Board Report Florence Unified School District #1

Board Report Florence Unified School District #1

November, 2010 Board Report

Ginni Shuss, Director of Exceptional Student Services

Conferences/Training/Meetings for Special Needs Staff:

·  Michele Sobkoviak, Tim Richards, Celeste Patterson, Maribel Lopez and Bethany Hutchison attended the Principal’s Institute – Special Education Law

·  Sarah Estrada conducted an AIMs A training for the teachers with students in the Pathways programs.

·  FUSD SPED hosted an audio-conference covering Evaluation of Eligibility: Evolving Legal Trends and Best Practices for Compliance. Participants included personnel from Coolidge, Maricopa and J.O. Combs Districts.

·  Diane Street-Speck and Lisa Chavez, speech/language pathologists, attended a workshop on Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

·  Tonya Thompson attended a two day seminar on grant writing.

·  Marilyn Kalina and Tonya Newsome attended a workshop on “Having Fun in Your Classroom” for preschoolers.

·  Ginni Shuss did a training at both high schools on writing transition IEP’s, covering all facets of Indicator 13 which is the Federal Guideline, recently revised, for transition for life after high school.

·  Ginni visited Vail to meet with teachers and administrators to get more information on Beyond Textbooks.

·  There was an audio conference at Walker Butte for Autism Methodology and the IEP Team.

·  Ginni attended the Special Education Administrators of Arizona monthly meeting and hosted the Pinal Co. Director’s Special Education Directors Meeting.

·  Both the speech and psychologists had their monthly meetings with Ginni and Sarah.

Project Bridge

·  Project Bridge received a $1000 check from Walmart.

·  Tonya Thompson applied for a grant from Kolhs.

·  There is preparation and planning for a large fund raiser at Poston Butte on Nov. 5th which is a video game night.

·  Planning is in progress to solicit sponsors to provide for families at Christmas.

Materials and Equipment:

·  1000 ALEKS licenses were purchased through IDEA grant dollars so SPED students can have access.

·  Equipment arrived to meet the needs of the students with autism. These items are geared to help students meet sensory needs for calming purposes. Items include swings, trampolines, bean bag chairs, and medicine balls and tricycles.

·  SRA materials arrived and were distributed among staff to use with students.

·  Materials arrived and were distributed to the preschools which included large playground balls.

·  Equipment arrived for visually impaired students which included the Duxbury Braille translator, voice watches and a “Zoom Text Express” which enlarges print.

·  Many materials arrived for occupational therapy including pencil grips, therapy putty, “Dragon Naturally Speaking” which reads text aloud to students, easy grip scissors, aroma dough, see through tunnel, adaptive writing paper and more. These items will be used throughout the district for all students with needs in occupational therapy.

Special Olympics

·  The bocce teams, under the coaching of Adam Leckie, placed first and third. There will be basketball teams at Poston Butte, Florence K-8, and Anthem. Coaches will be Mr. Leckie, Mr. DeLemos and Mr. Kelly. The cheer team is practicing under the coaching guidance of Ms. Harmon and Ms. DeLemos.

Exceptional Student Services Web Site

·  We continue to add more information to the web site, most recently identifying related services FUSD offers to children with disabilities.

MEDICAID:

·  Diane Getz has been training staff in proper MEDICAID billing procedures and attending state wide meetings to get a full understanding of current MEDICAID requirements.

Challenges:

·  All SPED Directors in the State are struggling with the new requirements for graduation and how it will impact students with disabilities.