Event to Recognize Special Education

By definition, special-education students require special treatment throughout the typical school day.

From the physical-education teacher who ensures that students with special needs get to participate, to the supportive principal or cafeteria manager who provides these students with jobs, efforts on behalf of the district’s 1,860 special-education students is greatly welcomed.

To show its appreciation, the Conejo Valley Unified School District will hold a Special Friends of Special Education Recognition Tea at 3:30 p.m. today. The event, to recognize 98 people throughout the district, will be held in the back patio of the south building of the district headquarters, 1400 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks.

Jack Bannon, the district’s associate director of special education, said the purpose of the tea is to let people know it takes a community effort to support students, particularly special-education pupils, to achieve their individual goals.

“I think that basically it is an opportunity for parents and teachers and everyone connected to special education to recognize other people who have been supportive and helpful to special education,” Bannon said.

Thousand Oaks resident Larry Goesch, president of the district’s Special Education District Advisory Council, said he doesn’t have to search hard to find examples of how someone working with his special-needs child has done something extra to help.

“As a parent, these kinds of things need to happen because the people who are doing the work all the time are dealing with issues and sometimes don’t get all the recognition they deserve,” Goesch said.