1.23.2023 FRSC Special Education/Alternative Education & Early College Subcommittee

okay we're gonna call to order the January 23rd 23rd 2023 Special Education subcommittee meeting please call the roll Mr agya here Mrs Laramie here Miss Rhonda here please stand up outside of Allegiance all right in the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all right Kirsten went to the open meeting

where any person may make an audio or video recording of his public meeting will May transmit the meeting through any medium attendees that therefore advised as such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unconceived by those present in a theme that knowledge and permissible first item is uh no citizen input today thank you this is the first meeting uh that we

have our new assistant superintendent for special education where we open chain so we'd like to welcome you thank you and um the first item is an uptake on program discussions and I'm going to allow the superintendent or yourself to just kind of go as we go forward sure so you also have a one page in front of you that just documents kind of each School how many students with disabilities are

there what type of programming is in each building the number of students that participate in substantially separate classrooms versus inclusion um the inclusions teaching staff the bcbas and the purpose for me giving you this document is twofold one if you um look is it do you have two pages there yes okay so if you look at the back page I want just to point out that in June 2022

the total number of specs oh no it's not your first page sorry June 2022 at the bottom um the total number of special education students in the district was 27.40. the first five months of this school year we've already increased by 237 students so we're up to 200 uh sorry 2977 students that is going to be important as we go into budget season this year if we go into strategic planning that you know that already in

five months we're almost um you know above at the 250 Mark for including uh for adding special education students in the district the other piece that's going to be important in this document is actually on the second page for you when we look at the current number of pre-K students that may be transferring to kindergarten we have potentially between 45 and 50 Pre-K students that are going to require a

substantially separate classroom and again I want to put that on your radar now for the subcompeti sub uh committee as we're going to go into the budget season and we're going to go into strategic planning those are all key pieces the rest of it is really just for your knowledge I know um you know it's been a little while since we've updated like how many bcbas how many school psychologists so I

wanted you to have this to reference moving forward what do you mean by service award what is that 45 to 50. they come into the school um into the parent engagement Center and receive some speech services or OT but they're not in our pre-k program um but when they enter kindergarten they will still be getting those services any particular questions on that document right now like this is again

just for informational purposes does anybody have any questions not right now how many do we have currently in some separate kindergarten classes kindergarten classes classes so the um regulation for sub step sub separate is 12 but it can go up to 14 with notifying parents we do have some classes at 14 most are at the 12. but how many classes do we currently have of just kindergarten yeah so I'm looking

at yeah these numbers we have 45 to 50 going in do we currently have capacity or are we going to need okay yeah we're gonna have to get more yeah and and in our lower grades um we have multi-grade um right so it might be a K1 classroom um but with the numbers like that we will have to add classrooms in lower level absolutely yes so out of this 237 in the last five

months how many of those were our current students and how many from out of District so into the district yes I'd have to get you that right I can get you that breakdown but I don't have that off the top of my head I will say that the data shows many of our kids being referred are K-2 younger kids in District gratitude a lot of these kids had interrupted schooling

um they didn't some of them didn't enter kindergarten some of them didn't have Pre-K um struggling with regulation Etc and many of our students our numbers are increasing in the lower grades I mean I think we this was something we all said we were expecting this to come full force and here we are good for sure sorry it was like speaking out a term before I guess um how many do we know how many

referrals we had from early intervention so far this year I'd have to ask uh mysterious about that I think that for our in the Friday email there was a number of numbers yeah kids that were the ones that had been referred and then the ones that were in queue um to be um evaluated yeah um but we'll get you that information yeah let me go back and on that same note the uh I think we it's

not necessarily for this meeting but I never mentioned in the past doing the cost benefit analysis of servicing Pre-K as we want to improve our Pre-K to look at what does it cost and versus what the reimbursement is and there's things like we need to by law service the children that need it that's one thing but by increasing it increasing access to pre-k is good across the floor right but there's also

like what we legally need to do business and I think we need to do a an analysis of what does it cost to educate you know how much of the top step teacher let's say or whatever you know the if it can be probably become costly per student versus other right areas and I think it's just good information for us to have and I've been a proponent of it but not necessarily

looking at the numbers to see what is the I know we worked with the community on one of those grants that they were going to keep some of the students in there um I think you know what I'm talking about right there yeah how does that impact uh legal responsibilities because if it covered you know the child that we had a grant I think prior to you coming was an early childhood some sort

of Grant where this the children were at X Center yep instead of them coming to us they just kind of use that Grant to keep them and I could be saying it a little bit long but so they were going to stay there instead of there they were already having something it was they provide the Specialists special ed Service or whatever and but they stay in their daycare and it's mostly daycare

um providers so kids that might qualify for early intervention that we go out yes it might just be something to peek at as we try to improve it okay I can actually put that information I would come in on I think this is a good data like if this is good data for us to have um just seeing it now I don't have we'll get a breakdown of questions per se but um

equality across the district like we get to know which I think you are probably looking at does it make sense that one place has X and they have this much support another one has the same or we did that with the ELO powers and you know so I not for today but I'd be curious that's the start of the what we're putting this all together for right the cluster coordinator and BCA bcba I would

have questions on that in the future as well but what do they do like I can read a job description and I have but in reality what is it now that we've had it for a few years what does it work is it the best model is it not the best model what do they do for um assisting the principal in the building so those are future questions I guess

so just to give you the Staffing the next breakdown is that the Staffing we have 74 current posted special education positions can candidates have been recommended to HR um for appointments so it would be three codas one slpa and six teachers then we have 23 other positions filled with agency staff the remaining positions so again 74 you know minus about 33 um so about 41 remaining positions those

are being covered in different ways across the building levels I can give you some examples we have dual certified teachers in some of our Middle School classes that are servicing the special education students we have existing classroom staff stepping in to be teachers during all of those pieces we are still tracking compensatory services so that's what I'm working with our team on now is

um at our next apartment meeting we're going to bring all of the data about compensatory Services together to start to look at what is that going to look like for either you know after school before school or in the summer time how are we going to provide those compensatory services um the other piece um the School site and the speech and language Pathologists support we have three open positions for school

psychologists out of our 15 total positions um we are Contracting with some independent providers so the retired school psychologist from Boston Public Schools is going to give us some hours to be able to take the lift of some of our evaluations for our school psychologists and so I'm meeting with the lead school psychologist to determine how that person may help us you know what makes sense to which

evaluations we would give to him and then we have one other person that I'm in the process of speaking with that again is a school psychologist that can help the lift I've met with all the school psychologists and the speech and language Pathologists just just to let them know that you know I we are here to support them and we are looking into other ways because you know there's just we keep we keep

looking for staff but there's just not a lot of applicants and even the agencies that we're partnering with to find staff aren't able to find these particular positions as far as the speech and language supports for the evaluation it really has to do with the bilingual evaluations which again we've even reached out to like our collaboratives to see if they have any bilingual evaluators

um so we I did find two independent speech and language evaluators they do work full-time so we have to kind of work on scheduling but again I'm working with the lead SLP on that um and then I know there was a question about one to one so even though the one-to-ones are posted all of the students do have that individualized uh support that according to their IEP um so what they'll do is especially in a

Pre-K situation there's you know multiple um Paras in pre-k so they will assign one of those Paris Paris to be the one-to-one while they're actively seeking an additional staff member and so far it's been working across the district so we haven't had any students who have a one-to-one on their IEP be without a person during the day to meet their needs and we're also using some agency staff

that's a struggle everyone's suffering with Staffing especially for um special ed and ESL so I think in you know in summary when I look at you know programming and I look at Staffing really the Staffing vacancies remain one of our biggest challenges so you brought up the cluster coordinator position a lot of our cluster coordinators are filling in if our classrooms that need additional support so if we have a

teacher who um need support to write IEPs they are writing IEPs or they need help in meetings they're chairing meetings they're doing all different things outside of the role in order to be able to help us with the Staffing shortages right now again not a surprise it is everywhere but I wanted you guys to know where we're at any questions

you know I'll just start talking um so we're missing essentially 41 staff so across across the district that's right so when I'm looking at that is there any consistency in be who's being pulled to cover in those special education classes consistency in what do you mean by consistency do we just have it's a different person every day oh no no no okay no no we have that hasn't happened

yeah it never happens right but no so the principles and that's why I meant by consistency the principals are really looking at their staff and they're moving things around to be able to have a consistent person in the classroom for the teacher because something kids need it right and so that was immediately where I went to because that has happened where we've had um you know this person you know Annie

is covering this class yeah today yeah period one and then Johnny comes in is covering the next period and that doesn't offer any so that doesn't offer support for our insurance if anything that creates more cases right um and then same thing with the one-to-one so if we're using Paris to cover are we designating a certain para yes in that classroom and that person is fairly consistent working with that kid

yes versus it's going to be this person today that tomorrow they're assigning when I asked all the supervisors they're assigning one person to be with that student again from the classroom setting okay because again that was a conversation that we've had in the past about there was some philosophy around oh kids should get used to working with different staff but that's not really

what we need one-to-ones for right we have a one-to-one most of the children that have one-to-one struggle struggle with that change and so we need to make sure that we're trying to support those relationships but it'll they're coming from somewhere so that's what I would you know wherever they're if consistent or not they're coming from somewhere else so yeah creating a hole somewhere else yeah so

I'd be curious just to see for those vacancies if you could get us something on what holes are they coming from like I said it's mostly the power like so if uh if a classroom has one teacher to Paris one of those Powers will become the one to one or preschool it typically has like three pairs in it so one of those Powers will be the one to one I'm thinking of as they get higher right

where because I don't think that we have and overabundance of Paris and other places yeah so I think some of the older grades I don't think we have as many one-to-ones but those are filled with agency Pairs and I know I was just having a conversation we have a student moving from one building to another that agency para is moving with uh the student as the one to one right so the power is not

going to stay at the building they're in they're going with the student so but we do have a few agency Powers covering the one-to-ones in me you know upper elementary school and with vacancies that High I mean there's a lot of it yeah it is it naturally you're going to have yeah to get somebody in there but ideally we would like to fill those vacancies with whatever plan you know like yeah I think

we all agree with that yeah and I don't think we can incentivize per se financially you know okay Union positions just like everybody we can't say well we'll give a bonus if you're certified in special education we would have to open up the right I mean I think that's in the future maybe something that we should consider because if you can go to the highest bidder if you're out there and you're certified then

exactly what's happening if we're not as competitive then how can we bridge that Gap without also I think using relationships and doing a having a plan with the HR department of oh it's like you're saying that I'm sure that the guy from Boston that you talked about didn't just come somebody knows him to say okay well can you help us out can you do this I don't necessarily think we we build that infrastructure

ourselves right it's part of um the special ed directors in the area are the urban directors we have a list of like independent contractors a bilingual staff that we can like pull from that's where I found these independent people but even then like I had a list of probably 20 and maybe I sent an email to every single one of them in maybe you know four or five got back to me so you

know even they're pretty booked the only question I had was on the school psychologist it's always there's some vacancies but I've seen many a lot of turnover this year and uh and um we actually um I think that you're seeing it refresh itself we have three people who have left us this year so um I know that that those positions are refreshing so it gives the illusion that we're more and more people are resigning

so we do have someone who actually was a part-timer who went elsewhere and then we have two full-time positions that they also resigned yeah so that's I will just stay on that so that we can figure it out and exit interviews are always good but they're not necessarily valid because you're not going to get the real story unless you really get to know right of individuals if things aren't

going wrong I said that to the whole team already like you know my goal is to keep people here so that we can do the work because it's hard to do the work you're always bringing on new people right so and that was my point for meeting with all the different groups because I know that everybody's doing more um this year you good I'm good I have questions okay

um okay so back to we have 18 pre-kers who have qualified for our placement and are waiting a placement right that was in the Friday email okay special ed yes okay okay so when we say that they are waiting for a placement does that mean that we have assigned IEP that that child should be in the classroom placement but we don't have a physical capacity for it or does that mean that

we're looking at that that was those two additional classrooms that we're proposing to remember so they'll be placed um that was we needed okay I just wanna I wanted to clarify that because I was looking at that 18 qualified waiting and then they're not quite three yet so from what I remember we're still in compliance right yeah absolutely but as far as it said is that that's why she's

being proactive about it right that they're not so that if we get the other classrooms then by the time they train three that was the piece that I was missing that they qualified but okay they're waiting because they're not quite three exactly okay and my other question was could you just clarify this column so the supervisor case load yeah so we have um maybe it's because it's late in the

day but like yeah so we have six six um special education supervisors and so when you see the first block we have a supervisor that oversees the three schools over there plus half of Durfee so when I take this special education students per each school and half a Durfee the total for that particular supervisor's case law is the number you see there all right and same thing down below right the um

Durfee has a part-time you know one two part-timers filling the one rule for Durfee so I just want again I want you guys I want the the committee to understand the supervisors the case loads and because we haven't talked about kind of you know what in order to build or strengthen our special education programming what does that mean for the staff that we currently have when we have to look at our priorities

in doing the work it's a really high case loads for them yeah why does someone say 354. such as Pre-K so it's sorry ELC is our Early Learning Center and then the PE m is our walk-in uh services at peace and so if you take those two numbers and then you see the Pre-K numbers in each building um if you add those up it becomes the 354. so that's be a director of pre-K

well what I was just saying is 354 versus 725 up above yeah versus 637 like what is the ration Alpha is it more intense is that because the younger children like what no it's a different actually a different role so she is the director of Early Childhood even though she's still considered a special education supervisor but she's only responsible for early childhood because there's more that goes into it

right you have to work with EI and get that transition going and you know so the supervisors the breakdown this is something we've been talking about as a group because there's they've tried all different ways to make it the most sense they've done Logistics as far as like how the distance between schools or Elementary versus secondary in all different ways to try to make you know

what makes the most sense to be able to provide the right type of supervision but it is something that I would like to revisit because the the numbers are very high it's very high what I'm suggesting is that the way that this looks so you gave a fine explanation but it doesn't show that here so as this goes forward to the full committee at some point when you pass out whatever we do I would note

somewhere in that that that's almost like a 0.5 supervisor So when you say you had supervisors I just counted one two three four five six five and not even because the other person whatever the percentages yeah and then it just would be cheap and advertising so nobody else looks at it and says oh look yeah that's why I tried to put 0.5 next to the Durfee one because right yeah we'll just add

something to show you yes okay yeah sometimes it's hard to I know it's good but that's why we asked the question yeah right so like help me understand that because I'm confusing okay so one is a suggestion sure um so when we're looking at Specialized programs we do a lot of talking and functioning labels you knew I was going there I knew you were um and that's problematic right so we can't identify

kids as low functioning or high fashioning so if we keep saying that we have a high functioning room in theory that means we have a low functioning room and is that really how we want to be identifying kids so I would encourage that we look at how we're naming classrooms you know a language-based classroom makes sense a social emotional classroom makes sense right we're not talking about a functioning label for

our kids yes I think we all know that we function differently in different settings and on different days based on whatever it is that we need so that's my suggestion uh 100 I'm using the current terminology that we have here but yes I agree when we know better we do yeah right yep and then my other question and this is not going to be something that we look yeah today it is not something

that we're going to be able to solve this is a long-term piece we have in some of our schools half of our students with disabilities half of them are some of them we have half of our kids in some separate classrooms so what are we doing to move some of our kids back into our inclusion doesn't mean that our kids don't need some separate because we definitely have kids who do but

we have a really high number of kids in sub separate so just I'm hoping that we can be thinking about what are we doing to make sure that we have inclusion opportunity genuine inclusion opportunities not just the kid is in the classroom how are they integrated into that every day so that's a long-term we've certainly started those discussions but definitely we need to have more discussions about that

um but and that's why I want the numbers there so that we can kind of keep track of you know we do have kids who transition we do and I I I've always had kids and stuff separate as a principal and we used to have a plan so they used to have a plan that was systematic and we do but it's some kids that were very successful and some need to be in some separate

right and that's okay that doesn't mean that that's a bad thing just when I see such high numbers of kids in some separate classrooms what are we doing what are we looking at in terms of making sure that those kids are generous process given the opportunity sure and I'll talk a little bit more when I talk about priorities moving forward okay great thank you so 3.02 is a discussion about the CPAC overview yeah

so I want to thank Megan Murphy first of all she is our lone Ford member right now and she has done a fantastic job of coordinating and collaborating with myself and our admin Administrative Assistant Heather to make a plan for CPAC this year we've had one meeting that I did come to before I actually was on board and that was more of a meeting the administrative team so all the supervisors and myself were there and I

think we had maybe five um families on that join that meeting but now with you know Megan really has taken the initiative to reach out to different groups so we have a plan for the rest of the year where we'll be meeting every month we're going to do a combination of virtual and in person a couple for a couple reasons for that one when we met in November we asked families and they

wanted you know different options um and some of the some of the presenters are only available to do it virtually so that's kind of how we decided so I gave you the list but it's also on our website if you've seen the website now it's updated um with some information and um yeah so again it's I think it's a great start for um Megan to you know really spearhead

this we hope that in June we're able to do elections to have other board members I'm currently working with her on she sent me the bylaws and flyers and all different things that we want to make sure gets to the full CPAC moving forward questions comments thoughts coming true I think the goal and this is just coming as a special education parent right now is really just restoring trust with

families in the CPAC because historically they're just we haven't had a lot of parents show and and sometimes what parents will say is that they just don't feel like it's worth it right not because that the information they're getting but isn't worth it but that they just feel like nothing's changing so I feel like if those conversations are happening like here we're listening to lucerne's and here

are the action steps that we've taken I think that goes a long way for families but really you know restoring trust and building those connections is huge can maybe this is May uh speak of the consistency in the past just so I have a little more information about the meetings I don't know much about the meetings in the past but how consistent were they compared to like what you're trying to formulate they've met

consistently monthly I think that um uh yeah they've met consistently I think that maybe that you know the outcomes maybe weren't as as um people wished Etc but I know that um every month that they've met they did okay my recommendation would be to reach out to all the principals of the schools and let them know what the expectation is that they're going to reach out to their parents and get a few parents from

each school so when when they do come to the meeting and whatever the next meeting is you identify what school the child's from so that you can take it back to the because the principal's council is all those they have relationships with the people so if they're the ones saying we need you to come maybe they need to come with so that now we also have staff there and

get buying it's not going to just be a few parents and then they're going to say there's concerns and you know we can listen but I think in more buying from our staff and putting that on us on principles might make sense is that generally the process that goes from the the principles to the parents is that what is our principles yeah no no that usually comes through my office so

um we're looking into how to put it on parent Square um we did you know in the past we used to do a blast email we've done one calls before we posted on our website those different things but you know in previous districts that I've worked and we have not yesterday the principles but like a team chair a supervisor the you know the sex whoever that has the best relationship to be able to say hey why

don't you come try this or um you know and that sometimes get generates more right I mean you mentioned the email they get bombarded with emails and they just Unfortunately they don't respond because the parent lawyer is a text right right and that's why I hope it does we do move forward with the parents but I'm going to get some help from Tech with that because I'm still having news okay I'm still new

to all of this I still think the prince like having to do it yeah and I'm I work in a school and I'm taking it upon myself where you're starting a CPAC now what I'm personally saying to myself I need to get a couple of parents to the next meeting a couple weeks and I'm going to take that upon myself because I know the people that I'm working with that this might be a valuable thing then

if I ask them to go and I show up with them probably gonna make a little bit more of a difference than just hey why don't you go yeah so one of those deals that's all let's take question can't floss anybody thank you you might comment on that would be I think a warm handoff is exactly what's what's needed right so if you're telling me and I'm a brand new

parent in the district and I don't know what the CPAC thing is all about it is very unlikely that I'm gonna really want to show up right because I don't know what's going to happen at these meetings what's going to go on am I going to have anybody to connect with so if we're connecting them with either somebody on the CPAC or somebody from their school that they're comfortable with I would

just be really nervous about flooding with so many staff so if we have you know one person from each school and they're bringing now you're talking 16 staff right that are coming to the meeting and that's happened not where we've had 16 but it's happened before where there's been a lot of school staff and it has felt almost like families were bombarded right that they and they felt like it wasn't their most intrusive

I was going to say I think that at times um the meeting becomes um overpowered by frps and it's their meeting so I can see the the the recruiting and support Etc but I think that we have to remember that's not our meeting that's a meeting for parents um and a resource so we just need to to do that connection so that they can access it but if Mr has a principal

right and he goes and he's like hey five parents I know that you're all interested in doing this I'm gonna go and I'm going to introduce you I'm going to go with you to that first meeting to introduce you and then I'm going to step out because this isn't really a meeting for you I think that can make a difference as well so they're going and they're creating that connection but

then also taking a step back and letting them you know be able to go through their process without feeling like and the board members are the ones that are facilitating correct yes they run it okay right now you know again Megan's doing it collaborative with me because right she's a one-man show right now and she's doing a great job so she's an awesome woman update on strategic plan Stars okay so I

don't want to spend too much time on this but I think in an effort to move forward we have to acknowledge where we've been right so when I looked at the previous strategic plan which ends now um I think it was a very ambitious strategic plan that was written six or eight months before the world shut down right so as they began to resume the activity you know back to some normal

education it still looked very different remote hybrid in person in masks our students and staff returned with new challenges that needed to take the priority so from what everything everything I've heard I've seen I've read I think everyone put forth their best effort um and there were barriers that they didn't even know they were going to face so I just wanted to focus a little bit

on you know what they did accomplish out of the last strategic plan they purchased curriculum for our highest needs students in both the attainment and they're piloting some um of the Wonders supplemental curriculum in the language-based classes in one District I mean one school they provided professional development to this staff in that curriculum and in fact in February's PD day we have attainment

coming back we have staff providing Styler Fitzgerald training which is a different math program that's at one Elementary School and we have um Landmark coming back in to work with our language-based students as teachers um they've trained multiple special education staff in the science of reading and specific reading intervention programs such as Wilson so we have a list of Wilson's certified

staff members that are able to provide that additional support when needed we continue to have a partnership with Landmark I just spoke with Landmark the other day to talk about you know what how we'll finish the contract for the remainder of the year and what you know some things that she has seen over the years with being in the district we've provided intensive safety care de-escalation training to many staff

members throughout the district which again was needed when the students returned to school um the special ed team collaborated with the office of instruction and the Desi to do walk-throughs and I've been able to participate in a couple of those since I've been here Master teacher was purchased for paraprofessionals to keep up their professional development um we completed our corrective action

plan for special education to discuss to address our compliance needs lead positions were developed for related services to promote professional development in those specialty areas that's not exhaustive it's just a summary based on the information I've been able to gather in just six weeks that I've been here any questions just one question you mentioned Styler math was only one schools Fitzgerald I believe is being

piloted in one Elementary School um in our um I wanted so it's a pilot program yeah all right yeah I think from talking to some of our curriculum folks we they really wanted to do something small to make sure it was going to meet the needs of the students before they brought it out into all the other um yeah I vaguely remember we talked about it I was just wondering moving along with that okay thank you

I don't this time I was just my you had mentioned that we have leads in each department I want to say that there's job descriptions for across the bishop we have leads in various departments and some have job descriptions that have the expectations who get tied how they are whatever like I just would want to make sure that all leads in the whole department have job descriptions expectations of why are

they going to get paid the extra money yeah and what is the you know back so if that is happening great if not I would take a look at it we actually are looking at that because we do have some that um fell under the first one was a teacher lead and as we added leads now that we've added so many leads we need a job description that's specific to the position that

they're in they don't all fall on the umbrella of a teacher lead the requirements for them and what they're doing is different than what an SLP lead would be for even the lead psychologist I agree so we're looking at that and customizing those criteria so like I might get the lead one year and I might not be a good lead right so do I get that for the rest of my career no that's

actually we put that in the contract that they would have to reapply I think it says two years and then they would have to reapply I'm just I'm talking about the whole District so we should have consistency I was already working with HR on those specific leads for that well under me um okay moving on update on special education budget so um I did watch the last sub committee um

back in June and I know there was a question about um the remaining funds after the purchase of attainment so there was like 175 000 left um in working with Mr Almeida the we currently still have 158 000 in that line still for curriculum it's listed as like textbooks technology line um it's written the grant is written for moderate to severely substantially separate populations curriculum

so what we need to look at right now for that 100 the 158 000 isn't earmarked for anything different so what I plan to do is like we just mentioned how Styler Fitzgerald um wonders and Wonder Works is being piloted in some of our sub-separate classroom attainment is throughout the district but the other two programs that were purchased are only in pi they were piloted right so I need to see if

working with the office of instruction what other resources are needed if we're continuing with those programs so that we can bring consistency whether you're in you know a program in Henry Lord versus you know Spencer Borden there's other there's some consistency across there once I have that information um will if there are other remaining funds then I will work with Mr Almeida

to look at our district priorities and then maybe amend the grants to allocate funding elsewhere and they went out when so this particular Grant runs out in September 2023 um so it's the 252 brand but the other brands we can roll over yeah I would just uh at that meeting when we talked about I don't think it was identified for anything of course that's what we were told at the meeting so it was sort of

open and then it was talked about as a Mr ocean mentioned like a cross-the-board SEO curriculum something that didn't really apply to what this was specific to and that committee wanted to be like how is this going to help children that could identified in special education so I wouldn't think curriculum is that personal link like I think we have a lot of money to pay for curriculum I feel like this money should

be used for something that you feel as part of your plan is going to really do some impactful things sort of outside of the curriculum so I don't want to be it depends what the grant yeah this particular brand is written to um help students recover after the pandemic like it's a specific it was only limited for two years um and again just like any Grant right you write it and you get approved but we

can move the the funding to a different line and then get approval from the death scene it was approved right now I understand that you are new I'm not I watched the meeting myself Mr losh told us the exact opposite of what you just told us so I'm not looking to go backwards but at the same time we weren't told that it was had to be for that time for what you just explained we

just were told we had 175 000 left over sort of on specified funds so yeah I'll just leave it there you know that my personal feeling as one member is to use it specifically for the children that you service sure personally that's how everyone any other thoughts on the computer I think you're going to talk about it in priorities um but one thing I just would like to say when we look at the special ed

budget I think we all in the committee would benefit and you being new I think this would be a good thing to talk about historically where we've been over the last 10 years let's say in identify funding so we've gotten a lot more funding in the district we've also put a lot of money into special education and other things I don't know what that means relatively speaking so I'd be curious to see over

over time have we the needs are greater in special education I'm curious to see how much the increase in funding for those children were in Services relative to the amount that we've got overall because my gut tells me that we haven't put the resources even though we've put a lot of resources in I don't think we've put necessarily all the resources that we should based on the big budget but that's just

a I have an idea I guess but I think that would be good going into the budget time to see like how much of the budget is attributable to services for special education simple questions so we say okay the special ed budget went up by eight percent which is only like 20 of the entire budget but if the whole budget went up 20 then we're short in that particular

and the needs I feel like are greater so as we go into the budget I would like to we usually go in and like make presentations and say well what do we think we need what do we ask everybody if we looked at it and said we should have X percentage of the budget that's a different conversation than what do you need like what is the true we should have a little trying to

advocate for that department to get a better bigger piece of the pie if that's what the numbers and needs to look at so let's just go food for thought 3.05 is a discussion on Department priorities and I know you've only been here a short time but I appreciate this being on here to get your input on it so I just kind of want to give you a little bit of what I've been doing over the

past six weeks to get to these priorities um so I've had listening sessions and they were just that with each different group throughout our department so related services or clerks or team shares supervisors and I wanted them just you know they had my ear what do they want me to know about what they do in our department the needs of our department and that's kind of how some of the the supports that I'm already

trying to put in place for like the school Sykes or the slps kind of came to fruition right um so I did that with a variety of the groups I also met with many building principals I still have a few more that I need to meet with because we had to cancel um I visited all of our substantially separate um classrooms except I still need to go to Stone and then I've reviewed the

Walker report the TFM the previous strategic plan our previous special education manual our PRS complaints in order to formulate the priorities and I've come up with three different priorities overarching priorities one is compliance two is programming and three is instruction and compliance is really looking at what um what are the roles and responsibilities of each position that touches compliance

and the oversight of that piece because some of what I've noticed from the different reports and even our PRS complaints there are things that we can just tighten up and we cannot we can be in compliance right but I need to figure out who needs to be responsible for what in what role does that responsibility fall and then overarching what how is the supervision and that's why all those

numbers in the front are important so that you guys see that right and then our process and procedure manual you know definitely needs it's from 2015 was the last time it was updated there's been a lot of changes in processes and procedures so again I've I've asked people and people are very willing to be part of the solution so joining a task force with me to re-look at our process

and procedure manual and you know again to make sure that we are in compliant to make sure people know if this is the process to ensure compliance who is responsible for each step of that so then the programming piece like uh um Sarah mentioned the you know how we name our program the definitions of our program the exit and enter entry criteria for for students how many opportunities do they get for

inclusion what do those look like how we tracking the students that move completely um from a substantially separate classroom back to inclusion that overall programming looking at you know we have strands now in various buildings throughout the city how are those strands working out when kids are coming from all over the city to go to a particular strand right is that making sense are we meeting the students needs

what impact does it have in a building overall and kind of that piece is going to take some work with a cons some Consultants I believe to really really bring the change that we need to bring the consistency that back to the district across the district and honestly everybody that I've talked to feels the same way right they want the consistency they want the processes they want the procedures so you know the

staff is asking for it the administrators are asking for it now's the time that we need to start moving in that direction and the last piece is at the instructions so once we have the the programming um and we need to think about you know even the inclusion because part of that programming what does inclusion look like for our students and then the type of instruction that they're getting in

those different opportunities what are we doing with center-based how much time are we using technology right like how many Hands-On or Real World experience do our students get so those are the overarching again I will need to be working with leadership and Staffing to do this work because it will be um it's a big lift but again people are motivated so from those overarching priorities my plan is to set up

different task force to set specific goals under each with those action steps right and then we'll use that to develop our strategic plan we'll use that to bring to this committee for budgeting um I think you stepped out when the third target okay yeah okay I just wasn't sure um I had said earlier I was waiting for no I know I just didn't know if you heard the

so I just wanted you to be aware of what I've been doing the past six weeks what I've identified as our priorities and then my next steps moving forward to hopefully put up by the end of the year facilitate the work any discussion questions I'm just floored that the last update that we made was in 2015 right tonight and that's what I've been able to put my hands on and I've asked different people

I'm not saying I mean again you know when we live in the world of technology it's supposed to make our lives easier but sometimes the objectives of technology so it could be there but again what I've been able to put my hands on and when I'm speaking to different people well the fact that that's all you could find right that that says that says something so even if it has been updated who really has been

aware of those updates if you couldn't find it coming in you know that that worries me and you know when we're talking about strands in different schools like is that a conversation that we have does it make sense to have all of these strands in different schools because we are shifting kids around right or do they belong in their neighborhood school with the resources that we can bring we can't

do that without Staffing right and I understand why space yeah I forget why we did that right gee I think we might need small neighborhoods right um but if we if we're focused on inclusion inclusion is not a place right we've had that conversation many times so we should never be saying like the inclusion classroom it should be like what is our process to get kids to be included to belong right because

this is their their home Community but if they're being moved to Henry Lord for this classroom and then we decide that they need another placement and then off they go to Letourneau for this classroom and then along the way we're like oh that's not really meeting their needs now they've got to go here you know what how is that really fostering any kind of sure belonging right they don't belong

anywhere they belong everywhere but nowhere at the same time and Fair especially I'm thinking of our littlest guys you know they start in one place usually in pre-k but that doesn't mean they're necessarily going to stay there for as they move forward so we got a lot of work to do but it doesn't mean we can't do it some of our sub separate programs um one of the reasons why we created

strands at schools was to minimize the transitions because we used to have um maybe at least have multiple grade levels at each of the schools so if you were in an elementary let's say Affairs they might have had a K1 classroom a two three and a four or five or just a k to two you know and then another classroom somewhere else and kids would be jumped around like that so in order to minimize

those those transitions we created strands in different schools so that kids could have that consistency K to five or six through eight like for the middle school for instance we used to have one grade level at let's say cuss one at Talbot and one at uh Morton and instead what we did is we moved that program into one of the schools one of the other programs into another school

so that kids that were in there but if a student Services changes you're right then it creates that instability and then they have to move but I think the intention was to minimize those transitions but it's taking them in many cases out of their neighborhood school because they go according to where the program is not according to that it's going to create a staffing issue you are absolutely right because you can't

possibly have in spacing you can't possibly have one of each program at every single school and have that strand but um that was the recommendation of the Walker report too to kind of consolidate that consistency but now we have to look at like we've been doing it a few years right and or a couple years at least what are the you know pros and cons of that particular programming and more

specifically for me the impact it has on the opportunities for inclusion because if you have classrooms that are already you know full and you have kids coming from all over the district to a substantially separate classroom how many opportunities of inclusion do they really have since they're not in that count overall right to begin with so it can get a little but I just don't know enough yet to be able to really

there is no 100 Radiance right very clear very understanding of that right so we do things in a certain way because our needs at that point say this is where we need to go but then we reevaluate what our needs are and is this really serving our needs is it really serving our need to get greater or greater bigger and bigger and so what do we do it and then we have a pandemic

that you know sends those needs skyrocketing so then what do we do you know I think it just has to be an ongoing discussion versus this is just what we do this is how we do it because those are conversations that I've had this is how we do things and that's it and those are some that's some dangerous language and we need to have an assistant to evaluate whatever we're doing to track again because there's no

like you said there's no right or wrong answer so we try something we evaluate it we shift if it's not working but we need those measures in place um you know and I need that a group to help me kind of put those parameters in place so that we're making you know the best experiences for all the kids so the kids have good academic experiences but also have opportunities to develop genuine friendships with disabled and

non-disabled peers right they both have something to work for sure what does it look like for consultants and timing so I actually have a meeting set up with South Coast um to be able I think it's I want to say not next week the week after to be able to start to have that conversation to do the work once I have that conversation with South Coast depending on if they

can you know meet our needs then I will reach out to either like a snack which is another collaborative but when I kind of reached out to South Coast and put it out there what I'm looking for I mean they are willing to come on board right away once we work out the kind of the logistics of what I'm looking for right so um I don't anticipate us having

I'm in a more fall in favor of it I would just in light of what we talked about at all the meetings to get permission rather than just the bill pay yes and I think it's a valid thing to put on that we're going to go forward he brought it to the subcommittee which is the way it should go but at some point you should go to the full committee to

say we need to this is what we're looking for this is the rationale it's going to cost us 50 000 30 like we did with the walking report we didn't just get the Walker report without the subcommittee or without the full committee right and then say Oh by the way the Walker report costs a study event so yeah I think he's doing it the right way but I would do it sooner than

later so that you can get it done I know and even if it's just a placeholder right that you guys work out a number come to us and we say yes I think this is a validation of funds at that point we would now have ability to to do the whatever you got to do to get them in that will be okay any thoughts other thoughts on that huh but they'll move right along so 3.06

is the discussion on the Rottenberg education center follow-up I put this on because at the last meeting public meeting we talked about we were going back and forth back and forth and I said we want to put it on here to see if there's any updates anything so you want to discuss anything the members will want to discuss if there's nothing to discuss we can move on but I want to

throw it out there as an opportunity if there's any additional info yeah I think that um at the school committee meeting there was a request for a second opinion and I have forwarded that request to attorney Assad um so that and he is working through that so when we have that information I'll show with the committee so that's where we are with that any other questions or thoughts on that

my only question would be on what we talked about was that there was a student that was in hospital waiting any updates on that child that student is still in the hospital awaiting a placement that again several packets have gone out and there's been nothing available for them right now I would say that that's problematic in general but when the students in the hospital not able to be placed and

although I voted against this particular place under that condition as professionals and you guys are in the field if there's nowhere else and you think that at some point that would have to I think I would ask you to bring it back and say we've done this I think we didn't do that before but I'm giving you my my clearest thing like you tell us there's nowhere else for this child to

go I can still disagree with some of it but I also don't think keeping a kid in the hospital is the right thing either so I'm at some point looking to last time I checked which was probably a week ago with our out of District um team chair even this even the Judd brotenbark Center did not have availability right now so it's not like we're holding her there right we're not

but that can change on a daily basis so I haven't heard it yeah no just trying to keep us I'm surprised of it I don't like to have um you know you need to do what you need to do and all I'm asking for is you're you say to us honestly I'll speak to myself there's really nowhere else we've done the due diligence and all that stuff I don't think about that way in the past but

there's got to be a place and if there's not then the state needs to step in and do something to say why is there no place to service all children no matter what their guitar and that's just my teachers yeah that's a big issue sure I get it but I think at some point we need to I mean the money that we're talking is good money but if that if they still

can't with that kind of money service children then then this has to be some other solution because I'm sure this one kid that's in waiting in the hospital is not the only time it's physical snows like I mean everybody's maxed out exactly it's physical space they don't have can't take this in part of that is because there was such a dramatic shift in how Services have played out in the

state so it used to be a high we had lots of residential placements and so packets would go out you were struggling to fill beds but then there was a big push to get kids back in their homes and in their communities with supports and so that's where the money wins the money came out of residentials and into home-based community-based care but then that left kids there are still kids who

need residential care right so even though I'm pushing inclusion inclusion doesn't mean that the kids are just you know out floating around everywhere just for the sake of saying they're included but the shift has been that lots of placements have closed and even within placements beds have closed within placement so they've downsized dramatically so it causes such a disruption and care for the kids that

need that higher level I would say I would recommend who made the decision to close those beds and shift from one to the other side that came out of the children's Behavioral Health Initiative about 14 years ago 15 years ago but the legislature has something yeah so my suggestion is while this is going on you and your like uh I don't know what the organization was all these special ed

directors or events or whatever I think it's incumbent upon you all maybe this is already happening get those folks to the table to say this is what we have to do let's have a public meeting to talk about what are you doing for these Services why does it you know

has an association we have an association you guys have like everybody needs to say no you made this decision and now you're putting us in tough spots and the children aren't getting the services so I think before what it's worth I think I would go that route to at least acknowledge we're trying we're doing this we're doing that and the state has three billion dollars in Surplus if there's

ever time to open up some more beds and some other opportunities residentials yes it's um I'm sure they don't get reimbursed even um even though that's a lot of money what we had but there's got to be a reason why if if they're not doing it that then it was like they they probably shifted a little too quick and now you got to shift probably back a little bit so

if they say incentivizes just like us if we have the ability to to give more money to somebody to come work heavier than somebody else with a bonus or something we could poach people like it but some things are not allowed in those cases they could say we're going to do that so I just would encourage you to we've got kids that are meeting in um in hospitals waiting for just

inpatient beds we have kids that are meeting in emergency rooms and we're waiting for weeks or we have kids with co-occurring disorders and so they won't take this kid with this mental health issue even though they meet the criteria for that psychiatric level of care but because they have this co-occurring diagnosis a lot of times it's our kids with developmental or cognitive disabilities you've got an autistic kid

with also depression and that kid needs a psychiatric bed good luck trying to find a space better than that kid because so many places are just not they don't have the the the knowledge or the they feel like they don't have the capability to service those kids and so those kids end up waiting and they they wait in a hospital bed sometimes in the hallway of the ER until that crisis abates and then

they go back home and then of course resources something needs to happen so anything else 4.01 is new business any new business

have a great night