Klukwan School’s only full-time teacher with special education endorsements resigned last month, leaving only one teacher leading up to the Aug. 26 start of the school year.
About a month ago Jen Marschke sent her resignation letter to the Chatham School District, which oversees Klukwan school.
“The board was very surprised that she had resigned. They were hopeful that she would have stayed,” said Bruce Houck, the district’s new superintendent.
Marschke is state special education (SPED) certified in kindergarten through 12th grade. She taught grades 4 to 12 in math, social studies, science, English and all electives at Klukwan.
Houck said it would be difficult to find a full-time teacher for Klukwan with special ed. endorsements, even if they had several months.
As of now, Klukwan is set to have only one full-time teacher: Eric Hart, a math and science teacher newly transferred from Gustavus School. Hart teaches grades 8 to 12, leaving grades kindergarten to seven without a teacher until someone is hired to fill Marschke’s place.
Marschke said part of the reason she left was to take care of her father. She said other reasons are outlined in her resignation letter, which is confidential until the Chatham school board meeting on Aug. 13. Houck said the district will not approve her resignation or hire her replacement until then, less than two weeks before the start of a new school year. So far two have applied for Marschke’s position. Klukwan School principal Brad King will interview the applicants.
Some parents in Klukwan worry that the district will not hire a teacher before the start of the year with the qualifications necessary to meet their children’s needs.
“We are pretty concerned that (David’s) needs won’t be met,” parent Maggie Hotch said. Hotch’s 8-year-old son David is a second-grader at Klukwan. He has Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 (MPS1), a genetic disorder that results in the inability to break down enzymes, damaging his joints, vision, hearing and cardiac and pulmonary systems. Hotch’s son qualifies for the state’s Intensive Services Funding, and through it, Chatham School District receives more than $77,000 annually to meet his needs.
David Hotch is one of several students attending Klukwan School that requires an Individual Education Program (IEP). The district is required by law to meet students’ IEPs. His IEP includes physical, occupational and speech therapy throughout the year.
Hotch said Marschke used to help coordinate her son’s therapies, and now the responsibility will fall to Ann Hillburn, the district’s new special education director and former superintendent.
As superintendent, Hilburn bore the brunt of criticisms from Klukwan residents when the district failed to provide Klukwan School with a bus for 20 weeks last school year. Without a bus, several students left the school. Klukwan is not expected to have an ADA-accessible school bus until two weeks into the new school year.
During a school board meeting in Klukwan in April, Marschke and Hilburn had a disagreement that resulted in the Chatham school board saying that Marschke’s contract would not be renewed, effectively firing her. The board renewed Marschke’s contract after more than 18 Klukwan School parents spoke in support of her.
“I’m extremely disappointed in the district for hiring Ann Hilburn for the SPED director,” Hotch said. “If I was Jen (Marschke), I wouldn’t feel safe in that job after (Hilburn) tried to fire her this spring.”
Hotch said she did not like the way Hilburn managed Klukwan School as superintendent, including disputing district funding for a playground in Klukwan and providing inadequate transportation for her son last year. “It was really upsetting when my husband and I found out (that Hilburn was the new SPED director),” she said.
Former Klukwan advisory school board member Edie Ordonez said they believed that Hilburn was retiring when she stepped down as superintendent. But the district hired Hilburn as SPED director at a June school board meeting.
Hilburn declined to comment. Members of the Chatham school board did not respond for comment.