When Ector County ISD’s new executive director of special services Mark Gabrylczyk wanted to to go into education, it seemed special education was the way to go and he’s never regretted his path.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s been a very rewarding career from the minute I started to what I’m currently doing right now,” Gabrylczyk said.
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Gabrylczyk earned his bachelor’s degree in special education and physical education and a master’s degree in education administration from Idaho State University and an EDS (education specialist) degree in education leadership from the University of Idaho.
He has also had professional development training at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and graduated from the University of Southern California’s Urban Superintendent Academy as part of the Class of 2022.
Gabrylczyk said he didn’t always want to go into education.
“I tell people this: I’ve had a lot of wonderful experiences in education. I’ve been able to see a lot, but I’m always the first to remind people that I still have a lot to learn. Learning happens every day for me in the positions that I serve in,” Gabrylczyk added.
Before moving to Texas, he was an assistant superintendent in the Rapid City, S.D., area schools. But he has been everything from a special education teacher to a superintendent through the years.
“When I was with the University of Southern California’s Urban Superintendent Academy, they assigned us a mentor and my mentor just happened to be Dr. Angelica Ramsey from Midland. At that particular time, I was looking for a superintendent position. She invited me to come to Texas to work for her to help network me into the state. After four weeks of my arrival, she left to go over to Fort Worth,” Gabrylczyk said.
Unsure of what to do next, he looked at ECISD and knowing the background of Superintendent Scott Muri, he thought it would be a “great place to land.” He was the director of accountability and student performance at Midland ISD just previous to coming to ECISD.
“I appreciated the way that they did the search for this position, and so that’s what really attracted me to the district,” Gabrylczyk said.
One of the first things he does when he comes to a new organization is try to understand the current culture and then if necessary making changes for students who have disabilities.
“Unfortunately, there’s kind of a stigma with students who have disabilities and I believe that all students can learn. We really want to improve the learning opportunities for students with disabilities,” Gabrylczyk said.
The federal IDEA law (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was reauthorized in 2004 without changes.
“But there have been specific regulations that have changed and there have been updates with interpretation of the law. That’s where … special education has changed over the years. But as far as processes and the way that schools do business in the area of special ed, it’s pretty much stayed the same since I started,” Gabrylczyk added.
He said there are a lot of things he would like to do to improve the department, but he is just starting to understand the culture of the office, how they work together and how do they hold each other accountable for the results they desire.
“Special education is very complex, so we spend a lot of time learning about laws and regulations here and making sure that we’re in compliance with those items,” Gabrylczyk said.
He added that Texas does a good job of meshing the state and federal laws regarding special education.
“But there are … little intricacies that are different. But that’s between the feds and the state with that. There’s a little bit of difference between states and I’ve been in several different states where they’ve adopted their own regulations on top of the federal regulations. But the bottom line is like if you get into any type of due process opportunities, they always go with the federal law,” Gabrylczyk said.
If a special education student gets frustrated, has a meltdown and lashes out, Gabrylczyk said IDEA is an entitlement law for students.
“What I mean by that is that they are different if they qualify for the program. However, special education students can be disciplined, like general education students, but there’s a process that schools need to follow to get to that particular point and there’s a lot of regulation that outlines that for school districts,” Gabrylczyk said.
About 3,500 students are served by Special Services, which is about 10 percent of the district population.
Determining if a student qualifies for special education is another process.
“We have a responsibility, for example, from the federal and state government of a term called Child Find. If we suspect that a student has a disability, there’s a process of evaluation of bringing together an ARD meeting that makes a determination of whether or not that student will qualify for services under IDEA. Also parents can … refer their student for evaluation if they feel like their student has a disability. It’s generally the same type of process that they would follow that we follow within the school system,” Gabrylczyk said.
ARD stands for Admission, Review and Dismissal. It is the team that “meets to determine eligibility based on a full and individual evaluation report, and to develop an individualized education program (IEP) for the child, if applicable,” the Texas Education website said.
Teachers, administrators and parents can refer students for special education.
“The state gives us a 45-day time limit of having the student evaluated and getting that process started, so it’s very important that we live within that timeline when we have those referrals that come in to us. We’ve really done a lot of work in trying to keep up with the referrals that we’re receiving because we’re receiving a lot of referrals right now,” Gabrylczyk said.
There was a backlog late last year of getting students tested.
“We’re still challenged in that area. However, we are currently in the process of securing a contract that’s going to help us push those evaluations quicker. We’re hoping to get that contract settled in the next couple of weeks,” Gabrylczyk said in a Sept. 6 interview.
A shortage of diagnosticians and psychologists has presented a challenge in the testing and evaluation process, as well.
“That’s something new that we’re doing this year is that we do have virtual diags (diagnosticians) to help us. We also, in the areas of speech/language, have virtual speech/language services that are being offered. We’re the first ones in the state, is my understanding, to be able to offer those services virtually and so we’re trailblazing in that particular area. We’re really interested to see how that’s going to work out for our students in our district,” Gabrylczyk said.
There are companies that will provide psychologists and diagnosticians, for example. Gabrylczyk said the district will issue a request for proposals and the companies will submit their proposals.
“Then what we’ll do is we’ll study them, do a cost analysis of those proposals, and then we’ll bring a recommendation to the school board, in some cases, to say that we want to secure their services and they give us the approval,” he added.
Agreements have been set up with area universities to provide a pipeline for diagnosticians and others needed to help break the testing and evaluation backlog.
Gabrylczyk said they are hoping this helps.
“We’ve really tried. We’re trying to work really closely with those universities that are providing that pipeline. We would love to have more people, of course, be part of that process. That’s what we’re hoping for. It’s going to be a challenge as we move forward. I think special education is going to continue to grow. We’ve had, for example, a change in the dyslexia law from the state of Texas, that dyslexia now is not going to be under the 504 umbrella, but now it’s going to be part of IDEA. That’s going to increase our numbers pretty significantly, so we’re going to need all the help we can get,” Gabrylczyk added.
Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Lilia Nanez said she is glad to have Gabrylczyk on board.
“We conducted a national search for our new executive director to ensure our special services met the needs of all our students. Mark’s experience is incredible. During our interview, Mark opened with a story of when he was a special education teacher and how he would go out to the workplace with his older students who were learning life skills. His sincerity was felt throughout the room and committee. Mark has been a special ed teacher, a campus administrator, and a superintendent. In addition, his work at Utah State University, where he provided technical assistance and professional development to state education agencies and local districts in the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), proved his experience is exactly what we need in ECISD,” Nanez said.
