SEPAC MEETING with Maureen Ferguson

Minutes

January 30, 2009

Attending:

Maureen Ferguson- Director of Special Ed

SEPAC

Gayle Harrold

Sue Almy

Ruth Ann Kotosky

Suzanne Ginsberg

Jessica Fox

District Audit

DESE (Department of Secondary Education) – no longer DOE

Many portions of Audit completed.

Feb 12 & 13 ELE Records & 5 more special education records

Week of February 23rd – interviews will be conducted with team chairs, certain special education staff and parents whose files have been selected.

Parents can ask to be interviewed as well which has been publicly posted.  No feedback provided to date.

Self assessment to date has been positive.  One point raised was the need for more training for the para-professionals.

Gibbons Team Chair Transition 

Kelly Sciaca, Team Chair at the High School, moving to Gibbons to replace Shanna Frost as Team Chair.  Shanna Frost has been out on disability and will now retire.  Betty Bruneau took chair position through December 1st in Shanna’s absence.   

The position was posted and Kelly Sciaca applied and was hired.  She will transition to Gibbons as soon as someone is hired for the Chair position at the High School.  

Betty Bruneau has reapplied to take on position of Out of District Chair which is a contracted position.  She may be contacted via email at the Gibbons School or through the Central Office shortly.  When schedule finalized, SEPAC will be notified.

John Smith, principal of the High School is actively conducting interviews but there have been few candidates.

1.Summer School

Location: Mill Pond School

Start Date: To be determined – either 1st or 2nd week of July

Session: 5 weeks, 4 days a week (Monday- Thursday) for children with intensive special needs and 3 days per week for more moderate special needs

Who is the summer school coordinator?  

Maureen Ferguson and Karen Rose will coordinate the Special Education Summer School Program.

When will the plans be announced for the summer of 2009?

Maureen will get back to us on final date for notification to parents so that parents can make appropriate plans for the summer.

Have letters gone out requesting teachers for the summer?  

Job posted March 16th with responses due by April 3rd.  The posting will include speech, OT, PT and Aides.

There needs to be a standardized system/calendar for deadlines.

Maureen will work on developing a year long calendar for summer school to be able to be distributed to parents.

Any discussion of including typical peers in the program?

Maureen will work with Marianne O’Connor and the Recreation Department to try to incorporate typical peers into the summer school program.  Gayle will  contact Recreation Department about creating a new town program with mentoring involved that could be recognized by the Board of Selectman.

Issues with the program in 2008

Late to be informed that child was to participate

No follow through by school to stick to calendar that was distributed

Lack of program substance

Regular Ed summer school coordinator not on site each day so special Ed coordinator tackling issues.

Transportation should be handled by someone other than the academic coordinator – Cindy Crowley, transportation specialist will oversee the transportation.

3.  Focus Groups

Pre kindergarten and Kindergarten transition issues – 

Outline from focus group meeting this week presented to Maureen.  Focus group consists of 5 parents with an issue in the topic.  SEPAC has asked for meeting with Patty Berkey, Cheryl Carlson and another special education teacher and certain SEPAC members.  Linda Warren is consulting to Hastings on this issue.  Meeting will be held in March.

Transitions from Mill Pond to Gibbons, Lack of Gibbons programming

Members of the SEPAC interested in the issue will meet with Maureen, Kelly, Chris Fournier, and Kelly Schaka after Kelly begins in March.  The meeting will also include Betty Bruneau, interim Chair at Gibbons. 

4.  Other Matters

We reported that evaluation reports not being provided two days prior to the IEP meeting date.  IEP’s not delivered until a month after meeting.  Often received during summer when there is no one to speak with.

Maureen noted that she meets with the team chairs every two weeks.

Interviewing for Principal at Fales as Elaine Haliford wishes to go back to teaching within Westborough if possible.

    Next Meeting Date for Board with Maureen Ferguson :  Friday March 13th.