S.E.L.A.C. Minutes of April 20, 2004

Attendees: Alma Davenport, Barbara Davis, Gaeli Greene, Patricia McDevitt, Beth Pinto, Tony Rafanelli, Terri Tamase, Mary Waddington.

The meeting was called to order at 7:09 p.m. by Gaeli Greene.

AGENDA REVIEW - Middle School Summit was added to the agenda.

The RI Branch of the International Dyslexia Association is having its spring conference on Saturday April 24.

Mrs. Gooding wrote the Parent-to-Parent support letter. The support letter includes a help line list with specialties. It is being distributed at meetings. Barbara Davis asked if a copy of this letter could be sent to the School Committee. Gaeli Greene said the letter was distributed at Awareness Day. She wanted to find more fathers who would be willing to help. She said that the Smart Kids newsletter included information regarding fathers. Tony Rafanelli asked if the support letter could be placed on the web page. Gaeli Greene said that she has had a couple of calls already.

COMMENTS, COMMENDATIONS, CONCERNS

· Ginny Perry has resigned from SELAC. Thank you to Ginny for all of her efforts. SELAC will send a card to her. Tony Rafanelli will write a letter of thanks for her years of service.

· Beth Pinto wanted to commend SELAC for a successful Awareness Day. She said that new people came to the program. It was very professionally done. Gaeli Greene said she thought that SELAC has started something that people will look forward to next year.

· Tony Rafanelli commended the whole community - administration, staff, teachers, and community - for their support for Awareness Day. Bill Mudge from the North Kingstown School Committee was impressed by what we have here. Tony said that a number of people are writing letters of thanks to the Awareness Day participants.

SPECIAL EDUCATION DIRECTOR’S REPORT

· The Rhode Island College 2004 Psychology in School Summer Institute will be in July.

· Goodwill Industries has information on transition to adult life.

· Link to Learning parent series of lectures on special education topics will be given from now through June.

· Beth Pinto said that on Thursday, she will be presenting to the School Committee the results of the Support Visit. She said that the visit was very successful, and Jamestown in moving in a positive direction. She said it was a unique experience for the visitors because we are doing so many best practices. People care about their work here, and the visitors were impressed by the positive rapport. The report will be posted on the DOE web page, so people can compare this visit with the last one. If we look at results, we need to work on several things. 1) A regular education preschool teacher should be at preschool IEPs. Kathy Alamanzor will do this now. 2) Box 39 on the IEP needs to be completed. This regards extent of participation in the classroom. 3) We need to determine how goals for extended school work. 4) At Lawn, all evacuation plans were not posted. This has now been addressed. 5) Jamestown needs to help Lawn develop into a complete middle school. To assist in improvement efforts, grant funding comes with all of these recommendations. There will be an updated IEP computer program.

· Gaeli Greene’s response to the report was to ask what we need to do for the special education program that is not in the state report. She asked how far behind we were in auditing. Beth said that we were ahead of the game. Gaeli asked if we could do a self-audit. Beth Pinto said that we were doing fundamentals well. She asked what else we could do better and what children we were identifying. She wanted to make sure the good work continued. She said that with our small size, we need to do it while we can. Tony Rafanelli asked about building an internal audit cycle and asked if we could request a consultant in the next budget cycle. Gaeli Greene added that it would help with the Strategic Plan to know what has worked in the past. Tony Rafanelli did not think there was any internal auditing system in education at present. Gaeli Green said that Strategy B fills this type of action. Action Plans are being established now. Beth Pinto said that if there is a big [COMMENT1] hullabaloo about special education, it is usually discussed in terms of being at the expense of other programs. She said that part of the visit was about compliance and part was about performance. Gaeli Greene said we need to monitor children to make sure they are improving. Tony Rafanelli asked if the school got an executive summary of the site visit. Beth Pinto said no, the state doesn’t really rate us, but they look at 13-14 areas. We are compliant in all areas. Alma Davenport said that compliance is not excellence. We should think in terms of continuous improvement. Alma Davenport asked about collaboratives, and Beth Pinto said they are in grades 2, 3, and 4.

· There will be three sessions to discuss autism spectrum disorders. The sessions will be on Wednesdays (4/21, 4/28, and 5/5) from 3-5 p.m. This is a professional development series, and it is open to parents.

· The Autism Project of Rhode Island is sponsoring a walk in April 25.

· Register online at www.theautismproject.org

· Beth Pinto asked if she should have a goal of developing a web page. Members said it would be a good goal.

· 504 policy will be presented to the School Committee in May as part of an anti-discrimination policy.

OLD BUSINESS

MINUTES REVIEW

Minutes for March 9, 2004 were accepted as corrected.

SUPPORT GROUP - Instead of a support group, it was decided to have a help line. It will be kept as informal as possible. Gaeli Greene will act as liaison.

BYLAWS REVIEW - SELAC discussed at length a number of editorial corrections for the Bylaws. There is an article missing about meetings. Beth Pinto will look for an earlier copy of the Bylaws.

AWARENESS DAY SUMMARY-

· Gaeli Greene has a list of things to do for next year. She made the following recommendations:

· 1) Set up the schedule earlier so the rooms could be set up earlier

· 2) Include a session for children

· 3) Have speakers distribute evaluation forms

· 4) Do something about the loud freezer at Lawn

· 5) Have vendors return

· School Improvement Teams and teachers participated more this year, and she was pleased by the participation of the staff.

· The date was discussed briefly to determine whether it was a good time for Awareness Day.

NEW BUSINESS -

STATEWIDE MEETING FOR SELAC MEMBERS - Gaeli Greene attended the last statewide meeting for SELAC. The next meeting is at Chello’s on May 25 at 6 p.m. The meeting is coordinated by RIPIN; it is for everyone and not just for officers. The meeting last June was only for officers. Gaeli Greene passed around Barrington’s special education information folder for parents. Topics and action lists were discussed. She said that everyone’s main issue at the statewide meeting was increasing and retaining membership. Gaeli said that 60 people signed up for the meeting. Nineteen of thirty-six districts in Rhode Island were represented.

STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR THE SCHOOL DISTRICT - The Strategic Plan is available from administrators. If SELAC members want to be involved and wish to sign up for Action Plan groups, call Mrs. Sipala. Beth Pinto is the leader of the discussions on Strategy B - Maintaining Emphasis on Foundational Skills.

MEMBERSHIP - Discussion was deferred to the May meeting.