The Fall River School Committee held a special meeting on Thursday, September 29th, 2022. The primary purpose of the meeting was to interview and vote on the appointment of the Assistant Superintendent of Special Education. Lori Obachane, the superintendent's recommended candidate, was interviewed by the committee. Ms. Obachane discussed her 19 years of experience, collaborative leadership style, and her approach to inclusion, emphasizing active student engagement and strong co-teaching models, drawing from her experience in Foxborough where she built programs for students with complex needs, including those on the autism spectrum. She also outlined her plans for ensuring compliance and improving inclusion in Fall River by establishing clear systems and procedures. Following the interview, the committee unanimously approved Lori Obachane's appointment as the Assistant Superintendent of Special Education. During the meeting, committee members, particularly Mr. Agam, raised concerns about the Fall River School Department's website, noting that the 'Walker report' on special education was not publicly available and that Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) minutes were outdated. Mr. Agam also inquired about persistent busing delays, reportedly 45 minutes to an hour daily, and the implications for the transportation and overall district budget. The Superintendent committed to providing information on the busing issues and budget. The meeting concluded with an executive session to discuss strategy for negotiations with the newly appointed non-union personnel.
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foreign ER the Thursday September 29th special meeting in the fall of a school committee so we're going to start this one a little different let's salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God is open with liberty and justice for all uh pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video
0:34recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meaning to any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings of Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible Deb would you please call the roll Mr agam yeah Mr Bailey Mr Hart here miss laravey here Ms Pereira here here come here here any citizens input tonight then no there
1:07is no thank you Committee of the whole item 3.1 interview of Lori obenchen applicant for the position of assistant superintendent of special education for the Florida post schools Mr benchkin is the superintendent of schools recommended candidate for the appointment to this position of assistant superintendent of special education welcome Michelle benchkin
1:43appreciate you joining us tonight I guess you should make a little opening statement sure sure how you became the recommended candidate and then we may have a few questions of course well thank you first of all for giving me this opportunity to meet with you tonight I am a passionate hard-working and dedicated leader who has spent the past 19 years of my career supporting the academic social emotional and
2:09behavioral needs of students with disabilities the knowledge that I've gained from my education as well as participating in two deci leadership academies and my experiences in both traditional public school and charter schools has given me the skills I need to be successful in this role as assistant superintendent of special education a little bit about my leadership style my leadership style is collaborative I
2:37believe that trust transparency providing others with a safe space to learn and grow and giving others a voice is essential to being an effective leader relationships are very important to me I want to build upon the strengths of staff and Empower them to overcome our challenges and do hard things because in the end we all share a similar goal we want all our students to reach their full potential within our
3:09school community community so I'm ready and excited to bring my knowledge work ethic and passion to a larger School District like Fall River Public Schools well again thank you for joining us um does anybody have any questions I do Clarity please not so much questions because I know you've probably answered about a thousand that's okay but I just wanted to uh say that you're after reading everything your employment
3:39qualifications your resume it speaks for itself I just want to say thank you for uh choosing Fall River um I want to wish you the best of luck uh you're picking a great district with some great people at the top and every level of the district so I wish you the best of luck uh you have everybody here to support you um and that's it I mean I'm really really impressed with what we were
4:06emailed from the superintendent and um I did have some leadership questions but you just kind of snuck that in there but uh again thank you because uh we need you uh Kristen thank you very much for what you have done the last month and a half that's greatly appreciated stepping into the position um we appreciate it thank you I yield any further questions rodericks um so I have a question about inclusion
4:35sure because that's sort of My love language um not sort of definitely what does that look like in action for you so that is um really important to me it's a goal that I think I share with a lot of Educators and families because we want to provide students as many opportunities to participate in inclusion as possible but inclusion to me is more than just a place in a classroom inclusion looks like seeing students
5:03actively engaged in instruction by asking questions answering questions working collaboratively with their peers I would want to see scaffolding and supports in place so the students with disabilities have access to those grade level standards and to be able to access those standards as independently as possible um I'd want to see different learning styles Incorporated in the classroom by
5:30giving Kids Choice and voice in what they're doing and how they're demonstrating their knowledge and it's very important to me that special education staff are actively involved during instruction so you mentioned it's more than a place so are you looking at inclusion as a place so what a place in a classroom so some people say just because a student is physically in a room they are included
5:58okay and that's not what inclusion is inclusion is yes with their peers in a classroom but they have to be engaged they have to be able to access those grade level standards so the supports have to be there the you know scaffolds have to be there they have to be when they're working in a group an active participant in that group you know that's what I mean by that so I don't
6:20see it as a place of course now okay so I appreciate that clarification of course talk about that a lot of course yeah um I have one other question about inclusion so how do we support our families in understanding what inclusion looks like and what that and how do we honor what families are looking for in terms of their child's education in terms of inclusion just like relationships are important with staff
6:46and administrators relationships are important with families too and giving families that same opportunity to share um you know their voice and what their goals are for their children and under helping them understand you know where their child's strengths are and how do we build upon those strengths in an inclusion setting and what does inclusion look like again being in a classroom is fantastic and every child
7:13can be in inclusion in some capacity what does that look like for their child and why is that so beneficial to their child so I think it's those relationships it's the communication it's the ongoing dialogue with families um I have no problem like showing families what inclusion looks like because sometimes they don't know I could ask and have a conversation about inclusion all day but for the sake
7:39of letting other people ask questions I will yield any further questions Mr agya just following up on that so in your current role for the last eight years in Foxboro can you describe what inclusion either changes have happened or where where has it been in Foxborough with you at the helm so actually we have always had a strong inclusion program what we built to support the inclusion program
8:07was our co-teaching model so being able to not only have the students in the classrooms engaging in learning with their typical classmates but also having strong teams of teachers so special education teachers are actively involved in instruction by either defining their role with a general education counterpart for example it might be you know you might be the math teacher and
8:34you are the expert of the math content I as a special education teacher while you're teaching that math content might be assessing who is getting the content and who needs a little bit more reteaching and then because we've discussed what's happening you're going to give me the opportunity to provide some reteaching or you're going to give me the opportunity to give an example in
8:57a different way or ask a question that maybe students are are facing so we always have that have had a inclusion model but I strengthened the co-teaching piece of that so teach so um special education staff were more doing more than just prompting and queuing for attention in the classroom and we brought in a consultant Judy Garvey to help us with that work we also trained administrators and when they're going in
9:23to evaluate staff what they should be looking for when they're co-teaching so when when that happens uh relative to the co-teaching what is it what does the schools look like so as I'm looking at your resume and just in general like you Foxborough has only 2 000 kids or whatever it is we have 2500 special education so we have 500 more students than you have with the whole District so what does it
9:47look like for it as far as like over eight years you must have had some influence with the oh so what it would look like you know sure that's saying if you build it they will come so we have over 21 towns that come to Foxboro so we when I first started there we had zero students on the autism spectrum now 12 of our special education population are students on the autism spectrum and it's
10:12because the strength of our special education program our families tell us that that's why they came because people are sharing the strength of our programming for students so the changes that I that I've been able to make in my influence had to do with Building Systems and structures processes and procedures that allow staff to not only ensure compliance but allow staff to have the structures they need to do
10:37their hard work and um the um we have more students with disabilities coming to the Charter School than before my tenure there and we have more students with more significant disabilities are they leaving you say people more people are coming as are there any leaving so special education our attrition for special education very low most kids who join our our school stay there they're
11:09because we're K-12 so they can say they're our entire their entire career we do have other you know the general education students that do come in and out do you have any substantially separate classrooms and I have partial inclusion and I have substantially separate classrooms which is are things that I built when I was there because again we have the students joining us with more complex needs so
11:32um we have in our elementary school two substantially separate classrooms and one partial inclusion classroom we have the gamut of you know severe autism to social emotional disabilities that just need a different a smaller space but they can join the inclusion setting for a lot of their time in our Middle School we have two programs and then in our high school we have one partial
11:57inclusion program because we build our programming to meet the needs of our students and that's our population right now thank you so one of the questions uh when you've had this before but I think it's good for us to all get an answer to it with over 23 about 2 400 students supported by IEPs in Fall River our special ed Department employs a team of Educators including paraprofessionals
12:18teachers psychologists therapists supervisors and others so two of the follow-up questions to that how will you ensure compliance in the district this large and the other one is assuming room for growth what is your plan to improve inclusion opportunities now that you have studied us a little more sure so in a large District like Fall River I would say that I'd want to look at the
12:42building the systems and the procedures to ensure compliance and to provide staff with the support that I the structures that I mentioned before so that they can do their work because when I looked at fall River's last tiered focused monitoring report from the Desi some of the areas that were partially implemented are areas that could be addressed with having clear and consistent processes and procedures in
13:07place as well as methods to check our work as an administrator I have developed a process and procedure manual for my district for special education I've developed a new filing system so that our records are not only organized but easily accessible and I've developed a variety of protocols and checklists to making sure that we are compliant in following through all aspects of the the process
13:35the um have you seen the Walker report that we had done I have not is that on the website yet do you know so we had done a walker report um on the special education department sure and when we did the last interviews which I happen to be on but I wasn't able to go to yours I had asked that that be public it's a public document everybody should see it be able to so as
14:00you're doing your research which apparently did you looked at the other reports The Walker report I think was a good opportunity to summarize where we're at where we need to go as chairman of the special education subcommittee I want to work closely with you on making sure we're implementing those things of course but um my only I'm going to be voting yes for your appointment my only
14:20thoughts are basically what I tell you here that coming from a small District it's like a hiring a person who has taught in a small school to a big school that's going to be a challenge it's going to be a lot of work and I hope that you're up for that challenge the last thing I want to say is that we need improvements and we need them yesterday but that also talks about making some
14:41bold decisions and real decisions when things need to get done you need to be able to make a decision and I think that's one of my my biggest things that I'm looking for moving forward from the superintendent to you and the other superintendents is we need to be bold and we need to make decisions in this district for far too long we've just kind of like oh it's okay we'll keep on
15:00moving it on I'd rather you come to us and say this is what I want to do I want to be bold this is what we need and let's do it and get it done for the kids that's sort of what I'm looking for so I am going to be voting yes thank you for your your interest I think you explained why you chose Fall River but maybe my last comment could be whitefall River
15:16and why now like it's it's the start of a school year you're going to be leaving a school like yeah why now so why Fall River I honestly I've done again I've been in traditional Public Schools smaller schools I went to the Charter School world for a while but I really want to try my skills and knowledge in a larger School District in Fall River gives me that opportunity to do that
15:37geographically to be honest with you why Fall River why now I live in Rhode Island but my we along with my own family I have my mom with me so I want to choose a district that is within driving distance in Massachusetts that makes the most sense for my family too and Fall River is a perfect district for that so I get a larger School District that I'm looking for and I get within an
16:00hour drive of my home which a lot of schools in Massachusetts are farther when you live in Rhode Island so that's really why and again it was just I've been looking for a while but I have a position I'm not I'm unhappy where I am I like where I am so I wasn't just going to leave to leave I wanted the right position at the right location at the right time and this just seems like that
16:23position brother thank you any further questions oh um Miss Pereira hi I want to start off
16:40um honestly a lot of the questions I have here regarding leadership and inclusion opportunities and compliance you've already you've already answered because you've had some good questions um but I want to reiterate something I don't know becoming I don't know but he took the words out of my mouth or off the paper I think it's important unique big changes and I hope that um and I want you to
17:11have the confidence to come in and make old changes and not be afraid of you so you certainly have to have my support to do that um and I just want to welcome you to Fall River it's a beautiful city I think it's God's favorite city and a beautiful district and we're happy to have you and I really hope you do well thank you thank you very much anything further
17:35okay I have one question and it was in your opening paragraph of your letter this is piggybacking on all the other members said describe your work ethic because that's what's going to be tested so yes so I my work ethic I do what needs to be done for kids are my priority so I will work hard I will work long I will ask the hard questions I'll ask for help when I need
18:06it because I can't do this alone so I understand that people say bold and change and that but it also takes a whole team to do that right so you guys are on our team superintendent on my team I need that so I will work long I will work hard I will ask for help if I need help I'll do my research I'm happy to read a walker report and I'm happy to
18:31learn about more about Fall River in order to again meet the needs of the students in this District because that's why I'm here great thanks any further questions thank you Ms Silverton um item number 3.2 is a discussion and vote to approve the selection appointment of the assistant superintendent for special education of the fall of a school department I have a motion and a sec in any discussion
19:04Deb please call the roll Mister again yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Miss laravey yes Miss Pereira yes Miss Roderick yes yes congratulations
19:26um welcome just go home and watch Braveheart a few times watch it back to back and you'll be fine oh I'm totally gonna interject on that we are a good District we are a huge District right they're a really big District um if you want to know more about Fall River I would suggest you go you spend some time around here so my husband grew up in Swansea excellent swansea's not Fall River yeah
20:06what better question what is your favorite Portuguese restaurant
20:17I'll put you on the spot for that foreign
20:39just two things so I just asked the question about the website and the Walker report and I'm not trying to put anybody on the spot but when we did the last interviews when I looked at the website when we were in the um Sarah and I served on the original subcommittee for this position so when we were doing that I was looking at the website to try to figure out like what
21:00does it look like what is it the Walker reports a public document they should be out there and it's not and I don't think I haven't looked today but it's not updated so this issue that I'm bringing up is not only for the special education department but across this District we need to get the websites updated when I looked at the website during that interview the seat pack the special
21:18education pack minutes were over two years old on the website that's unacceptable and this was over a month ago so I'm only bringing this up now because it just came up we need to do a better job with the website we need to hold people accountable that are going to do that as part of their job and if they can't do that job then they shouldn't have a job anymore because that's as basic as I can
21:39get there's no excuse for it the other thing that just came to my attention today which is a question from Mrs Ponce related to the busing and transportation so I heard today that there's buses that are late every single day to certain schools and we haven't heard that yet so I'm asking if if that is true why what are we doing and are we gonna you need to spend more money I know we
22:02talked about it in the beginning of the summer that I think the start and end times were going to cause us to spend more money so two questions one of the the bus is late every day to the tune of 45 minutes to an hour if that's the case yes or no or maybe you got to get back to us and the other one is the money what does the transportation budget look like okay
22:22I have to get back to you on both of those we have had buses that have been tardy it's not necessarily a money issue it's a staffing issue and a busing issue that we have been working with the vendors but we I will get you exactly um how many buses are are late the amount of time I known the first couple of weeks of school there were some buses that were late to the tune of the
22:46minutes that you're describing um I haven't heard that we are having consistent busing I always get the calls because I'm there late um that we're getting consistently every day buses that are late 45 minutes or or over but I don't want to speak out of turn I'll get you that information uh in regards to that and find out what what the issue I'll report to you tomorrow I appreciate it and when I talk about the
23:09budget I know in the October meeting we're supposed to get the quarterly report for the budget the issue related to busing is that we have a number even though the city pays it we're supposed to live within that number if we're going to go above that number then we need to know the city needs to know right away so in October I'm assuming you can get that ahead of time but I'm concerned about the transportation
23:30budget personally and I'm also concerned about the overall budget because we had made some changes and I think that that's going to reflect on the city having to give more additional resources to the schools and that's something that can't wait until March so when we send to the desc a balanced budget it has to be balanced and now that we know that it's not balanced to a pretty good number that needs to be
23:53readjusted and hopefully in October we can get that straightened up with that idea thank you anything further I have a request for executive session uh attorney aside is there a reason to go into executive session yes it would be uh mayor would be under match General lawyers chapter 38 section 21a2 to conduct strategy sessions and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel specifically the new
24:17assistant superintendent of special education for the forever school department to be selected and appointed by the school could be in Open session after September 29 2022 special meeting of the Florida school committee this is Laurier obachane is the superintendent of schools sole recommended candidate for appointment to the position of assistant superintendent of special education for
24:39the Fall River School Department we will reconvene it may not be statements at that time can I get a motion a second on Executive Dad please call the roll yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes Mr Laramie yes yes Roger yes mayor Krugman yes and executive session back in regular session uh Deb please call the roll let's try again yes Mr it yes Mr Hart yes Miss Laramie yes Miss Pereira
25:16yes Miss rodericks yes mayor Coogan yes um nothing further to come for the committee uh entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second I got a second motion Deb let's try again yes Mr Bailey yes Mr Hart yes yes correct yes yes