Acton-Boxborough Special Education Parent Advisory Council
Executive Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
I. Attendees:
Nancy Sherburne, Paul Clough, Srabani Banerjee
II. Approve Minutes from May 2, 2007 PAC Board Meeting
The minutes were approved unanimously.
III. Updates on Recent Developments
A. Nancy shared that the school committee has formed a task force to update the 2003 report on “Special Ed Costs and Drivers” for the AB school district. The report has data comparisons with schools in other districts across the state as well as with national averages. Nancy and Paul have met with Mike Coppolino and will continue to be involved in this process. The old report is currently posted on the SPED PAC website. The school committee has asked for a list of recommendations from the SpEd PAC regarding updates to the report. Action item: Nancy and Paul will put together recommendations for the committee. Additionally, we will post the newly updated report on the PAC website as soon as it is available.
B. Nancy mentioned the National Center for Learning Disabilities’ recent report on the impact of NCLB on students with LD. The report is titled, “Rewards and Roadblocks: How Special Education Students are Faring under No Child Left Behind.” This report shows improvement for these children and makes recommendations for changes to NCLB to allow for greater improvement. The NCLD also recently released a report titled, “State Testing Evaluations: Their Value and Validity.”
IV. Organization/Business Issues
A. Presentation topics and schedule for next year
The ideas discussed were the following:
- Basic Rights workshop (FCSN)
- IEP development workshop (FCSN)
- Changes in IDEA since ’04.
- Financial planning for children with special needs
- Bullying issues
- Social/Emotional Impairments including discussion of FBAs
- Grading for SPED students – this issue has been raised previously and Liza thought that this was too complex an issue for a presentation.
Action item: Nancy will talk to Laura Estrada (Boxborough K-6 PAC) who has asked for suggestions from people. Also need to touch base with Liza Huber to find out about her agenda for the Nov 2nd workshop. After talking to Laura and Liza, a list of possible topics will be finalized.
B. Discuss and Schedule Summer Fundraising Event
Ideas discussed included a cookout or a day for special needs children at the Acton Discovery Museum. We decided to pursue a day at the museum since it wouldn’t be weather dependent.
C. Discuss 501c3 process
Paul is working on this. Nancy will provide a list of reference names from Steve Lowe of local people who have recently gone through the 501c3 application process.
D. Task Force Updates
Work on the Parent Handbook has been slow over the summer. Action item: Nancy will contact Francesca to find out status of the Transition Report.
E. Possible topics for next Board Meeting
- IEE forms
- Task force status
V. Next Meeting
Nancy will try to set up a meeting during the summer.
VI. Meeting was adjourned.