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A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.    - Steve Martin

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Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtues consistently. You can't be consistently kind or fair or humane or generous, not without courage, because if you don't have it, sooner or later you will stop and say, "The threat is too much. The difficulty is ...too high. The challenge is too great. ~ Maya Angelou

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nola Wellman's "Super Secret" Strategies

 

2008 - Last summer, I found an online advertisement for the TASA/TASB 2008 Convention in San Antonio, Texas and learned that Eanes ISD superintendent, Nola Wellman would present a session at the conference:

Excerpt from online Convention at a Glance:  Strategies to Lessen the Financial Impact of Special Education Litigation

Nola Wellman, Superintendent, Eanes ISD; and Denise Hays, Attorney, Walsh, Anderson, Brown, Schulze & Aldridge, P.C.
While school districts face a variety of lawsuits under state and federal law, claims arising under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) most likely proceed to trial or administrative hearings with enormous costs. A superintendent and a special education attorney, who together have experienced firsthand the challenges of special education litigation, analyze aspects of special education due process hearings and provide strategies to minimize costs, focusing on defensible STRATEGIES and necessary preventive staff training. (SBEC #4)

Following the conference, I requested public information (such as Nola's speech, notes, and other documents) related to the conference and well, you know, her strategies. As long as she was sharing the strategies in a public forum, I thought it might be worthwhile to obtain and post that public information here on KeepEanesInformed.

Turns out, when I asked, that Nola wasn't feeling so generous. In fact, she said no and took a familiar path. She spent school tax dollars to retain a private attorney to seek a ruling from the Office of the Attorney General in an effort to withhold the responsive documents. That's right. Nola Wellman presented her strategies regarding the IDEA and special education in a public forum; then when the public asked to have a peek, she hid them away in a dark drawer and asked the Eanes ISD private attorney, Ellen Spalding, to help her keep them hidden. Seems to me that if Nola didn't want the public to know her strategies, maybe she should not have presented them at a conference open to the public.

And about that "staff training" mentioned in Nola's conference session description, who knows?  In addition to the time she spends with WABSA attorneys (funded by school tax dollars) perhaps Nola learned some of her strategies here ... at the NELI conference that specifically bars parents and advocates of children with special needs. 

Stay tuned ... if the the Office of the Attorney General rules in the public's favor, I'll post Nola's "super secret" strategies here on KEI.



 

 

 

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