Community Corner

Embattled Special Ed Director Osypuk Resigns

Deirdre Osypuk, who has been on paid leave of absence as special education director for Darien Public Schools, has resigned, the school district announced.

Darien Public Schools announced Thursday afternoon the resignation of controversial Director of Special Education Deirdre Osypuk, who has been on a paid leave of absence since early 2013.

Here is her letter of resignation:

January 21, 2014

Dear Dr. [Lynne] Pierson [Interim Superintendent of Schools],

I am resigning as Director of Special Education effective immediately.

As explained to you in my December 23, 2013 18-page response to the Gamm report, I inherited many problems. I am proud to have led improvements in student achievement, as evidenced by an increase in CMT vertical scale scores in Reading and Math; to have promoted the inclusion of special needs students into their neighborhood schools; and to have delivered a student-centered and fiscally responsible budget.

It was validating to read in the “Gamm Report” that the corrections I made to students’ IEP’s did “not reflect substantive service changes.” The corrections, such as correcting inaccurate dates, did not impact student services and were trivial in nature.  It was also validating to read in the Connecticut State Department of Education’s report, “Many staff members said they did not interpret the ‘unified front’ language in the training material to mean that a preapproval or predetermination of services was required.”

It has been a pleasure working with such a talented group of educators, students, parents, and administrators.

Sincerely,
Deirdre Osypuk

Editor's note: Darien Patch originally published a copy of Osypuk's response to the Gamm report, but for now we've deleted our public copy. The copy was provided by Osypuk's lawyer, not the school district, as originally reported.


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