Author: ArlingtonSEPAC

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Anjani Datla, Cathy B, Cheryl Miller, Chris Carlson, Eileen Coleman, Elisa M, Joyce Schlenger, Katell Guellec, Katherine Reisz-Hanson, Katrina Bernstein-Lewicke, Kristin Burke, Len Kardon, Liz Exton, Melanie Cipar, Mira Whiting, Noel Dyer, Rebekah, Sophie Prevost, Stephanie Greiner, Stephanie Trinkle, Tracy Perneta, Janna Moreau, Dror, Clair Johnson, Rachel Ostrow, Sarah Forster, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, and Jessica Dombrosky attended

Approve Minutes:

– Meeting Minutes from May were approved

Officers/Committee Reports:

– We have been talking about possible workshops for next year. The first event we have is a Meet and Greet in September. We are thinking of doing our Basic Rights Workshop from FCSN in October.

– In November we are looking into how to read your IEP report, and after that have a workshop on Beyond Basic Rights from the law firm Sarah met at the FCSN conference on Dispute Resolution

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

–

APS Staff Reports:

– Alison shared the results of the Tiered Focus monitoring. They were on-site in January, and the final report was issued on May 20^th 2021. The Office of Public School Monitoring were monitoring the District’s compliance with special education and civil rights. Monitoring happens every 3 years. Parents and school staff were interviewed, along with the SEPAC chairs.

– They are looking at licensure, professional development, facilities and classroom observations, oversight, time and learning, and equal access. Targeted standards must be met in Special Education. We were identified as Tier 2 (out of 4 possible Tiers, where a higher number requires more oversight by the DESE). Tiers 1 and 2 develop Continuous Improvement and Monitoring Plan (CIMP). All of our criteria were implemented in Special Education. With civil rights, 15 of 17 criteria were implemented, with two partially implemented. One civil rights item was related to student handbooks, while the other was related to restraint procedures documentation)

Introducing Dr. Homan, our new Superintendent

– Starts on July 1^st. She is originally from the Midwest. Formerly an English teacher, and taught 9^th and 10^th grade ELA. She took a job with Boston Public Schools and Boston became home. She is a big believer in public schools and that every child is talented and capable of achieving their best, and what they need is different for each child. She has been sitting in on town meetings, finance committee meetings, and school committee meetings since February, and has been meeting with Dr. Bodie and visiting each school in the district.

– Alison mentioned that Dr. Homan has done work in Waltham on multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), and asked her to speak about it. It is a system that is meant to be flexible. If a district wants to have an effective MTSS, they need to define what Tier 1 has access to (reading, math, social-emotional support and criteria). A strong MTSS has Tier 2 supports for students who need it (usually accelerators, so students who are behind can catch back up. Small Group Support). Tier 3 is more intensive, usually one on one or small group support with a counselor. Special Education isn’t necessary to get tiered support.

-Sophie asked Dr. Homan to speak about her work regarding Equity. She mentioned that in Waltham, educators were trained to examine and reflect on whether their interactions with students were in any way denying equal access to Tiered instructions among students of color.

-Inae asked about universal design of instruction and assessment. Dr. Homan believes it’s important for teachers to model and facilitate different modes of instruction, and that students should have multiple ways to demonstrate their comprehension of the material.

– Katrina asked about reading instruction, particularly among dyslexic learners. Dr. Homan says that Waltham used Fundations, and that students benefit from things like repetition and hand motions in order to learn phonemic awareness. Alison mentioned that they are adding Fundations instruction to the third grade curriculum, and more phonemic awareness curriculum to Kindergarten.

-Katell asked about how Dr. Homan leads with empathy. Dr. Homan said there is a distinct difference between being a mom and being an educator, and that there’s a different kind of listening you need to do. When a school needs to accomplish something, having a committee with teachers and parents can help each other understand the other’s story and perspective. The better you can understand what is going on at school or at home, the better you can bridge the divide and flexibly support the learner.

-Sarah asked how General Educators and Special Educators can have the time to work together and collaborate so that each feels responsible for supporting and implementing a student’s IEP. Dr. Homan says having common planning time is important. Also, targeted co-teaching can be very successful if implemented properly. Having a special educator at the table helps all understand the needs of the student.

SEPAC Board Elections:

– Inae and Sarah were reelected as Co-Chairs, and Jess was reelected as Secretary

Public Participation/New Business/Open Discussion:–

Announcements:

–

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Kristin Burke, Lynne Bennett, Sophie Prevost, Chris Carlson, Joyce Schlenger, Bill Hayner, Stephanie Trinkle, Samrat Bhattachan, Tracy Perneta attended

Approve minutes:

– Meeting minutes from April were approved

Officers/committee reports:

– We have been thinking about our next steps and events/workshops for next year.

– At a subcommittee meeting for the School Committee, David Goode mentioned that they could host our website, and the District can then link to that website from the Special Education page. Alison said she could follow up with Dan Sheehan, who has taken over for David Goode since he retired. There will be a notice when you are redirected that you are leaving the district website to visit the SEPAC website.

– We will be having a Social Hour tonight at 7:30 at this same Zoom Link, where parents and caregivers can chat and commiserate, not in an open meeting format. There will be breakout rooms, based on different ages or disabilities. School staff will not be present for the social hour. Any parents can attend, even if you don’t have an IEP or 504. If you’re at all interested, you can attend.

– Inae will be reporting back to the School Committee about SEPAC in June (June 10th).

– Alison and Inae are on a hiring committee for the new district position for the Director of Diversity/ Equity/Inclusion. We are trying to find someone who can represent the District well in all of these facets, at the intersection of these facets, and how they influence our District and how it operates as a whole.

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

–

APS Staff reports:

– Bill Hayner is the new School Committee Liaison to SEPAC, and is in attendance at this meeting.

– MCAS is starting in certain grades at the elementary schools today. MCAS has limited the number of sessions, pushed the testing window back, and expanded the number of days where testing could occur. High Schoolers had the MCAS requirement waived unless they are applying for state scholarships.

– The Whole Child team has been working on holding a Community Day in June to close out the year and as a send-off to summer.

– Dr. MacNeal will be reporting on our Tiered Focus Monitoring results from the evaluation that was done in January. There are no findings or procedural issues in Special Education this time, and they don’t issue a report unless they find issues, so Alison doesn’t have a report to share.

– The coffee chat with the School Committee (bring your own coffee, because it’s happening on Zoom)

SEPAC Board Nominations:

– Inae would like to stay on as Chair

– Sarah would like to stay on as Co-Chair

– Jess would like to stay on as Secretary

– Other possible positions are Social Media Coordinator or School Liaisons.

– Stephanie Trinkle would like to be the Brackett School Liaison.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

– Bill mentioned that school committee chats run every Saturday this year. There are focus groups in these chats for different topics, and Special Education has been discussed at least twice this year. An anonymous report from these chats is generated and shared with the administration. The feedback from the District has been positive, and these meetings will continue into next fall.

– Stephanie Trinkle had previously mentioned the different types of monitoring used to determine effective progress for children with IEPs. She was trying to figure out where in the IEP this monitoring and progress was addressed. Alison mentioned that if a student scores at high risk on the DIBELS, their progress will be monitored more frequently than a student whose scores indicated lower risk. Progress monitoring tools aren’t usually mentioned in a student’s IEP. Inae said that decoding the different parts of your IEP and their functions could be a potential workshop for next year.

– Stephanie asked if someone reviews an IEP after it is put together, before it’s sent to parents. Alison said that responsibility belongs to the Team Chair.

Announcements:

– We will hold Board Elections at next month’s SEPAC meeting.

– Our Social Hour

– Our next meeting is an Evening Meeting, June 8^th, at 7pm. Our special guest, Dr. Liz Holman, our incoming Superintendent, will be attending.

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Alex, Cheryl Miller, Chris Carlson, Lauren Bellon, Liz Exton, Rebekah Lea, Sophie Prevost, Katrina Bernstein-Lewicke, Tracy Perneta, Eileen Coleman, Dror Wolff, Stephanie Trinkle, Rachel Katzman, Rachel Ostrow, and Beth Rapoza attended.

Approve minutes:

– Meeting minutes from March were approved

Officers/committee reports:

– We held our Basic Rights workshop last month, on Eligibility and Evaluation. We had a pretty good turnout and the presentation went well.

– We have talked about having an informal meet and greet with other parents on Zoom, just to chat and talk about how things are going during the pandemic. It would be more of a social and peer support event. Contemplating holding the social in the evening on the same day as our morning SEPAC meeting (May 11^th, 2021)

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

– We are discussing having presenters in Assistive Technology/Assistive Augmentative Communication for presentations in the fall.

– Sarah Burd would address social-emotional needs of SpEd students in another presentation.

APS Staff reports:

– Full re-opening happened for elementary students last Monday, April 5^th. We are continuing to conduct pool testing. Some students returned to full time from being remote, and students who were in opposite cohorts (AA/BB) were able to reunite.

– Extended School Year – DESE strongly recommends that students receive as much in-person learning as possible. That said, they are offering a remote option and an in-person option for ESY summer services as an extension of the accommodations offered this past school year. A survey was sent to parents, asking them to make their choice to attend in-person, remotely, or opt-out of ESY.

Programming is between July 12^th through August 19^th, from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at Menotomy, Peirce School, Gibbs School, and AHS

ESY services are proposed in order to prevent substantial regression, so IEP services during ESY may differ from the services given during the regular school year. It is expected that families will know their child’s summer services schedule by the end of June.

– The next phase of re-opening happens after we return from Spring Break, with re-opening of the middle schools on the following Tuesday, and the high school will open the following week.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

– Melanie Jarbo – Did the dispute resolution talk at VCO conference. Has to figure out if there’s a conflict of interest doing something in-district, but if her law firm approves then she (or someone else from her law firm) can do the presentation for us next year.

– Stephanie Trinkle asked about the roles of different supports for social-emotional goals during unstructured times. The BCBA and social worker help teach adaptive and socially appropriate ways to interact with peers. The state has developed learning standards for social emotional learning, and most start in pre-K, but skills are taught in the curriculum moving up through the grades, with things such as Responsive Classroom and Second Step as part of the SEL curriculum. Other tiered services or lunch bunches are also offered.

– It might be a good idea to have Sarah Burd come back and give us an update on the implementation of the SEL plan.

Announcements:

– Next month we will take nominations for the SEPAC Board Elections, and in June there will be elections.

– The school committee will be hosting a coffee chat (bring your own coffee because these are done on Zoom 🙂 ) for parents of Special Education students on Saturday May 8^th from 11am to 12pm

-Our next monthly business meeting is on Tuesday, May 11^th, from 9am to 10am on Zoom

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Stephanie Greiner, Chris Carlson, Inae Hwang, Jessica Dombrosky, Lynne Bennett, Emily Butler, Julie Moscatel, Sophie Prevost, Sarah Barton, Claudia Donnet, Stephanie Trinkle, Joyce Schlenger, Kristin Burke, Brenda Mahoney

Approve minutes:

– Meeting minutes from February were approved

Officers/committee reports:

– This weekend was the Visions of Community conference by the Federation for Children with Special Needs. It was a virtual conference this year, and Sarah was able to attend. The key note speaker was Dr. Rosemary Allen. She spoke about implicit bias and what it means to be culturally competent and responsive. Sarah also attended a Beyond Basic Rights workshop on dispute resolution during the conference, presented by an Arlington parent and Special Education Lawyer. She also attended a networking lunch with other SEPAC chairs from around the area

– Basic Rights Workshop, Tuesday March 16^th, from 7 to 9pm

– Website is almost finished

– Last month Inae and Jess attended a workshop by Sarah Ward from Cognitive Connections on Executive Function. She spoke about using actual images to help the student visualize what “done” looks like, rather than the usual pictures that are often used as visuals for special education and younger students.

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

– Arlington SEPAC is hosting a Basic Rights – Evaluation and Eligibility Workshop, presented by Phyllis Keenan from the Federation for Children with Special Needs. The workshop is from 7pm to 9pm on Tuesday, March 16^th. You need to register via a link to get the Zoom link and password.

APS Staff reports:

– APS Staff will be meeting again next week with Lauren Bellon and Brenda Mahoney from the Whole Child group to work on developing a social-emotional learning vision for the district.

– Elise Wulff presentation was shared at the Special Education Department meeting among elementary school paraprofessionals for professional development.

– On Friday afternoon the Board of Education approved the Commissioner of Education’s request to return PK-Grade 5 to full time, in person education by April 5^th. Superintendents will be meeting with Commissioner Riley to find out more details about the plan. The school district has been working on planning for an increased return, so there should be more information from Dr. Bodie in the coming weeks. Students who are in Remote Academy can remain in it until the end of the year, but the Hybrid model will be eliminated. Middle and High School students will return around 4 to 5 weeks after the elementary students return. The general education schedules will change rather than repeating the same two days.

– Dr. Bodie has to present a plan for a return to full time at the School Committee meeting on Thursday. In the beginning of the year we banked a professional development day, and it looks like this day will be used to set up during the transition to full time.

– We are continuing to look for staff to cover these increases in students, plus staff to cover the duty-free lunch periods for teachers.

– There will be a forthcoming survey from Dr. Bodie to determine the intentions of parents, especially to gauge the interest among Remote Academy families to return their students to full time. This will determine if staff will also move from Remote Academy to In-Person.

– Related services are likely to remain the same, but the learning specialist/push-in services might change when the general education schedule changes.

-Stephanie Trinkle asked where the paraprofessional job postings were. Alison said they post paraprofessional jobs on School Spring and Indeed.

– Many PTOs are coordinating with parents to help schedule vaccinations for teachers. Also, you can contact Liz Exton of the School Committee for more information.

– Brenda of The Whole Child spoke of how the safe and supportive schools vision meetings have been going. At the last meeting they spoke about having an event day, partially online and partially in person, much like Sarah Burd’s Wellness Day that was planned before the pandemic. With the coming changes of children being back in school full time, there will be much to discuss at the next meeting.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

– Sarah said that one of the things discussed at the working SEPAC lunch. Leslie from FCSN is collecting surveys that have been used in the past, like Acton-Boxborough’s annual survey that they’ve done for 15 years. We could present these surveys to parents in our district to find out more about their concerns and interests.

– Brenda mentioned that there are many parents in the district who aren’t sure if SEPAC is the place for them to gain more information. They want to help their child with higher needs which might not be diagnosable or fit into a specific category. Sarah mentioned that your child doesn’t need to have an IEP for you to attend meetings. Anyone who has questions about Special Education and how it runs in the district can attend meetings and learn more. Claudia mentioned that the district information or the Facebook page can be more specific that anyone with interest can attend, to be more welcoming.

– Claudia brought up that Gibbs doesn’t have three different SLC classrooms for the different programs, and that might be something to get feedback on from the survey.

– Stephanie Trinkle brought up how it’s hard to determine the differences in the goals between Arlington SEPAC and The Arlington Sped Alliance (TASA). Inae mentioned how the district can’t do some of the things we wish they could do, and suggested that TASA try legislating to make these changes possible. SEPAC is about communicating and collaborating with the district to get parents and students the information and resources they need.

– Claudia mentioned that this way of having meetings on Zoom is helpful and more convenient for attendees, and wondered if this would continue. Inae mentioned that right now we can do these meetings via Zoom because the Mass State Legislature said we can do meetings via Zoom. SEPAC is subject to Open Meeting Law, and the Legislature states when we have to be in a publicly-accessible place and resume the open meeting requirements. There might be a way to broadcast the meetings online, but this will be in addition to an in-person meeting.

Announcements:

– Our next monthly business meeting is on Tuesday, April 13^th, from 7pm to 8pm on Zoom

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Stephanie Greiner, Joyce Schlenger, Sarah Barton, Inae Hwang, Jessica Dombrosky, Chris Carlson, Lauren Bellon, Nathan Forster, Cheryl, Katrina Berenstein, Rebekah, Stephanie Trinkle, Eileen Coleman, Jamie Gallo, Mai Oishi, and Marais Young attended

Approve minutes:

– Meeting minutes from January were approved

Officers/committee reports:

– Our workshop on Self Advocacy from Elise Wulff of MGH ASPIRE last month was very well received. Inae sent the video to Claudia Bertoli to be put up on the APS website.

– Basic Rights Workshop, Tuesday March 16^th, from 7 to 9pm

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

– Arlington SEPAC is hosting a Basic Rights – Evaluation and Eligibility Workshop, presented by Phyllis Keenan from the Federation for Children with Special Needs. The workshop is from 7pm to 9pm on Tuesday, March 16^th. You need to register via a link to get the Zoom link and password.

APS Staff reports:

– In January we had the Tiered focus monitoring visit. This happens in the middle of a six year cycle. They are reviewing special education, civil rights, and English learner education. They are telling us to wait 60 days from when they are on-site before issuing us a continuation improvement plan. We expect to get the report back in two months. They sent a survey to parents and got 250 responses and interviewed 15 families, including the two SEPAC chairs.

– Tomorrow night at School Committee they’re going to give the budget proposal for the upcoming year.

– Lauren Bellon from the Whole Child group is working on a social-emotional learning vision for more effectively supporting children and families in a more holistic way, paying attention to mental and physical well-being. They talked today about an eight year plan to implement these changes. It’s a grassroots movement that has been slowly growing and working on outreach.

– Last year, before the pandemic, Sarah Burd was going to host a day of workshops related to Social Emotional Learning.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

– Federation for Children with Special Needs is holding their conference virtually this year. The cost is $55 per person, and as part of our membership we are allowed to have one educator attend the conference. Melanie Jarboe is a special education lawyer and is going to be on one of the panels at the conference.

– Collaborative Problem Solving has been used more often at AHS, and looks at behavior through the lens of students/parents/teachers do well when they can, and that discipline issues are due to unsolved problems and lagging skills. Dr. Janger would like to have the high school host a parent workshop in the coming year.

– There is a documentary called “The Kids We Lose” and they have been looking into doing a collaboration with SEPAC to host a screening.

– Wakefield Public Schools is hosting Dr. Stuart Ablon, Director of Think:Kids at MGH, on Thursday night, February 11^th:

https://www.wakefieldstudentsupport.com

– Stephanie Trinkle asked about how the inclusion specialists work to coordinate work and supports with the general educator, special educator, and aides. APS has added data blocks for grade level team meetings and collaboration between special educators and general educators or reading specialists. Every Wednesday afternoon there is also common planning time. Also, if you look on the A Grid of your child’s IEP, you will see the amount of time for consultation between educators/specialists/paraprofessionals.

– Another question was regarding student goals and how they determine progress. Students have end of unit assessments based on curriculum, plus 3 benchmark assessments each year, plus I Ready math assessments (multiple assessments during the year), plus DIBELS assessments, which are nationally normed reading assessments.

Announcements:

– Our next monthly business meeting is on Tuesday, March 9^th, from 9am to 10am on Zoom

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Sophie Prevost, Chris Carlson, and Stephanie Greiner attended. Liz Exton from the School Committee was also in attendance.

Attendance: Claudia Donnet, Rachel Ostrow, Sarah Barton, Eileen Coleman, Naomi Muller, Rebekah Lea, Sarah Forster, Ileana Gatica Herrera, Claire Johnson, Michele Phelan, Tracy Perneta, Marais Young, Noel Dyer, and Lauren Bellon

Approve minutes:

– Minutes from November 2020 were reviewed and approved

Officers/committee reports:

-We have been working on getting workshops together for the second half of this year

-Work on the new SEPAC website continues and is close to being uploaded

– We used to have an in-district Listserv where parents could opt-in. We have been taking notices from Alison and others and sending them out via arlingtonSEPAC@gmail.com. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please send an email to the above address so you can be added.

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

– Federation for Children with Special Needs – Basic Rights: Transition Planning for IEP students age 14 to 22 – Monday, December 14^th 6:00pm

– Riverside Community Care’s System of Care Meeting and presentation – Tuesday, December 15^th 9:30am

– SEEM Collaborative’s training on Supporting Children in Remote Learning – 7:00 to 8:30pm on December 15^th

– Elise Wulff, the Director of Children’s Services from ASPIRE at MGH, will be doing a workshop on Helping Kids Learn Self-Advocacy Skills. This workshop will immediately follow our evening SEPAC Business Meeting at 7:00pm to 8:30pm on January 12^th. Sarah will make up a flyer and send it out before the event with the Zoom link.

-We are trying to plan a Basic Rights workshop from FCSN in Arlington, probably happening at the February 9^th evening SEPAC meeting.

-Requests for an Accessible Recreation Fair/Exposition on extracurricular activities and therapies that are available for students who need a higher level of support to participate.

-Inae suggested putting together a committee in order to organize this event.

-Others spoke of ways that the district might be able to support families and these after-school recreation programs in order to minimize the amount of discrimination that occurs and sometimes makes these activities inaccessible for some children with disabilities. Alison suggested having some of the support personnel from school and town recreation programs attend a meeting to talk about what they do to support children with disabilities in these programs.

-Inae also mentioned that it would be nice to also include summer camp options in the Recreation Fair, which didn’t happen the last time we held it.

-Michele suggested holding the Recreation Fair as a Zoom Fair in the spring, with breakout rooms or presentations given in a specific order.

-Augmented and Assistive Communication Options/Providers Workshop – Alison mentioned that we have an AAC coordinator, Amanda Lewitus, who might be able to answer any questions families have on AAC: alewitus@arlington.k12.ma.us

-Chris Carlson provided a link to Recreation Opportunities:

Special Needs Recreation Programs & Events Massachusetts

-We would need to establish a 501c3 in order to raise money for workshops, otherwise any money we raise goes to the School Committee. PTOs have sponsored speakers with us in the past, so this might be another route that we could take to fund workshops in the future. Rebekah Lea is a tax professional who has offered her experience with taxes and filing, should we decide to start a 501c3 in the future. Michele has proposed that those interested in discussing this further should email each other off of Zoom.

APS Staff reports:

-The Superintendent Search Committee extended a contract to Dr. Elizabeth Holman for the 2021-2022 school year. The School Committee is in the process of negotiating that contract.

-Departments and different schools in the district are giving presentations in the end of January to the Budget Committee on their needs for the upcoming year

-The school budget is allocated based on projected needs, and built on funding estimates that we get from the state. There will be meetings where departments give presentations to the budget committee in the next couple of weeks, and the final budget is voted upon in March.

-We will talk about what Special Education has put forth as needs as they continue to move through the budget process.

SEPAC Board Elections:

-Michele Phelan nominated Inae Hwang and Sarah Barton as Co-Chairs and Jessica Dombrosky as Secretary. Eileen Coleman seconded the nomination.

-Inae and Sarah were elected as Co-Chairs, and Jessica was elected as Secretary.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

-Rachel Ostrow offered to be the Stratton liason and Marais Young also offered to be a liason

Announcements:

-Our next meeting is Tuesday, January 12^th, at 7pm, which will be a quick 10 minute business meeting, followed by the presentation by Elise Wulff from ASPIRE.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86234778319?pwd=ZDFPdDNZZjZxbXVwNUYyZDR1VjJsUT09

Meeting ID: 862 3477 8319

Passcode: 043991

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions:

– Alison Elmer, Lynne Bennett, Kristin Burke, Joyce Schlenger, Chris Carlson, Dr. MacNeal, and Stephanie Greiner attended. Brenda Mahoney also was on the Zoom call

Also in attendance: Sarah Barton, Rachel Ostrow, Yael Mandelblat-cerf, Deb Savage, Krasi Petkov, Kate Wolfe, Elisa MacDonald, Stephanie, Vencislav Kourdov, from the Boland-Kourdov family, Emily Butler, Alan Hassell, Amina Grunko, Shira Wolff, Claudia Donnet, Meredith, Sarah Forster, Tashana, Stella Doyle

Approve minutes:

– Minutes from October 2020 and March 2020 were approved.

Officers/committee reports:

– We don’t have any committees in session currently, just Inae and Jess as SEPAC officers

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

– ASPIRE @ MGH has confirmed that Elise Wulff will be doing an evening workshop after the evening SEPAC meeting on January 12^th. The topic is on helping kids learn Self-Advocacy skills.

– Planning is underway for a Basic Rights Workshop from the Federation for Children With Special Needs, probably happening in early 2021.

– Lexington SEPAC has had many workshops and has mentioned that Arlington parents are welcome to attend. Looking into workshops put on by surrounding towns would be a way for parents to find workshops that match their needs. Inae mentioned that all SEPAC workshops in the state are currently open to all.

– Alison frequently sends emails of upcoming workshops for us to send to the SEPAC mailing list. (arlingtonsepac@gmail.com) Please send an email if you wish to be added to the list

– Evidence-based reading supports, or workshops on Executive Functioning challenges are topics that were suggested for possible workshops.

– Workshop on how to cope with the stress of the upcoming winter

– Understanding your Neuropsychological Testing results – How do you interpret what you’re reading in your report.

-Mindfulness workshops with Carla Leone.

– Transition planning after 22

-Mass Rehab Commission – transition planning in the post secondary world, workshops for students as they transition to college or careers after high school.

– Preparing for a post-COVID reality with our kids

– ADHD, Sensory Processing, and Anxiety Disorders are topics that parents would like to see addressed. Maybe mitigating the sensory issues of the current COVID environment.

– Support group to trade success stories or discuss issues for what has and hasn’t worked for their child at home with remote learning.

– Resource/Recreation/Summer Camp Fair – We did this many years ago and it was a huge success. We need a lot of help to organize this kind of event, and we don’t currently have the capacity right now to pull it together with the number of people on our current team.

– A Community Padlet where everyone can contribute their own resources if they have them. (Inae says we have a resource page on our website where we could post vetted resources.)

– Survey of parents in town to find out what skills/talents they might be willing to contribute to a 45 minutes webinar.

APS Staff reports:

– The Superintendent Search Committee recommended two candidates for Superintendent, and the School Committee voted on two finalists this past Wednesday: Dr. Victoria Greer and Dr. Elizabeth Holman. On November 17^th, Dr. Holman will be on site, and on November 18^th, Dr. Greer will be on site.

– School Committee will be discussing the budget, beginning in December.

– Most of the secondary schools have already had their curriculum nights and the elementary schools are finishing up curriculum nights this week.

– All the SEPAC meetings for the year are currently on the school calendar on the district website. Workshops will be posted there as well, when we have dates for them.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

– It has been suggested that we put off having elections for SEPAC officers until the spring. Last year’s elections were postponed due to COVID. Deb suggested putting it off until June, because parents don’t have much time to contemplate running for webmaster/media officer, membership officer, secretary/Outreach officer, or co-chair. Many others agree that it’s too soon for some people to commit to running for an officer position.

– We need to remedy the fact that we’re overdue for elections, because we are a legally proscribed body. Alan suggested that we can have an election in December, and then again by June we should have a goal of filling all five of the officer spots. Inae agreed that an election in December and then again in June is the right way to remedy the fact that we are overdue for electing officers.

– Inae is nominating herself for the position of Chair, Jess is nominating herself for the position of Secretary, and Sarah is nominating herself for the Co-Chair position.

-We will have elections for officer positions in December

– Deb has asked us all to craft a paragraph stating our visions for SEPAC in the upcoming year, before the June elections.

-Nominations for the June election will be in May.

Announcements:

– The next SEPAC meeting will be December 8^th at 7pm. The zoom link will be the same as with this meeting. The January 12^th meeting will be moved to the evening (7pm) so it can coincide with the MGH ASPIRE workshop. The February 9^th meeting will also be at 7pm.

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions – Alison Elmer, Dr. MacNeal, Chris Carlson, Joyce Schlenger, Kristin Burke, Sophie Prevost (Dallin/Hardy/Brackett/Pierce), and Stephanie Greiner attended. Liz Exton from the School Committee (SEPAC liaison) also attended.

Minutes from March approved pending editing after distribution over email

Officers/Committee Reports –

– The abrupt removal of students from buildings in March interrupted workshops we had planned for the end of last year. We are still currently working on getting the planned workshop from ASPIRE @ MGH.

– We also did not officially hold elections for SEPAC officers/board members at the end of last year due to the pandemic. Next month we will put up nominations, so if you would like to be considered for a board position, please send a notice to Jessica Dombrosky, SEPAC secretary (jessdombrosky@gmail.com) or Inae Hwang (inaehwang@gmail.com)

Current positions are Chair/Co-Chair, Secretary, Member at Large, Graphic Design/Web Design/Development

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year –

– Mass Rehab Commission (MRC) Transition Services (October 28^th, 7pm). Please email Jess Dombrosky if you wish to be added to our email list and receive notifications of upcoming workshops.

– In the last few years, SEPAC has co-hosted a parent information workshop with Mass Rehab Commission. Mass Rehab Commission helps with training, resume help, other services for students ages 14+ as they get ready to transition to college or career.

– SEPAC also hosts an annual Basic Rights workshop, from the Federation for Children With Special Needs.

– Elise Wulff from MGH ASPIRE was supposed to do a workshop on disclosure last spring. She has been doing a lot of Zoom seminars recently and feels comfortable doing Zoom for the previously planned workshop, for free. She is wondering if we want to change the topic to one that is more relevant now. (ASPIRE caters to children and adults with high cognitive autism/related disabilities)

– Carla Leone has previously done Mindfulness workshops with us, and might be willing to run another mindfulness workshop for families/possibly also students

– A caregivers guide to remote learning by Sharee Eavens, from a social-emotional agency up in Wilmington, MA

APS Staff Reports –

– We are entering into week 4 and you’ve been receiving updates from Dr. Bodie. COVID testing has resumed for our teachers, and it’s a proactive step to help keep our staff and students safe, and our schools open. The 4^th and 5^th grade at Stratton are currently remote due to a singular teacher there testing positive. Another staff member at Peirce also tested positive but it was determined that they didn’t have close contacts so no cohorts needed to be in quarantine.

– The IEP notifications you received over the summer were in relation to how the IEP services would be implemented differently due to the pandemic (Special Education Learning Plan (SELP)). The next memo you should receive will be related to compensatory services due to the shut down last spring. Students were still entitled to a free and appropriate public education. It needs to be assessed whether or not the student with an IEP made effective progress, and whether or not they require general education level recovery supports or whether they require additional compensatory services to make effective progress. Another consideration is whether or not new services need to be added to the IEP to address NEW disability related needs that may have developed during the closure (ie: services related to anxiety related to online learning)

– FAQ on DESE website explains in clear terms the things that parents would need to consider and discuss with their Team at IEP meetings.

Public Participation/New Business –

– Outreach difficulties – Special Education voluntary listserv no longer works, so our outreach to parents is limited. You can opt in privately to the private gmail SEPAC list. We are looking for ways to increase our ability to reach the district as a whole.

In the past, there was an Arlington SEPAC Facebook page, and it was open for comment. The page became a toxic place due to the commenting and the School Committee said that it needed to be shut down. Since SEPAC is an advisory committee to the School Committee, instead of a 501c3, we can’t have our own page without School Committee approval. Having our own public presence on Facebook would make it easier for people to find us.

– Website is almost ready to be posted, hopefully by the end of October, and that would be another way to reach people.

– Liz asked if there was a way to recreate the email list on the new School Messenger. Alison said that it would still be an opt-in list. Inae reported that IT stated that coming up with a mailing list short of emailing everyone wasn’t feasible. Currently, School Messenger doesn’t differentiate between students with IEPs and students without IEPs, nor is it an opt-in tool.

– Alison suggested we can distribute a survey to parents so they can opt into an email list if they are interested in joining. Inae said that we still have real barriers to reaching people in district since distribution of information from principals and administrators depends on the building.

– Krasimira (Peirce parent) Elementary School PTOs put together their own directory, and parents fill in those forms with their directory information. They can add a question for opting into the SEPAC mailing list and then send information of all who opt in our way.

– Janet asked about whether other parents were also having challenges with asynchronous Wednesdays, and whether the district had any plans for addressing this. Inae mentioned that Wednesdays have been challenging for many, including general education students. Alison mentioned that she could reach out to her child’s Special Ed liaison to problem solve for specific accommodations/strategies for Wednesdays.

– Lauren Bellon – wanted to follow up on two letters written to APS from TASA posing questions for the Supt. Search Committee, regarding executive functioning and language learning challenges. Also, how can meeting minutes be distributed after they’ve been approved. Inae answered that after meeting minutes have been approved, they are sent to Karen Fitzgerald to be posted. She also said that the questions from the TASA letters are on her mind as she crafts questions to ask the candidates. They only get 60 to 90 minutes with each candidate, and each candidate must get through multiple rounds of expertise to clear the hurdle of the first round of interviews. The initial number of questions is around 15, and they are limited in the scope of questions they are able to cover in that time. Questions are drafted as a group/committee. There will be more opportunities for more specific input at a later time this year.

– Lauren also wonders what the forum/avenue is for parents who aren’t having satisfactory responses from the staff in their building, and whether they should be going to SEPAC before bringing up issues before the School Committee. SEPAC has no power, we are merely an informing body. We try to work collaboratively with Alison and her department, but we are an advising body with budgetary constraints.

– Stewart asked whether there was a School Committee member who was a liason/helped run the SEPAC. Inae said while there is a liason, SEPAC is run by volunteers, not the School Committee.

– Sarah mentioned that there are Special Education communication and organizational charts on the district Special Education website (on the left hand column of the website).

Links:

Organization Chart:

Click to access specialedorganizationchart.pdf

Communication Ladder:

Click to access specialedcommunicationladder.pdf

Announcements –

– Our next meeting is on Tuesday, November 10^th, at 9am via Zoom. The link will be the same as the one from tonight.

– We are still looking for folks to join us, so if you want to get involved, let us know.

Adjourn