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
Arlington SEPAC 