Chat with Charles Highlights – HES/Preschool

Date: 3-16-06

Attendees: Charles Horn, Kathleen Donellan at HES, Maria Kaufmann, SEPAC, Will Verbits (School Committee liaison), Christine Wyman taking minutes, and one additional parent.

Discussions:

· There was a discussion about the growth of the integrated preschool. There are currently two classes.

· There was a question about the roles of the building administrator and the special education team regarding discipline issues. The building principal, in this case Mary Beth Banios, is responsible for ensuring that the IEP is implemented as written, i.e. that services are delivered to students on IEPs. Questions about issues unrelated to the disability should be worked on with the teachers and administration.

For children on behavior plans, responses are outlined in plan. If a discipline issue is related to item in IEP, then the team should be consulted. Also, according to Kathleen Donnellan, Mrs.Banios does confer with the special ed team whenever disciplining a child on an IEP, whether or not the disability is directly implicated

· Sue Tokay, SEPAC Chair, is making an effort to repopulate SEPAC with parents of younger children. She made a presentation to pre-school parents. Sue is putting together a brochure too, which would be handed out to parents of newly identified students informing them about the role of SEPAC.

· There will be a meeting over the summer for students on IEPs transitioning from HES to the middle school.

· Homework is a big concern in the community overall, not just among special education students. A new principal has been chosen at Bromfield and may reexamine the homework issue.

· A parent of a preschooler was interested in forming a support group for parents of students with autism and Asperger’s. Will Verbits pointed out that this could be accomplished through the SEPAC, if parents stepped up and became involved. There was discussion of a few ways to get the word out to the HES community.

Bromfield Focus Group “Chat with Charles” March 22, 2006

Attendees: Charles Horn, Will Verbits, Sue Tokay, Janet Zimmerman, Debbie MacKenzie, Kari Hoffmann

Some of the material from the previous meeting with Tom Jefferson relative to the middle school programming was reviewed. There was no discussion of high school programming.

The meeting was not advertised as being targeted specifically to Bromfield parents, so one person attended who had an elementary school-aged child. The parent with the elementary-aged child said she did think that PAC activities were advertised as fully as they might be. A discussion ensued about how to revitalize the PAC.