Author: ArlingtonSEPAC

Call to Order

Introductions:
-Alison, Lynne, Joyce, Kristen and Chris attended.

Approve Minutes:
– Minutes could not be approved because we didn’t have enough people from the February meeting
present. We will attempt to approve them in April.

Officers/committee reports:
– We are changing our April 14th business meeting to start at 6:45pm in the Gibbs Media Center so we can hold it before the Disclosure workshop (7 to 9pm).
– Jess is almost finished working on the new SEPAC website.
– Inae is hoping to go before the school committee and request that we be able to have a SEPAC Facebook group that is for posting information only (only admins can post, no comments allowed).

Planning Workshops:
– Elise Wulff from MGH ASPIRE will be holding a workshop on Disclosure at our April 14th Business Meeting.

APS Staff Reports:
– Intelligent Lives screening was held yesterday evening. The panel discussion after was informative and
touched on topics such as inclusion and disclosure.
– The legislature passed the student opportunity act, and Arlington was one of around 30 districts who
received funding due to our enrollment growth. We are planning to use the additional funds to target early literacy initiatives and the achievement-opportunity gap/sub-groups affected by the achievement-opportunity gap. At the elementary level this will mean adding certified reading specialists instead of reading tutors to improve equity based on student enrollment in each school. Much of this is geared toward general education, but if we improve Tier 1 outcomes, the likelihood of students requiring special ed services diminishes. In the high school, funds will be used to add special ed staff and general ed staff
so co-taught clusters can be more effective (mostly in ELA, science, math). Ottoson will be adding
special ed staff as well.
– Inae is concerned that the change in curriculum since adding Tools of the Mind has impacted the literacy
rates because it changes when the Fundations curriculum is taught. Ensuring that our math coaches have
the flexibility and understanding to work with diverse populations is also important if our math
interventions are to be effective.
– Ottoson is adding another half cluster (due to increased enrollment), and we are looking into adding a
special educator to that cluster.
– We are in the mid-cycle for TFM (course monitoring). There will be an announcement in the paper with
a number to call if you’d like to do a survey and then be interviewed by the DESE representatives.
– There isn’t any progress on getting a new SPED mailing list. It is possible to create one through school
messenger and using power school to determine who receives an email, but it wouldn’t include those who
aren’t currently receiving special education services, so publicizing it so people can opt in would be
important.
– Middle School transition nights (5th to 6th, 6th to 7th) do not have definite dates yet.

Public Participation:
–

Announcements:
–

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions

Approve Minutes:
– Minutes from January were approved

Officers/Committee Reports:
– Successful and huge January meeting. We had over 20 people attend.
-Website is Under Construction and we’re working on getting it up onto the district site by the end of the
spring.

Planning Workshops:
– Winchester is hosting a number of upcoming workshops at the Winchester Public Library (add from
email)
– Arlington High School will be holding a screening of the film “Intelligent Lives” on March 9th
at 6:00pm in the Lowe Auditorium.
– Lexington is hosting a SEPAC/Recreation Fair on Saturday April 4th from 10am to 1pm at the Lexington Community Center Room, 39 Marrett Rd, Lexington.
– Belmont is also hosting a SEPAC resource fair at Butler Elementary on Wednesday March 28th
from 7pm-9pm.
– Elise Wulff from MGH ASPIRE will be holding a workshop on Disclosure at our April 14th
Business Meeting.
– Mindfulness workshop with Carla Leone – we are trying to arrange a mindfulness workshop (possibly
one that might also involve students) by the end of the year, most likely in June.

APS Staff Reports:
– Alison was unable to attend this month’s meeting.
– Still no word on what the dates are for the middle school transition nights.

Public Participation:
– Loubna asked about whether any surrounding towns were hosting Basic Rights Workshops. Jessica
offered to email the workshop handouts.

Announcements:
–
Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions – Alison, Joyce, Lynne, Stephanie, Chris, Christina and Bill Hayner attended.

Approve Minutes – Minutes from December were approved.

Officers/committee reports –

– We did Basic Rights Workshop in October, Clare Vann, a lawyer from the Federation, did the presentation, and she had a new perspective.

– Having trouble getting principals to post the agendas at their schools so parents know about upcoming meetings. Many PTOs are posting them.

Workshops –

– Rec Fair: Will not be happening this year, unfortunately. Two years ago we had a great turnout, and we’d like to get it off the ground again. We could reach out to other SEPACs in surrounding towns to put on an event together, but since many members are volunteers it’s challenging to coordinate everyone. Reached out to Somerville, Medford, Lexington.

– Disclosure Workshop from ASPIRE: MGH ASPIRE is willing to do a free workshop on Disclosure (how you talk to your child about their diagnosis and how they can talk to the world about their disability). Tuesday, April 14^th, Elise Wolf will come to the SEPAC meeting at Gibbs and do the presentation.

-Movie screening at the High School – “Intelligent Lives” – 6pm March 9^th in the Lowe auditorium at the high school. The movie follows young adults as they navigate their lives post high school.

– Transition Night in the spring:

-Gibbs: not planned yet

-Ottoson: not planned yet

-High School: Rising 9^th grade parents – January 22^nd 6 to 8:15pm in the high school auditorium

Special Ed presentation is between 7:30 and 8:15 after main presentation

– Mindfulness workshop: Carla Leone would do the presentation at some point in the spring. Past presentations have been on mindfulness before the team meeting and with having a child with a disability. We are still trying to decide what flavor of mindfulness we’d like to present this time. We might include students and do mindfulness with families as a whole.

APS Staff Reports –

– The school district (elementary/secondary) along with the teacher’s union presented on their budget priorities. Public school committee meeting and participation from public will happen in the beginning of February. The School Committee then comes up with a number and the budget committee then votes on whether to approve the budget.

– MRC (Mass Rehab Commission) has partnered with AHS to hold a vendor fair for students approaching transition from school services into adult services (internships, job training, resume help). This year the event is put on hold because the person on their end who organized it in the past is currently out.

Public Participation –

– Survey: Claudia worked on survey questions on special education services at Gibbs that didn’t fit into the general survey they worked on at Gibbs. They suggested she present the questions to SEPAC. Inae and Alison discussed combining efforts to make the survey a district-wide survey that would figure out how much people really know about special ed services, how you access them, whether parents are aware of certain supports and resources available to them in the district. They are working on getting the Superintendent to send it out to her list, to reach a wider audience. Sending it to parents of general ed and special ed parents is good PR for our programs.

– Bill – The 501c3 is better than a line item for raising money, because with a 501c3, you control the money, and if the money is in a line item, the school committee controls that line item. (SEPAC currently doesn’t have a dedicated budget for anything, so at the December meeting we discussed ways to get presentations funded when most of them cost money. A budget line item was brought up as a way to fund presentations and other workshops. Most current workshops (except the Basic Rights put on by the Federation for Children with Special Needs) are donated.

– Would love a future workshop on Gender and autism. The Lurie Center has a workshop currently on this topic, and there are support groups locally for people who identify as LGBTQIA+ and fall on the autism spectrum. We can look into contact information.

Announcements –

– Next SEPAC meeting is at 7pm on February 11^th in the Gibbs Media Center. There will be a social hour immediately following the meeting.

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison attended.

Approve Minutes: Minutes from November SEPAC meeting were approved.

Officers/Committee Reports:

– We are still working on a survey to send out to parents with questions on their knowledge about SEPAC. This would help us to determine the best way to reach people and increase parent involvement.

– We will have a webpage up by the spring.

Workshops:

– Rec Fair Update: Inae hasn’t gotten an update from Erin since our last meeting.

– Transition night in the spring (Gibbs/Ottoson/High School): We have often had special education staff present at the transition night to help inform parents about the types of programming and supports available at the secondary levels. Many of the transition nights also have presentations on special education programs, but we have also had separate nights for parents of kids in special ed. The feedback we got was that the presentation done by Lynne at the high school was more comprehensive than the presentations for the middle schools.

– We talked to Aspire about a workshop on Disclosure (when and how to tell your child about their disability, or talking about your own disability if you’re older) and they said they would come and do a workshop for free. It might also be good to partner with groups like Rainbow Alliance or Queer Student Alliance to host the workshop if we go with Disclosure as a topic. Sarah is going to talk to Elise about the content of the presentations. Neurodiversity could also be a possible workshop topic. Possible dates for the workshop could be end of March or April.

– We will be looking into having Sarah Burd attend a future meeting and speak again about the Social Emotional Learning programs and supports in the district.

APS Staff Reports:

– We’re taking budget input from SEPAC for the next fiscal year (FY2020) to present to the school committee. Starting this Thursday, if you tune into the School Committee meetings, you’ll hear presentations from different parts of the district (secondary, elementary, Special Ed).

– Last year was the first year we discussed a 5 year plan in the district. In order to achieve equity or even parity, we need to increase the number of specialists such as OT and PT in the elementary schools. We’re also looking to add 0.5 OT, 1.0 PT-A, and no SLP assistants to support our specialists. These are our budget requests, and the superintendent will present the final plan to the school committee.

– In our supported learning programs, we’d like to see that all the support staff for the programs are BSPs (Behavior Support Personnel). Our learning specialists also have TAs who support students in the classroom.

Public Participation/ New Business/ Open Discussion:

– Inae suggested a line item/revolving account to present to the school committee so we can raise money to fund SEPAC events and presentations. School committee members previously suggested we form a 501c3 “Friends of SEPAC,” but there’s really no reason why we couldn’t have that and a line item. Other items, such as equipment like standing desks, slant boards, and curriculum items like improving Social Emotional Learning, were also discussed.

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison, Lynne, Joyce and Kristin attended

Approve Minutes: Minutes from June and October approved.

Officers/Committee reports:

– Basic Rights happened in October. There was a decent turn-out (around 10 to 12 people).

– Our next meeting will be at Gibbs in the evening, Tuesday December 10, at 7pm.

Workshops:

– On Monday, March 9^th at 6pm in the High School auditorium, we are co-hosting a movie called “Intelligent Lives,” a film about students with intellectual disabilities in life post-high school. It’s about students trying to balance independence while navigating supports in their adult lives.

– Erin Hajduk is working on putting together a Recreation Fair for the winter.

– Aspire, out of MGH, offers presentations on topics such as Disclosure (talking to your child about their disability, or talking about your own disability if you’re an older individual). Sarah will look for more information on cost and bring it to the next meeting.

APS Staff Reports:

– We will be heading into the budget season soon, so there will be more school committee meetings happening in the near future, in January.

– Our mid-cycle tiered focus monitoring review of the SPED program will be happening in April. They will be interviewing families, observing facilities/programs.

– The high school building project is coming along nicely, they have infographics showing the progress and which grades will get to enjoy the finished space.

– The Parmenter will be used as “swing space” for the preschool as they’re tearing down the high school. They are going to be updating the building and making it ready for the preschool starting in June. For the next five years, everyone will be back together again instead of in two locations (High School and Hardy, the satellite preschool classroom.)

– Department of Mental Health and Mass Rehab Commission (MRC) will give a presentation in January at the high school about their programs, such as classes and internship programs for adolescents.

– The REACH program is inviting colleges with great services for students with disabilities in to talk about what they offer. High School Counselors will be present. The expected time for this is some time in the spring 2020.

Public Participation/New Business:

– We have talked about conducting a survey of parents on their level of knowledge regarding SEPAC and available resources in the past. We have started to come up with questions but haven’t finished it. There are sites such as Survey Monkey which could help us distribute the survey.

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions – Alison attended.

Officer/Committee Reports –

-We have Erin Hajduk looking into locations and vendors for a Recreation Fair with information on adaptive activities and summer camp opportunities.

-Our September Meet and Greet event went well and had decent turn-out.

-We are always looking for more ideas on workshops to hold during the year and would love to hear any workshop suggestions people have.

Staff Reports –

-The school committee meeting is being held this Thursday evening. You can watch the meeting online.

New Business/Open Discussion –

–

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison attended

Approve Minutes:

– Minutes from May approved

Officer/Committee Reports:

-Inae appeared before the school committee on her experience with Special Education in the district. At the elementary level, most parents are pleased with how things are going for their children, but at the middle school and high school level it’s less so. Much of this might be that many general educators aren’t as familiar with their students’ IEPs in middle and high school.

Planning Workshops for next year:

a. Meet and Greet in September is scheduled for 9am on September 17^th at the Gibbs, first SEPAC meeting of the year is on Tuesday, September 10^th, time is TBD.

b. Basic Rights Workshop will be in October, put on by the Federation for Children with Special Needs.

c. Working on hosting a movie/workshop at the high school “Intelligent Minds”, about adults with autism/disabilities

d. Demystifying Your Neuropsychological Report

e. OT/PT/SLP Workshop on home supplemental instruction to IEP goals.

f. Workshop for siblings of children with disabilities

APS Staff Reports:

– The vote for the High School building project and budget override is tonight.

– Alison presented to the school committee. The presentation talked about who is part of the department, the difference between students who receive Title 1 vs. Special Ed services, Professional Development, the expansion of the Summit Program at the Ottoson to add a teacher to better meet students needs in the sub separate classroom. The curriculum is Logic based on identifying the students’ specific needs and the desired outcomes. The Compass Program (for students with cognitive disabilities) will be expanding at the high school.

-Independent evaluators from LABBB collaborative came in to do an evaluation on the inclusion practices of the district.

SEPAC Board Elections:

– Inae was elected as chair and Jessica was elected as secretary

– Sarah was elected as member at large

Public Participation/Open Discussion:

–

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions:

– Alison and Lynn attended

Approve Minutes from April:

– Minutes approved

Officers/Committee Reports:

– Nothing new to report

Workshops for the Coming Year:

–

APS Staff Reports:

– The budget was approved at Town Meeting, including the additional Chapter 70 state funding. Now we can post new positions.

– The 5^th to 6^th grade transition meeting for students and families is the 16^th at Gibbs and 6^th to 7^th transition meeting is on May 30^th at Ottoson.

-The town is renting the Parmenter School beginning in the fall of 2020 for the preschool program.

AHS Building Project Update (with Mr. Thielman and Dr. Janger):

– Mr. Thielman could not attend.

Dr. Janger:

– Special Education needs and support systems were central in the discussion of the new High School design. The accessibility of community spaces in the new design is improved. There is a central spine, or “commons”, so there are two main entrances so students can come into the building from two different directions.

– The new plan for special education is to have all programs and academic support located around this central commons instead of in many corners of the current building. “Centrally located but discreetly accessed.” If a student wants to take a walk in the current building, they’ll get lost, but the space is much more open and visible in the new design. Programs will be clustered vertically so staff can be close to each other and collaborate. The Compass Program will have a space/apartment where they can practice activities of daily living. There will also be a cafe and school store which will be run by special education students.

– There are many more elevators in the new design. Each “tower” has its own elevator. The only space that wouldn’t be accessible would be the “monumental stairs.”

– We went to Billerica because they have a similar design, to investigate how the design impacts sound and light of the space. Sound treatments are planned to keep the sound/echoing level down.

– The preschool is near the central offices. The preschool numbers are made up of students who come for the full/half day and students who come in for related services (speech, OT, PT). The numbers provided to the architects were end of year numbers for last year, and include the satellite class over at Peirce because there isn’t enough room for all preschool students. Preschool will have a separate drop-off and entrance.

– LABBB has its own entrance at the back of the school.

– Ramps for bike and wheelchairs give access from the bike path and from Mass Ave.

– Bathroom access will be improved and gender-neutral bathrooms will be added at the location of every single other bathroom.

– Town-wide debt exclusion vote on June 11^th.

If we don’t fund the project, taxpayers will need to foot 250M building project that will take 5 years instead of the current 208M two-stage project with the MSBA funding. It will cost more and take longer if the debt exclusion fails, and we are at risk of losing our accreditation. We don’t want to have the debt exclusion fail and pay 3 times as much like Lincoln-Sudbury did after they voted down their MSBA project.

Visit www.ahsbuilding.org for more information, design drawings, project cost details, extensive FAQ and the Ponderings Blog.

SEPAC Board Nominations:

-Sarah was nominated for Member At Large, Inae for Chair and Jessica for Secretary.

Public Participation/ New Business/ Open Discussion:

–

Announcements:

–

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions:

-Alison attended.

Approve Minutes:

-Minutes from March approved.

Officers/Committee Reports:

-The Brackett Diversity and Inclusion Group (DIG) had Inae come and speak and it went well. In the future she will be reaching out to other schools’ diversity/inclusion groups to arrange times to speak. One of the things they discussed in the talk was how many students have invisible disabilities and how surprised parents were to hear that their kids were currently in classes with students with disabilities.

Workshops:

a. Gibbs/Ottoson Transition Night – near the end of May

b. Mindfulness – still need to speak with Carla Leone on availability/dates.

APS Staff Reports:

-Mr. Thielman and Dr. Janger (AHS Principal) will be attending the May meeting. Dr. Janger will be talking about services at the high school, such as the Compass program for students with intellectual disabilities and the parts of the new High School which will support the program (living spaces/kitchen).

-There will be one transition night for 5^th grade to Gibbs at the Gibbs school, hosted by Kristen DiFrancisco. The transition from 6^th to 7^th workshop will be hosted in May, and discussion will be based in part on survey questions generated from 6^th grade students.

DESE/MRC is switching to a new model, where individuals apply directly to various vendors in their communities/surrounding areas for pre-vocational services (ages 14 and up).

Public Participation/New Business/Open Discussion:

-School committee meeting on April 10^th to discuss 5 year plan and there will be another High School building committee meeting before the June vote on the High School debt exclusion and tax override.

-Representative Garballey was at a diversity recruitment event today at the high school, with the goal being to attract diverse staff to the district.

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions:

– Alison, Joyce, Lynne and Chris attended.

Approve Minutes:

-Minutes from December and January approved.

Officers/Committee Reports:

– We are working on getting more people to come to our meet and greet times after the meeting. Our February meeting was cancelled so we didn’t have a meet and greet, but there will be one after our April evening meeting. We’re considering swapping our June meeting so it will be an evening meeting, so we can have a social afterward.

Workshops:

a. Gibbs/Ottoson Transition Nights – Kristen DiFrancisco is hosting one meeting for the 5^th to 6^th grade and 6^th to 7^th grade transitions.

b. Mindfulness workshop with Carla Leone

c. Summer Camp/Recreation opportunities

APS Staff Reports:

– The special ed portion of the middle to high school transition night happens after the main presentation. On March 22^nd they’re hosting a separate meeting for transition from 8^th to high school for the REACH program.

– MRC (Mass Rehab Commission) is coming to the high school again on March 20^th to talk about work opportunities for students. LABBB is looking into becoming one of the vendors with MRC.

Len Kardon School Committee – Budget:

– Five Year Budget Plan – student population has grown by 27% over the last 10 years. Releasing a five year plan ahead of the June operating override vote gives us the opportunity to change the funding agreement with the town to one driven by our current student needs.

– Priorities include addressing enrollment growth, improving instruction for students, closing the achievement gap, creating safe and supportive schools and attracting/developing talented staff.

a. Enrollment Growth – Enrollment is expected to grow by another 10% over the next five years, putting the 15 year growth rate at close to 40%.

-Priorities include keeping class sizes below 25 students for elementary/middle school and below 27 for high school core classes, increasing the number of elective classes offered, keeping caseloads of counselors below 300, keeping caseloads of nurses/specialists stable and having part-time assistant principals at all the elementary schools.

b. Improving Instruction for Students – It has been difficult in recent years to implement modern instruction strategies since most additional funding has gone toward addressing enrollment growth. Arlington seeks to address this by:

-Funding library book budget to support better access to current and culturally relevant materials.

-Updating curriculum materials

-Adding a librarian/digital learning specialist at each elementary school

-Expanding computer science instruction at middle schools

c. Close Achievement Gap – Arlington will address gaps in achievement affecting low-income students, English language learners and students with disabilities by:

-Improving interventions by adding additional literacy/math coaches at each elementary school and by adding Harbor (for students with school avoidance) and Shortstop (for students returning from extended absences) programs at Ottoson.

-Adding directors in all areas, admin support, science/social studies coaches and data manager

-Giving each elementary school their own music/art specialists will add another special each week, which allows for planning time for the grade level teams.

-Improving Special Education Services by increasing number of inclusion teachers, increasing SLC staffing, adding Assistant Director of Special Education

d. Create safe and supportive schools by adding social workers/lead counselor at high school, fund social emotional learning professional development/programming, and add part-time admin assistants at elementary schools to free up principals to address social emotional issues.

e. Attract and develop talented staff by providing additional $500,000 funding annually for professional development and by bringing APS salaries closer to the average levels in comparable districts in order to improve recruiting and retention.

-Money will come primarily from property tax revenues, some money from the state (Chapter 70). A small amount of funding comes from grants, Circuit Breaker, AEF. Currently discussing additional funding (over 1.2 million left over after expenses) that we can get with the town. If a budget override passes, we can spend more.

– There will be two separate budget questions on the ballot in June. One will be the $800/year increase to pay for the high school (30 year mortgage). This will go into effect when we start borrowing money for rebuilding the high school. Another will be an additional $200-$400/year override vote to pay for expenses which will go into effect immediately if it passes.

Public Participation/New Business/Open Discussion:

– Dr. Bodie said that Mr. Thielman (sp?) is looking into a time that he can come to a meeting and speak with the group.

Adjourn