Happy New Year to the Harvard SE PAC (Special Education
Parent Advisory Council) Egroup list!
This email serves to summarize the activities of the Harvard SEPAC from
September to December of 2005.
*Meetings and Communication of the SEPAC
The SEPAC currently has 69 members on its egroup list. The voting
membership of the SEPAC stands currently at about 20 (voting member defined in
our bylaws as one who has attended a SEPAC meeting in the last year).
*
The SEPAC has two major holes in our Steering Committee: Chair and
Program Coordinator. We do have a secretary (Sue Tokay), treasurer (Becky
Gordon) and the following liaisons: Maria Kaufmann (Integrated
Preschool/HES), Becky Gordon (Middle School), Bonnie Sweeney (High School), Sue
Tokay (out of district). Will Verbits continues this year as our School
Committee liaison. Karen Bolton and Sue Loring have left the Steering
Committee, although they continue to be involved with the SEPAC.
The SEPAC conducted a planning meeting in September. We decided that what
we could do this fall was limited due to the missing Steering Committee
members, and the time constraints of the rest of the group. We decided
the focus of this year needed to be recruiting new members, for the SEPAC at
large as well as for the Steering Committee. If time allotted, we thought
we would work on communicating our position on "school climate",
particularly at the Bromfield School. We also made some phone calls
soliciting for input from members before meeting with Tom Jefferson, as well as
sending email on the topic. We chose not to turn this into a full-fledged
survey with large sample size after Charles Horn told us that he would be
hiring a consultant to conduct a survey during the school year.
We did introduce ourselves to Tom Jefferson in early October, in a meeting
which included Maria Kaufmann, Sue Tokay, Charles Horn and Tom
Jefferson.. The handouts we brought to this meeting are attached.
Sue Tokay attended one of the "Talks with Tom" that were held this
past fall, as a representative of the SEPAC, and met with Charles Horn in
September. No firm plans were made to organize the focus groups(Chats
with Charles) for this year, but Sue did suggest to Charles that he hold
regular office hours in order to facilitate communication with parents.
SEPAC members watched the presentations made by Charles Horn and Tom Hall to
the School Committee this fall. Phone conversations and email were had
with Will Verbits, our School Committee liaison subsequent to these
presentations.
*Programs/Activities:
*1. The membership application to MASSPAC was filled out by the Steering
Committee and processed by the school, such that Harvard is once again a member
of MASSPAC this year.
2. MetLife approached Sue Tokay about doing a financial planning seminar
for the SEPAC. Sue Tokay met with them in November. The workshop
will be held on January 25, with a snow date of February 1. Peggy Bragg
has agreed to do a presentation on reading initiatives in Harvard--date TBD.
The required Basic Rights workshop will be held in the spring, date also
TBD. Other workshops may or may not be held.
3. School Climate: Sue Tokay approached Will Verbits (the SEPAC
School Committee liaison) who is a counseling professional, about talking to a
psychologist who works with many kids from Bromfield, in order to discuss her
views and ideas on school climate at Bromfield. Will was not able to
connect with the psychologist this fall, but one of the co-chairs of the
Bromfield School Council has expressed an interest in talking with the
psychologist, as school climate is also a topic of interest to the Bromfield
School Council.
4. Kari Hoffmann once again has attempted to pull together a Special
Olympics basketball team for March, 2006. Sue Tokay approached Tom
Jefferson with a request for a faculty sponsor for this event during the fall,
at the request of a SEPAC member. Kari had attempted to find a faculty
sponsor in previous years with no success, although she has run the program
herself in Harvard at least twice. The request was sent from Tom Jefferson to
Tom Hall, who solicited for a faculty sponsor for the Special Olympics
basketball. Ultimately, no faculty sponsor was found, although a 9th
grader ("typical peer" ) did volunteer to help out with the
team. There was a faculty member interested who unfortunately did not
have enough time to devote to the project currently.
5. Karen Bolton attempted to organize a tennis clinic for kids with
challenges last spring, but there was not enough interest to make it worthwhile
to proceed with the program.
6. The website and egroup list continue to be kept current.
7. Maria Kaufmann sent a mailing to parents in the integrated preschool
(via the special ed office) explaining what the SEPAC is, and soliciting for
interested parties. She did not receive any response to this mailing.
8. Sue Tokay approached Charles Horn about the various surveys that were
sent to parents and students on IEP's right before Christmas. The SEPAC
had no prior knowledge of or input to the "Parent Advisory Council
Survey" sent. In looking into the matter, she found that the SEPAC
was found to be in full compliance with the parent advisory council criteria
(SE32) of the DOE Coordinated Program Review Procedures during the Harvard
Special Ed 3 year midcycle review, which was conducted by the DOE during the
2004-2005 school year.
However, the Harvard Special Ed Department was found to be in
"partial" compliance against criteria SE 56, which stipulates that
"special education programs, services and administrative areas are
regularly evaluated." The set of surveys was generated, with the aid
of a consultant, with the goal, at least in part, of complying with this
criteria of the DOE program review procedures. The local districts are
given some leeway in terms of how they conduct the reviews, and what aspect of
programs they review.
9. Maria Kaufmann was approached by Gretchen Henry about the SEPAC
donating funds toward the purchase of a math program for the school
district. The SEPAC is not able to contribute toward this project at this
time, as there are no fundraising plans for this year for the SEPAC.
However, the SEPAC did contribute two computers to HES last year (total cost
about $2,200) as well as contribute monies toward the purchase of
Kurzweil reading materials for the school district.
Please feel free to contact any of the Steering Committee with questions.
Our website continues to be www.harvardsepac.org,
which is available off the main menu of the Harvard Schools website, as well as
independently. The egroup list can be joined via the website.
Regards,
Sue Tokay
Harvard SEPAC Secretary
for the Steering Committee