PARENTS SAY JACKSON REMEDIAL READING PROGRAM DISCRIMINATES

JACKSON -- Deborah Spradlin and Shelly Stone, who both have sons in Jackson's North Elementary School remedial reading, have a message for the Jackson School District Board of Education.

Get a certified teacher's aide or get a lawyer.

The mothers spoke at a board meeting Tuesday, demanding that their first-grade sons be given the same opportunity to learn as the children in Orchard Elementary, which is in the city of Jackson.

Orchard boasts three teachers for Reading Recovery, an experimental program that provides one-on-one teaching for first graders who have difficulty learning to read.

North Elementary, an outlying school in Fruitland, has no Reading Recovery instructors.

But test results presented by Spradlin revealed about twice the number of North students qualify for the program.

"When I was told my son wasn't offered the program, I was hurt," Spradlin said. "I found out that Orchard Elementary had two Reading Recovery teachers and was implementing a third. I feel the third should have gone to North Elementary.

"I can't believe my 7-year-old can be overlooked because of what side of town he lives on."

Only 12 children can participate in Reading Recovery.

But test results showed those students didn't have the lowest scores, Spradlin said, but all 12 attend Orchard.

Both Spradlin and Stone pay to have their children tutored through Reading Recovery in Cape Girardeau. It involves a 25-minute drive plus work with the boys once they return home.

The mothers said they want to see a certified teacher's aide hired so that their boys' classroom teacher can take more time with the 11 remedial reading students she has.

If the 11 were divided into two classes, it would provide more individual attention, and perhaps the Reading Recovery classes wouldn't be as necessary.

School board member Jack Knowlan Jr. reminded Stone and Spradlin that, while remedial reading is required by law, Reading Recovery is an experimental program the Jackson School District chose to offer.

"I disagree with the way the testing was handled," he said. "It should have been made available to all students in the district instead of just Orchard. But there is no way we could have serviced all the students this year who qualified."

Knowlan encouraged the women to keep open the lines of communication with the school board.

Following the meeting, however, Stone made it clear that in the future, she and Spradlin may be communicating with the district through a lawyer.

She said she met with Fred Jones, assistant superintendent, on Sept. 13. Jones said he wasn't aware of the situation and would check into it. Since that time, the district hasn't taken any action.

"They need to quit discriminating against the outlying schools," Stone said.

She threatened to bring her own lawyer into the fray in a week to try to get some satisfaction.