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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-30-SEPAC-min Lexington Special Education Parent Advisory Council(SEPAC) Lexington Special Education Parent Teacher Association(SEPTA) Business Meeting Minutes November 30,2018 Attendees: Emma Harding,Patricia Jacotin,Colette Powell,Deb Osber,Carissa Black,Mona Roy,Marina Levitt,Bronte Abraham,Carol Webb Call to order: 9:40am Adjourn: 11:28am Introductions Approval of minutes for 6/7/18 meeting: • Motion to approve and seconded. Approved unanimously. Approval of minutes from 9/12/18 meeting: • Motion to approve and seconded. Approved unanimously. Officer reports: • Co-chairs: o Met with Dr.Hackett: ■ An introductory meeting. Shared SEPAC goals: 1. Strengthen lines of communication with administration 2. Raise awareness of SEPAC in the community as a resource. ■ Would review 2012 feedback as part of the document review for the Equity Audit. SEPAC will be part of the community team as part of the Audit. ■ Dr.Hackett will partner with SEPAC to bring Sarah Ward to speak in Lexington on Executive Functioning. o Ellen meeting: ■ DLP update: • Program review is wrapped up and was shared with parents before Thanksgiving. • Looking at implementation timelines. ■ Transition program review: • The review has begun. • Parent surveys have been sent out to ILP students>=14yrs old. • Action item: Follow-up with Ellen to send survey to all transition-eligible students. ■ General SPED reviews: • Mandatory State audit(PRS) coming up--called Tiered Focused Monitoring Review and done every 6yrs. • Mona suggests highlighting PQA(program quality assurance) on SEPAC website,as there's a lot of non-compliance to IEPs that doesn't get documented. • Emma suggests we add a link to the website in the Rights and Responsibilities part of FAQs. • Action item: Will look into PQA process to see if we can leverage their data more or get reports of outstanding issues. • Other program reviews: o LLP done 2-3yrs ago o DLP done last year o Transition ongoing o ILP and TLP have not been reviewed. TLP will most likely happen first. o Bronte suggested doing a meet&greet with new high school SPED director because might be useful to do a high school program review as most reviews focus only on elementary/middle school o Carissa mentioned that there needs to be a general understanding of what a program review is and how it is reported out and what are the implementation goals. ■ Ellen and Val will do an update meeting on special education programs in the Spring. ■ Dyslexia screening: • Letter to Ellen about the screening that was done last spring for incoming K. • Bettina and Nicole will meet with Kay and Ellen next week. ■ Emergency planning for children with disabilities: • Ellen has brought it up with superintendent. Part of a larger ongoing comprehensive safety discussion. ■ FAQs: • Asked Ellen to look at draft FAQs for SEPAC website to make sure information is correct • Action: Co-chairs will follow-up with her next week. • Mona suggested we add a statement on the website saying the program criteria are determined by school evaluations and on an individualized basis,and if you want more detailed information contact SEPAC. • Action: Mona will look at FAQs and suggest how to generalize it. ■ IEP rating sheets: • A survey is issued every time an IEP requires a signature. Minor IEP amendments do not need a survey. Those who go through the process and are rejected do NOT get a survey. • Carissa thinks any amendment that results from an IEP meeting should also get a survey. Regardless of the outcome it's probably still valid to send out the survey. • Several people mentioned still not getting surveys. • Action: Co-chairs will give that feedback to Ellen again. ■ Pre-K full day program: • Looking into it,but it's based on the child's needs. Teacher contracts are involved. ■ Principal accountability: • Tied to equity survey results. • Broad discussion about how in some schools the level of support that programs receive is based on how supportive the principal is and what kind of culture they build around SPED education. • Treasurer: o End of October$4,804 balance. o No reason to carry a large balance so budgeted to spend it down to$2,500. o Based on the projected budget,the goal is to bring in an additional$2,000 of revenue: ■ Membership fees ■ Battlegreen run ■ Corporate match o Expenses: ■ Staff appreciation ■ Speaker costs--Have about$3,000 of committed expenses for events,so pretty much maxed out for this year with any events that cost money. ■ Budgeted$250/event for honorariums and refreshments. • Membership: 0 110 members,which is up y/y. • School liaisons: o Carol(Diamond): ■ PTA meeting cancelled because of the snow. Next one is December. o Mona(LHS): ■ Has had a lot of contact with the high school 504 parents who are having difficulty with scheduling for additional time,etc. Thinks it might be worthwhile to reach out to high school guidance director. Teachers now have to sign off that they've read and understand IEPs—would like the same thing for 504s. ■ Action: Emma and Patricia will bring it up to Val at the quarterly meeting. ■ Mona is also concerned about upcoming schedule changes that might not work well for SPED students or will require grid changes for every kid that has support or aide time on IEPs. o Carissa (Harrington): ■ UOD programs for PD and LD will be running over next 2 weeks. ■ Will have several administrators and SC members there to observe. ■ Action: Colette/Carissa will invite SC members. Goals: • Awareness o Working a lot more closely with PPC o Want to do more general SEPAC awareness o Mona suggested talking to Bettina who put together a community action plan. • Build good relationship with administration and partnering with them o Be involved early in process of changes to make sure children in special education are taken into account o Get people to come to meetings and be involved before they have a problem. o Raise awareness with LexFUN to capture families early in process. o Mona suggested reaching out to Newcomers Club too. • Equity Audit o SEPAC will be a key stakeholder. No details yet on mechanics. • Education for community o Event line-up very strong this year. Resource Fair(Deb gave update): • Confirmation from community center from 10-2 on 3/2. • Need an answer on whether charging a fee to vendors. o Community Center not comfortable with it as a fundraising event,so will let us use tables/chairs that are there. Need to confirm if they are appropriate. o Patricia suggests we ask for a'suggested donation'instead of a fee,with the amount dependent on how many vendors there will be to make it break-even. o Based on total cost last year it was $1,100,so we can ask for a$30 donation and we will be breakeven. School Committee Update • School start time: o Vote will be on December 4th. If they change it,every child on grid needs to have IEP re-written to have support for the additional 45mins built in. o Will likely have one year to figure out implementation. o LABBB will also have an issue if they change the HS start time. LABBB supposedly said they can accommodate the change,but haven't seen details. It's solvable but needs to be on the radar. o Action: Emma and Patricia will bring these up at the quarterly meeting. • Film Screenings: o Action: Carissa will follow-up with blurb to send to additional potential sponsors.