Former special-education teacher files complaint

A former Newport Harbor High School special education teacher has filed a complaint with the state and school board, claiming that administrators mistreated her and her colleagues and denied a proper education to special-needs students.

Sandra Sutherland, who taught at Newport Harbor from March through December last year, mailed her statement Monday to the Newport-Mesa board of trustees and the state Department of Education’s complaint management office. Among her claims are that Newport Harbor administrators burdened special education teachers with excessive amounts of students, prevented them from adequately monitoring those students, and dismissed Sutherland from her job without explanation.

Sutherland said she had no plans to file a lawsuit against the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, but said she hoped the state would investigate the special education programs at Newport Harbor.

“It’s not just my students,” she said. “It’s the other ones, too. I particularly think of my students and what they didn’t get, and I don’t see that level of service changing. It’s probably going to be withdrawn even further, and that is completely unacceptable.”

The complaint accuses Newport Harbor Principal Michael Vossen and Assistant Principal Tina Case of mishandling the school’s special education department and turning a deaf ear when staff members complained. Both administrators are unnamed in the complaint and referred to by their positions, but Sutherland identified both of them to the Daily Pilot.

Among Sutherland’s specific claims are that administrators took excessive amounts of time to fill vacancies on the staff and placed special-needs students in overly advanced math classes. She also said the school required special education teachers to spend two periods a day taking notes in regular classrooms to help students understand the material. The practice, Sutherland argued, kept teachers from helping students who were in other classrooms for those periods.

Vossen, who was on vacation Wednesday, did not return calls seeking comment, while Case declined to speak on the matter. Denise Knutsen, Newport-Mesa’s director of special education operations, said she hadn’t read Sutherland’s complaint but defended Newport Harbor’s services.

“All I can say is that we’re pleased with the program at Newport Harbor High School and the work that the teachers and the administrators there are doing,” she said.