Supporting Wallach
Gary Wallach will make an outstanding advocate for all of our children.
Some of his advocacy efforts have found their way into the news and onto the web, including his defense against teacher assistant and gifted specialist cuts in 2005 and his challenge of the fairness of the latest redistricting plan. And of course, his service on the Frank Porter Graham School Governance Committee benefited a diverse constituency. His skill and wherewithal in the championing of accountability, openness and transparency are tremendous assets.
Any institution as complex as the CHCCS or the Exceptional Children’s Department (special needs) encounters breakdowns. Over the past two years, I have accompanied Gary to a half-dozen meetings he initiated with Superintendent Neil Pederson. Following the spotlight Gary directed to issues of concern, steps toward improvement emerged in the form of solutions that can also be applied on behalf of the entire student population:
- How do we acknowledge breakdowns when it is not in the administrator’s interest?
- How can parents, who possess a unique and early view of problems, have an unfiltered advisory voice in these issues?
- How can we reduce the adversarial culture that too often rears its ugly head?
Concrete, demonstrable outcomes from those meetings included the formation of the Special Needs Advisory Council, an autism focus group attended by over 40 parents and the hiring of an autism expert/consultant to review the program and recommend improvements.
As always, the long-term outcome is only as good as the follow up, whether for the special needs community or for the general population. In the four years I have worked with him, I have observed in Gary a rare level of persistence and determination to pursue the right thing for our children.
On November 6, please vote for Gary so he can apply that determination on behalf of your child.
John Huff
Chapel Hill