SEPAC MEETING MINUTES – 9/24/14

Attendees:
Suzanne Brouillard (meeting chair), Eileen Donohue, Lisa Heger,Jeffrey Rubin, Leah Nabstedtand Kristen Zechello

Minutes from the June 11, 2014meeting were reviewed and are awaiting approval for submission to the School Committee.

New

SEPAC Parent Member Meetings

  • SEPAC Parent Member Meeting held September 16, 2014, next one scheduled for October 15, 2014

Brochure/Workshop Schedule for 2014/2015

  • Bulk mailing in process to all Special education families. See additional update on mailing under “Diversity” subcommittee update.

Yearly SEPAC presentation to School Committee

  • This year’s presentation is scheduled for October 6th at East Middle School. SEPAC will share their goals and plans for the upcoming school year as well as give a report on the accomplishments of the last year.

Foreign Language requirement for graduation

Level 4 courses or courses not leveled – do they meet criteria required for college admission?

  • These two items to be postponed to next month’s meeting.
  • Mr. Rubin will reach out to the Guidance Department to participate in the next meeting to address these questions.

Furniture/Equipment donation made to Special Services

  • The Kokoros family made a donation of several items of new early education furniture and equipment to Special Services. Mrs. Zechello will send photos of the donated items of furniture to Mr. Rubin so that he can determine where the items can be used and the SEPAC board members will organize the delivery once that is determined.
  • A copy machine was donated to SEPAC by McDonough and Priscella CPAs in Weymouth.

New Program/School Opening Updates

  • Monatiquot Kindergarten Center
  • The building looks great, all renovations were complete the last week of the summer.
  • The staff are working on the therapists’ schedules to work out how their time will be shared among district elementary schools. Services are being scheduled and coordinated and there was a .6 position for a SLP – Leaf Maggio and Ashley Harmon, SLPs from Flaherty are sharing the responsibilities of the Speech Services at Monatiquot.
  • Several parents brought an issue to SEPAC regarding the amount of time students in the Developmental Program were losing because of their travel time. Five hours of instruction time was being lost due to the bussing schedule. Issues with the shorter day were addressed for Developmental students however, SEPAC is still concerned that all others students with special needs in this school are transitioning twice before they even arrive to start their day.
  • The School Committee and Ms. Heger continue to monitor issues if they come up.
  • New East Middle School REACH Program
  • The new school year is going well and off to a great start per Mr. Rubin. The educators and therapists for the three classrooms are working as a team. It’s a much more flexible program now. The needs of each student are being met more specifically and there are many more opportunities for inclusion.
  • The construction went very smoothly to the classrooms. The space is much more conducive to the smaller number of students in each program.

Current

Subcommittee Updates:

  • MCAS (Eileen Donohue-Chair) – Mimi Pugsley has stepped down from this subcommittee. Eileen Donohue will take over from this point. A survey of questions has been submitted to Dr. Murray. Ms. Donohue will follow up and update the group at the next meeting.
  • Anti-Bullying (Lyn McPhail/Linda Kokoros - Co-Chairs) –The chairs are going to meet this month to start developing a plan for this newly formed subcommittee.
  • Diversity (Suzanne Brouillard – Chair)
  • SEPAC cover letter has been to the top five languages spoken at home for the fall 2014 mailing which is in process right now.
  • Goal for next year is to at least have the brochure titles translated as well.
  • Community Inclusion Awards (Kristen Zechello-Chair)
  • June 10th, 2015 will be the 7th Annual Community Inclusion Awards event.
  • “We are an Inclusion Community”sign dedication tentatively scheduled for Friday, 10/3 at 12:00. Mrs. Zechello will keep the group posted on details as they become available.
  • Community Outreach (Kristen Zechello-Chair)
  • SEPAC prepared a Power Point presentation for all Principals to add to their Open House presentations which Mr. Rubin shared on our behalf. This is in an effort to get a consistent message to all schools about our organization. This will eliminate the need to have a SEPAC representative “staff” open houses as it did not seem that effective. Instead, each board member took on the responsibility of touching base with a few schools and getting them materials to be set up in the lobby for parents.
  • Board determined a presence at the younger grade open houses made sense as parents are in the most need of resources when they start out in the Special Education system. Mrs. Brouillard was present for Monatoquit School’s Open House on September 23rd, and on October 7th, Mrs. Zechello will be present for the Integrated Preschool’s Open House.
  • Mr. Rubin supported asking all School Psychologists in all schools to distribute SEPAC information to parents. Brochures and welcome letters will be given out at all IEP meetings as students throughout the school year are deemed eligible for Special Education services. Mrs. Zechello will forward SEPAC information to Mr. Rubin
  • New Parent Binders were done by SEPAC in the past, with support from the district we’d like to reinstitute them. All new parents that are enrolled in the preschool throughout the year will receive a binder with some basic resources included. SEPAC will coordinate through Special Services Assistant to the Preschool, Marcia Hoffman.
  • SEPAC will schedule roundtable discussions for preschool parents at Braintree High School for both in the coming weeks. A flyer will go home and teachers will speak with parents directly to encourage attendance.
  • SEPAC Website/Facebook Page (Suzanne Brouillard - Chair)
  • Mrs. Brouillard will update the most recent Parent Guide to Special Education Programs document. Mr. Rubin has made updates for all the new and expanded programs and will share the most recent version of the document.
  • Transition (Leah Nabstedt/Barbara Bonigli - Co-Chairs) – no update at this meeting

Open

New Summer Program Feedback

  • Norfolk County Sherriff Camp – no update from the Sherriff’s office however, Mr. Rubin imagined the program will grow in the future. This year only three parents were interested in signing up their child.
  • Middle School/Community based program at SPARK – parents had very positive feedback about this program and feel confident it will grow with the students.

High school Exam Schedule Changes - Update

  • Ms. Heger attended the finals in June. The School Committee voted favorably on Mr. Lee’s recommendation and changes have been made to the schedule for the upcoming year.

PARCC - The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career – Update

  • The update was provided by Ms. Heger. Students have all been informed that PARCC will be taken this year for all grades except 10th for English and Math. 10th graders will still do MCAS this year and the discussions about how many classes will continue to take MCAS are ongoing.
  • This year, Morrison and Ross Schools are the only ones that have a “wireless” environment so they will be taking the test on line and all other will take traditional pencil and paper tests.
  • For this year, because it is Braintree’s first, the tests don’t count towards yearly progress for Braintree.
  • What PARCC will look like in the future for Braintree is still being discussed.

Ongoing Space Concerns/School Building Committee – Update

  • SEPAC recommended School Committee and School Building Committee member Tom Devin and others attend the training scheduled for 10/22 and 10/23 from 9-4 at Braintree Town Hall by the MA Commission on Disabilities. Mrs. Zechello will send the invitation/registration form to Maureen Murray, Lisa Heger and Tom Devin.

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Coordinated Program Review

  • Braintree received one deficiency in the draft CPR report from DESE regarding a space issue. When the final report is available Mr. Rubin will share it with the group.

Next Meeting

The SEPAC/Administration monthly meeting schedule for the 2014-2015 school year is as follows:

Nov 20, 2014

Dec 18, 2014

Jan 15, 2015

Feb 26, 2015

Mar 19, 2015

Apr 30, 2015

May 21, 2015

Jun 11, 2015

All meetings are held in the Special Services Department at Braintree High School at 11:45am.

Minutes prepared by:

  • Kristen Zechello