LAMBTON KENT DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD



SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE



Thursday
St. Clair Catholic D.S.B. Office
19 00 hours

2003 01 23
Board Room
(7:00 p.m.)

 

 

M I N U T E S

 

 

PRESENT:
Rose Gallaway (for Jennifer Adam), St. Clair Child and Youth Services


Jenny Greensmith, Pathways Health Centre for Children


Duncan Longwell, Trustee


Sharon Nickerson, Member "at large" (Chair)


Donna Scherer, Learning Disabilities Association of Chatham-Kent


Wenda Vallee, Autism Society of Ontario


Jane Wright, Community Living Chatham-Kent




REGRETS:
Norma Hills, Sarnia & District Association for Community Living


Marion Lennan, Lambton County Developmental Services


Graham McIntyre, Trustee


Ted Scott, Member "at large"


Veronica Vaughan, Wallaceburg & Sydenham District Association for Community

Living




ABSENT:
Julie Wolfe, Learning Disabilities Association of Lambton County




RESOURCE
Warren Kennedy, Superintendent of Education

STAFF:
Denise Emery and Geri Haskell, Special Education Co-ordinators

 

*********************************************************************************

 

1.0
CALL TO ORDER - 7:15 p.m.

 

 

2.0
TOUR OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT AND TRANSPORTATION WEBSITE DEMONSTRATION

Patti Authier conducted tours of the Transportation Services office area prior to the beginning of the meeting.

 

Transportation Officer Kevin Fitzpatrick, and his assistant, Scott Hall demonstrated features of the www.schoolbusinfo.com website which contains a wealth of information for students and parents. The website can provide information on specific bus pick-up and drop-off times for individual addresses. It also supplies details, including procedures followed, during times of inclement weather when there may be bus delays or cancellations.

 

Included was a demonstration on how bussing is scheduled for individual students, including special needs students through the “Edulog” computerized routing system. The system is linked with schools and is updated daily. The demonstration revealed the complexity of the system.

 

SEAC had the opportunity to ask questions.

 

K. Fitzpatrick and his staff were thanked for the informative presentation.

 

 

3.0
ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR

The election of SEAC Chair and Vice-Chair was postponed until the next meeting.

 

 

4.0
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 2002 12 12

The Minutes of 2002 12 12 were approved as written.

 

 

5.0
BUSINESS ARISING FROM MINUTES

D. Longwell and W. Kennedy reported on the status of the recommendation from SEAC to the Board concerning additional resources for Devine Street School. The recommendation was put on hold due to the fact that the Ministry of Education recently announced the release of additional funding to school boards to support special education. A system proposal to increase staffing will include support for Devine Street School.

 

 

6.0
UPDATE ON RECENT MINISTRY OF EDUCATION FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENT

W. Kennedy provided SEAC with details of the Education Equality Task Force Report (a.k.a. “Rozanski Report”) and the recent Ministry of Education funding announcements.

 

W. Kennedy explained that the government has announced plans to “go live” during this school year with ISA funding which could result in an additional $2.6 Million for the Lambton Kent District School Board to spend in the area of Special Education. In reality, a more cautious estimate would be an additional $2.0 Million due to an ISA Enrolment Audit that is currently being conducted by the Ministry.

 

W. Kennedy supplied SEAC with copies of a DRAFT “Proposal for System Staff Increases to the Existing Complement for the Remainder of the 2002-2003 School Year”. SEAC learned that the proposal would be presented to the Board for approval on January 28, 2003, and included recommended increases, focusing on supporting exceptional students and literacy, in the areas of Educational Assistants, Specialists, Special Education Teachers, and program supports for the remainder of the 2002-2003 school year at an estimated cost of $1.5 Million. Any remaining funds can be placed in a special education surplus fund and used in the future.

 

W. Kennedy warned SEAC that if the Ministry does not increase SEPPA funding next year to offset the effect of the double cohort graduating this year, special education funding for the Lambton Kent District School Board could be impacted.

 

SEAC was given the opportunity to provide input. Members suggested increases in the areas of integration supports and in-servicing, and specialized classes for students with learning disabilities.

 

SEAC was hopeful that the Board would approve the proposal.

 

 

7.0
SUMMARY OF SCHOOL OCTOBER REPORT STATISTICS

A detailed summary of the exceptional pupil section of the school October Reports to the Ministry of Education was reviewed.

 

D. Scherer mentioned that she had personally requested October Report statistics related to suspensions of exceptional pupils. She would like SEAC provided with this information for discussion at a future meeting.

 

 

8.0
SPACE AND EQUIPMENT NEEDS FOR COMMUNITY AGENCY STAFF VISITS TO SCHOOLS

J. Greensmith explained that clinicians from Pathways Health Centre for Children as well as other agency staff often visit schools to provide therapies for students and spend much of their time locating an area, or a proper sized desk, where they can work with the student. Could a request be made of principals to have space available, at any given time, at each school for therapy purposes? W. Kennedy asked J. Greensmith to provide him with additional details via e-mail and he would investigate.

 

 

9.0
SPECIAL EDUCATION PLAN – SECTION 2.11 – SPECIAL EDUCATION STAFF

Review of Section 2.11 was postponed until the next meeting.

 

W. Kennedy announced that a letter was recently received from the Ministry of Education informing Boards that, although the Standards for School Boards’ Special Education Plans is currently under review, there will be no changes to the Standards for this year. Accordingly, school boards are required to submit their revised Board-approved Special Education Plan to the Ministry by July 31, 2003.

 

 

10.0
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROGRAM REVIEW UPDATE

SEAC will receive information at the next meeting.

 

 

11.0
CORRESPONDENCE






11.1
COPY OF LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION FROM THE AVON MAITLAND DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

SEAC received a copy of a letter sent to the Minister of Education from the Avon Maitland District School Board SEAC supporting the concept of an Alternative Diploma for Ontario secondary school students.

 

J. Wright suggested a response be forwarded to the Avon Maitland District School Board which would include a copy of the letter this SEAC submitted to the Ministry re: Alternative Diploma. SEAC agreed.

11.2
WINTER/SPRING 2003 STAFF DEVELOPMENT BOOKLET

Copies of the “Staff Development for All Employees - Winter/Spring, 2003” booklet were distributed to SEAC.

 

 

12.0
ASSOCIATION REPORTS AND OTHER BUSINESS

D. Scherer distributed information on a workshop to be held on February 19, 2003, at Chatham-Kent Secondary School, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Carol Yaworski and Kate Lloyd from the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario will present information on “SOAR (Some Assembly Required)”, Transitional Curriculum for Students in Grades 7 to 12.

 

J. Wright submitted some written materials on integration programs in the York Region as well as a current study being conducted by Queen’s University on children with developmental disabilities.

 

J. Greensmith distributed copies of the recent edition of “Champions for Children”.

 

D. Longwell confirmed that SEAC was in agreement that their recommendation to the Board concerning support for Devine Street School be replaced with the recommendation attached to W. Kennedy’s proposal for increased staffing dated January 28, 2003.

 

W. Kennedy invited SEAC members to attend a Special Education Staff Meeting on January 24, 2003, at the Oaks Inn in Wallaceburg, between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.

 

 

13.0
QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC

Al Kuhn stated that parents have suggested to him that E.A.’s or other school staff are “over-assisting” by doing more work on projects (art, woodworking, etc.) than the students themselves. G. Haskell suggested that A. Kuhn encourage parents to speak with the school staff.

 

 

14.0
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

· Autism/PDD Program Review Recommendations Progress Report

· Professional Development

· Booklet of Strategies, Accommodations, and Tips for all Exceptionalities

· Board Website Demonstration

· Kurzweil Software Demonstration

· Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)

· Exceptionality Presentations

· Double Cohort and Possible Effects on Secondary Special Programs

· Safe Schools Act and Its Effect on Exceptional Pupils

· Impact of Special Education Programming Changes and School Closures

· Link between IPRC, IEP, and Transition Plans, etc.

· October Report Exceptional Pupil Suspension Statistics

 

 

15.0
NEXT MEETING





Thursday, February 27, 2003


Wallaceburg District Secondary School - Library


7:00 p.m.

 

 

16.0
ADJOURNMENT - 9:30 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

Joan Sparks,


Recording Secretary.