HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-03-10-Hastings-minSchool Improvement Council
Agenda
March 10, 200y 5
1. Inclusion at Hastings:
In particular students from Boston and
students needing Special Education
What are we doing right that should be preserved?
What do we need to do better that should be changed?
2. Report back:
Lunch room initiative
Anti- Bullying initiative
Special Ed brochure
Page 1 of 4
.f.lane
From: "j.f.lane" <j.f.lane @mindspring.com>
To: "Tammy Mulligan" <TMulligan @rcn.com >; "Susan Campbell"
< scampbell @sch.ci.lexington. ma. us >; "Maria Moxon" <maria @moxonsonline.com >; "Lynne
Stinson" < Istinson @sch.ci.lexington.ma.us >; "Reem Yared" <reem @growthwise.com >; "Diana
Partyka" <dave.diana @rcn.com >; "Ms. Zichittella" <mzichittella @sch.ci.lexington.ma.us >; "Janet
Lane" <j.f.lane @mindspring.com >; "June Hsiao" <jyhsiao @rcn.com >; "Myra Marshall"
<myram1216 @aol.com>
Cc: "Beth Somers Stutzman" <bethsomers1 @cs.com >; "Jessie Steigerwald"
<jess @shininghours.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 7:14 AM
Subject: School Council Minutes March 10, 2005
School Council Minutes
March 10, 2005
Topic: Inclusion
What are we doing right that should be preserved? What do we need to do
better that should be changed?
Present:
Lynne Stinson, Charmane Hairston, Diana Partyka, Reem Yared, Sue Campbell,
Beth Somers Sutzman, Myra Marshall
LUNCH GROUP UPDATE:
The 5th Grade Lunch group met to thank Cathleen Higgins. The February
town -wide lunch menu showed one or two changes weekly as a result of hte
children's efforts. After beginning with initial disrespectful comments
about food, they learned a lot about respectful ways to enact change.
Cathleen Higgins explained the legal restrictions on portions size and lunch
menu that Chartwell is subject to. Lynne will talk about these lessons and
gains at All School MEeting.
PRINCIPAL SEARCH:
New superintendent will solicit a new round of candidates. Reem and Tammy
are participating in the interviewing currently going on. 37 resumes have
been received so far, but several schools are competing for the same
candidates and new names are needed.
INCLUSION AT HASTINGS:
The AntiBias Committee (ABC) grew out of concerns for better inclusion of
all students and it meets on an ongoing basis. Currently there are more
staff than parents participating.
SPECIAL EDUCATION AND INCLUSION:
Students with special educational needs are included in the Diversity Book
Bags, and are also represented in the ABC movie. This year special needs
services was an evening PTA program, but only a small number of parents
showed up. How can we better educate parents about the services available
and the way this serves all children in the school community? How can help
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children understand the spectrum of individual differences, but understand
that we are more the same, than different ?.
Bedford holds a special needs week for children in 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade.
Every year it focuses on a different topic such as: Hearing, Sight
Impairment, Mental Retardation. Speakers come and there are interactive
experiences the following day that kids rotate to in 4 different stations.
What is it like to not be able to hear? What does it feel like to take a
timed test in a difficult task? What kind of accomidations help? How does a
prosthesis work? Try to navigate the hall in a wheelchair.
Sue Campbell has collected several videos on disability awareness such as
"Fat City" by Rich Lavoy and others more recent. The Speech and Language
Therapists have written a PTA minigrant to get informational brochures that
will be available for parents. Rich Lavoy has a website with good ideas.
Children's understanding:
Labeling is a huge issue as words taught with the best intentions quickly
get used on the playground in name calling. Why introduce terms that can be
turned into weapons? Abstract words do little to improve understanding.
Concrete information in the classroom is more helpful, such as " Suzie
feels more comfortable when you give her more space ", or "Joey shouts when
it is hard for him to hear ". Most children who have a diagnosed disability
are at a mild end of the spectrum if they are in the classroom and many
children do not themselves know the label used in their diagnosis. Knowing
and using a label does not help the children. Parents vary in their
opinion - -some do not want their childs particular needs discussed in the
classroom with their peers and some do. Teachers must respond to individual
situations and maintain confidentiality.
One parent shared her experience that the litmus test for inclusion was
playdates. Do children with special needs receive playdates and birthday
party invitations? She felt parents were afraid and wanted their children
to associate only with children who seemed perfect. She felt that parents
who complained to her not knowing her child had a diagnosis, did not
understand what it meant to be in a public school, and did not understand
just how many children had particular educational needs across a broad
spectrum but rather assumed than a few children receiving great amounts of
resources.
Another parent expressed concern that staff need more training so as to help
the classroom feel safe and fair to all children and not to ignore problems
that arise from special needs. Examples she gave were a child who felt
burdened by being pared with the same child all year long when she wanted to
rotate working partners, and a child who was repeatedly kicked and needed
to have more space from her table mate who had a hard time keeping their
body still. These were problems that could be solved if they were addressed
rather than ignored.
Parent Understanding:
Lynne observed parents were the people having most difficulty with inclusion
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of children with special needs in a classroom, due to their lack of
understanding.
Parents need to understand how diverse our population is and that all
children benefit from having more services and more staff in the classroom.
They don't understand that many behavior problems have nothing to do with
special needs.
Confidentiality;
Some kids have obvious behavioral differences and confidentiality is already
crossed. Other kids in the classroom are hard to distinguish from their
peers and it is not constructive to highlight their differences. We all
have different abilities and are wired differently. It doesn't always
effect the way we need to learn, but we all think differently.
School Council Brochure:
Sue Cambpell reported on the progress of the SC Special education brochure.
Two school council members have worked on this. The next steps will be for
Lynne to look at a draft, for parents who have children with an individual
ed plan to look at a draft, and for parents who's children have moderalte
needs to look at a draft. It should be used as part of the Kindergarten
orientation.
School Goal: We all felt PARENT EDUCATION should be a school improvement
goal, expanding on and using what we now have in the brochures, videos and
ABC.
BOSTON STUDENTS:
Charmane Hairston travels with our Boston Students on their bus as a
chaperone and is with them at breakfast. They typically talk
enthusiastically about the Family Friends program and the Music program, and
their relationships with specific teachers and staff. Charmane stated the
Music Program has really had impact on some of the kids and helped one child
who was struggling to develop constructive behavior.
She said it is hard on the children that their parents can not drop in to
volunteer at the school or attend events as easily as the Lexington
children's, although some parents have arranged get picked up at Alewife
Station for specific meetings and events.
Family Friends is a very important program. One parent observed it is hard
to arrange playdates in Boston. At the middle school Lexington Children are
allowed to go back to Boston on the bus, but this hasn't been set up at the
elementary level.
Brainstorming:
Jessie S. asked if her children could join their family friend at Hastings
to eat breakfast together to build in more time.
During conference times when parents come from Boston, can we use that time
to help parents meet other parents for example at a School Council coffee,
or to host other opportunities for parents to meet each other during
conference time? Another time parents meet now is during the Multicultural
Potluck. Could we formalize this and make transportation available?
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Mentoring:
There continues to be a mentor program where staff meet with individual
students to build a "Parent away from home" support system. Some kids who
are not from Boston also have mentors .
Meeting in Boston:
There is a parents meeting held in Boston with the School Committee once a
year, and a PTA meeting held once a year.
High school hosted a conference "the Price of Hate and the Cost of Caring"
recently to improve understand. Lynne and Charmane attended.
The meeting had to end due to time limits.
3/19/2005