SPED PAC Meeting, November 21, 2005

MINUTES

Attendees

Jessica Murphy – Director, SPED

Stefanie Cloutier – President, SPED PAC

Liz Hopkinson – Vice President, SPED PAC

Bonnie Polakoff – Secretary, SPED PAC

Minutes

1. Workshops

  • The Basic Rights Workshop will take place on January 18that the ARC on Baker Avenue
  • “Meet the SPED Director,” will take place on January 25thfrom 7-9pm (change of date because of conflict for Jessica)
  • Jessica is holding a workshop for school staff in February, featuringthe attorney who represents the town. The topic will be “What needs to be included in evaluations?”
  • The February IEP workshop will be postponed in favor of Melody and Liz doing an update re: IDEA 2004 @ the Minuteman ARC
  • The IEP workshop will take place in March at the ARC
  • Access to the Curriculum workshop is postponed. It will be rescheduled for either during the summer or inSeptember, 2006
  • There will be a panel regarding Transition on April 5th, 6:30pm, at CC
  • The Measurable Goals workshop will take place in May. Date TBD

2. Regional PACS

  • Jessica may want to send some school staff. Ann Helmus will be speaking about neuropsychological testing

3. Principals as TEAM chairs

  • Working well according to Jessica
  • Stefanie and Liz have heard it’s not working well
  • There is concern that a decision maker be present at all TEAM meetings at the elementary and middle school levels

4. Reading Specialist at Willard

  • Grant money went to Reading Recovery
  • Diana Rigby knows how much longer grant will run

5. Sensory Integration

  • Don’t do a lot of Sensory Integration (SI), in-district; go outside of the district for SI

6. WIAT

  • Given at elementary and middle school levels
  • Gives high level indication of problem
  1. Additional testing given to get at root of problem
  • Woodcock Johnson given at CC

Completed Action Items – October Meeting

  • Jessica called Rachelre: Transition meeting at CC; Tom Keane knows conversation took place
  • Melody has upgraded SPED PAC web server
  • Liz says that SPED PAC email list is being partially moderated by Melody and Maria
  • Stefanie contacted Melody to discuss contents of Measurable Goals workshop
  • Melody and Liz are in charge of running the Measurable Goals workshop
  • Liz booked Ripley Conference Room #1 for Measurable Goals workshop

Incomplete Action Items – October Meeting

  • Tom to talk to Susan and students regarding Transition meeting
  • Jessica and Liz to pursue MitchellCollege re: panel for Transition meeting
  • Stefanie will solicit questions in February for Transition meeting
  • Liaisons will set up principal coffees at each school, as well as out-of-district
  • Liz will send message to SPEC PAC email list, explaining that all messages posted to list are public
  • Stefanie and Liz will sit down in the spring and plan all SPED activities for the fall
  • Stefanie will put together a compilation of 4 presentations the PAC is doing
  • Jessica will get the above out to the staff

New Action Items – November Meeting

  • Melody will submit bill for upgrade to SPED PAC web server
  • SPED PAC email list guidelines will be developed and posted to the SPED PAC email list once-a-month
  • Stefanie and Liz will solicit areas of concern, such as what should be included in evaluations, parity between the elementary schools, etc, before the “Meet The SPED Director,” workshop, in January
  • Stefanie will contact school liaisons regarding principal coffees in Janaury
  • Stefanie and Liz to come up with a firm date for Measurable Goals workshop
  • Stefanie and Liz need to schedule Access to the Curriculum workshop for either the summer or for Sept, 2006
  • Stefanie will set up a meeting with Diana, Jessica, Pat Fernandez and Liz to discuss Reading Recovery grant at Willard (re: how much longer it runs), as well as reading specialist issue at Willard
  • Soundfield Project
  • Jessica to recommend regular education teacher to Lydia Gregoriat
  • Lydia Gregoriat will contact regular education teacher that Jessica recommends
  • Stefanie will ask Lydia to attend the December SPED PAC meeting with Jessica
  • Stefaniewill find out from Diana Rigby how much longer Reading Recovery grant at Willard has to run as well as general concerns about the Reading Recovery program at Willard
  • Jessica will follow-up regarding WIAT given at elementary school and middle schools and Woodcock Johnson given at CC, in order to see if one general achievementtest can be administered acrossthe board
  • Stefanie will send information to the SPED PAC email listserv regarding tests that can be administered by the school for initial evaluations
  • Stefanie to put on next SPED PAC meeting agenda that the December meeting is being moved from December 14thto December 21stat 9am, in Jessica’s office

Respectfully Submitted,

11/27/2005,

Bonnie Polakoff

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