November 2022 – Arlington SEPAC

SEPAC Business Meeting – November 8, 2022

Call to Order

Introductions: Louisa Popkin, Alison Babeu, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, and Jessica Dombrosky attended.

Approve Minutes: Minutes could not be approved because we didn’t have enough members in attendance to approve them.

Officers/Committee Reports:

We had the folks conducting the Mental Health Screening to our October Meeting, and we posted the slides from the presentation on Google Drive, for anyone who missed the meeting:

We are looking at getting on Superintendent Homan’s agenda, and meeting with her in the upcoming month. Our plan is to release this year’s SEPAC survey by January.
We partnered with Somerville SEPAC to host a Basic Rights workshop. The presenter was from Mass Advocates for Children, and the presentation didn’t improve upon past presentations we’ve had from presenters at FCSN. We are looking to schedule our workshop soon, which will probably be on Transition Planning.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

–

APS Staff Reports:

During the week of November 14th, the DESE Public School Monitoring will conduct the Tiered Focused Monitoring review of Special Ed and Civil Rights Regulations, to make sure that everything is within legal compliance with regard to meetings/paperwork timelines/compensatory services post-pandemic. If you want to request a telephone interview, please contact Joan Brinkerhoff: 781-338-3715
We are pleased to offer interactive forums to discuss the APS Vision, recommendations of the Equity Audit, and get community feedback on Strategic Planning Initiatives. Forums are happening on November 16th (in Boston), December 1st, and a virtual forum on December 8th. Interested community members only need to attend one forum.

We are getting into budget season, and it’s likely we’ll need to request a budget override in the spring.
A district-wide team of special educators, reading instructors, and administrators met and will be reviewing reading instruction programs to choose a new curriculum to replace the Lucy Calkins curriculum.

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

Louisa participated in professional development on Mediation Training, and on taking the perspective of parents during Team Meetings, run by Metrowest Mediation Services, with trainer Seth Weisen
Inae mentioned that it would be good to have different perspectives to give feedback as we work to determine a new reading/literacy curriculum that will work for everyone, including learners with dyslexia. Currently, many of the decisions around curriculum choice happen behind closed doors, which isn’t transparent. This lack of transparency is a concern of many families in the district.

Announcements:

Adjourn

Month: November 2022