in April. (The vote occurred before new board member Ted Zess was elected).
Hibner said some board members had reservations regarding situations in which they felt a physical presence would be needed
“I think that’s a legitimate thing to have inquired and asked and we did have those questions,” Hibner said.
As an administrator, Peerenboom doesn’t work directly with students so if an incident were to occur, the process would involve the general education teacher or the case manager first, Hibner explained.
“If it was more of a building disruption, it would involve the building level principal,” he said.
As per contract terms, Peerenboom will be required to work in the district one time each month to complete duties that can’t be done remotely, such as meetings with the nine special education teachers, two school psychologists, three speech language pathologists, one administrative assistant and 15 paraprofessionals he oversees. Hibner said Peerenboom will have to pay for all travel expenses and the period of time spent in East Troy will vary.
“That time back may be anywhere from three days to eight days,” Hibner said.
Peerenboom will not hold office hours when he’s working in East Troy.
Hibner said this will allow Peerenboom to be “100 percent focused” on interacting with the 30 employees he oversees and 171 special education students in the district.
“We don’t want him doing any paperwork when he is physically present. He will be getting to people, watching people, seeing people, talking to people,” Hibner said.
Peerenboom said he is excited to develop innovative ways to increase communication with staff. He plans to utilize group chats, video calling and webinars to stay involved.
“It’s new in K-12 education, but really what we are doing is following the lead of innovative businesses and the way students are learning now,” Peerenboom said.
Hibner agreed noting although telecommuting with personnel is rare in the education sector, top companies have increasingly relied on working remotely.
“A decade ago, one in 10 places on Fortune’s ‘Best Companies to Work’ utilized telecommuting. Today, 80 percent utilized telecommuting in one fashion or another … This is a different way,” Hibner said.
He said the same trend is happening in education, just not with personnel.
“A decade or two ago, people thought education could only be taught in bricks an mortar and now we offer virtual learning,” he said citing the three college courses he took online last year without ever seeing his professor.
Can it be done remotely?
Peerenboom spent the past month getting the word out about changes to parents and staff and getting specific feedback.
“The major concern was with accessibility … but they miss the part where I am going to be back regularly and it’s just going to be a matter of using technology to collaborate regularly and being more planful of scheduling when it does need to be face to face. I am still going to be here and still be in your buildings,” Peerenboom said.
Hibner said he didn’t want to see any responsibilities shifted and he is confident that Peerenboom will continue to put in full-time effort.
Hibner said they are not going into the move naïve, however, knowing there is a possibility it might not work.
When restructuring Peerenboom’s contract, the School Board established a provision that if the setup isn’t working, either party can discontinue it within 30-day notice.
While the district is touting the benefits of the work arrangement, several parents and teachers have voiced concerns.
Terry Murphy, who is retiring as a special education teacher at the end of the school year after 24 years, questioned the value of telework in education.
“It is creative, perhaps cost effective for someone, but hardly in the best interests of the special education community of kids, parents, teachers, counselors and instructional aides who are in the trenches and involved in the day-to-day battle of understanding and meeting the unique needs of a very complicated population,” he said in letter to the School Board.
Murphy said his professional goal has long been to leave the situation he spent a large part of his life in a better place than he found it.
“I leave behind a school community that appears to be going through a tough patch; one that is filled with more anxieties than comforts, more negativity then smiles, and more expectations with less time given,” he said. “I find it disturbing the decision to jettison the special education director to a faraway place was never a shared decision. At least some insignificant input from the rank and file may have been appropriate.”
A group of parents opposing the decision is expected to attend the next school board meeting, beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 10.
“I think a common reaction when people first hear this is ‘What?” I totally understand that reaction because it’s a different way of thinking … I hope that when people understand all the different things that were thought of they come to go ‘I can see why they are trying it,’” Hibner said.
“Parents and kids specifically aren’t going to notice much if any of difference in terms of their interactions with me or my responsibilities. All the other supports that they are used to having are still there if not increasing such as the psychology services,” Peerenboom said.
