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Board - Committee - Commission- Council: SEPAC AH 11: 16
Special Education Advisory Council
Date: 2017-11-28 Time: 7:00
Building: RMHS Location: Library
Address:
Purpose: Business Meeting Session:
Attendees: Members - Present:
Sarah McLaughlin
Sarah Scaffidi
Members - Not Present:
Terri Teixeira
Others Present:
Carolyn Wilson
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Sarah McLaughlin
Topics of Discussion:
1. Call to Order: Sarah McLaughlin called the meeting to order at 7:06pm.
2: Public Comment: None
3. Old'Business
a. Meeting minutes will be reviewed at the next SEPAC business meeting.
b. The REF Tree Subcommitte provided an update on progress. We received many
generous donations of puzzles and games,tying in with the tree theme "We are all
pieces of the puzzle". The tree will be set up on Friday, Dec 1st for the festival over.
the weekend.
c. An update from the LLD Subcommittee was provided. The subcommittee has met a
couple of times to primarily discuss how SEPAC can support RPS evaluation of-the
Bridge and specialized. reading programs
■ In addition to the items already recommended by Carolyn Wilson in her
10/16/17 memo,the Subcommittee suggested that the Evaluators look at:
• an inventory of trainings/certifications, including an assessment of
implementation of program trainings
• Special Education program descriptions and staffing at all levels
• Representative sample of'de-identified student records
• Review assistive technology
• MTSS screening procedures
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Meeting Minutes
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■ Subcommittee recommended that the parent survey be sent out by either .
the SEPAC or an independent third party;such as the Evaluator hired.
■ Once the district has contracted with an evaluator,the Subcommittee-will
meet with them to discuss the program evaluation.elements and the parent
survey.
■ - Upon completion of the evaluation, a workshop for tl�e district-and SEPAC.
will be conducted by a facilitator to review data, identify best practices and
gaps, and determine priority.areas.
d. Carolyn Wilson provided several updates:
■ LLD Evaluator': identifying and contracting has been somewhat difficult as
many institutions no:longer conduct program evaluations. Ms. Wilson will
reach out to several more places, including MGH, HILL for Literacy, and
Melissa Orkins through her private LLC
■ Staffing updates:the District was able to fill several open positions, including
the SLP.for the High School and Team Chair at Birch Meadow. The BCBA and
school psychologist position.at the high school still remain vacant.
■ Professional Development:November 7th and 17th were professional
development days in the district_. Staff attended workshops on writing
evaluations and eval tools, math tutorials; reading panels on specialized
reading, IEP requirements, and collaborative problem solving.
■ Transportation:there were lots of questions from parents after the last
storm about what to.expect in case of delays and cancellations. Ms. Wilson
will work with NRT to pull together an FAQthat can be circulated by SEPAC
and also posted on the RPS website.
■ Budget meetings: Ms. Wilson informed the SEPAC thatshe will be presenting
the special education budget to the School Committee on 1/13/18 at 9am. It
was discussed that there is a need for a Special Education parent as a budget
liaison to help inform the wider community on the budget impact.
4. New Business
a. Upcoming meetings: Future meeting dates and topics were briefly discussed..Ideas
for speakers include: Nancy Duggan from Decoding Dyslexia, Understanding
Disabilities for a parent informational session, Lisa Studder (to be rescheduled from —
previous date).
Sarah McLaughlin moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:46pm. Sarah
Scaffidi seconded.
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