Florence Unified School District No. 1
Adam Leckie
Director of Exceptional Student Services
August 2015
__________________________________________________________________________
Director’s Summary
Trainings
- Over 60 general education and special education teachers participated in the Coteaching training held on July 10. Wendy Murawski from California State University,
Northridge provided an exceptional workshop on supporting all students in a coteaching classroom.
- Pam Fesko attended the national Train the Trainer Co-teaching conference in Chicago,
Illinois from July 14 – 17th.
- As part of our department’s new professional development initiative, we held several
orientation and training webinars, both live and recorded, during the month of July.
Special education teachers, 504 coordinators and Gifted coordinators participated.
Materials
- Unique Learning Systems is an online curriculum for students with intellectual disabilities
that makes connections to the common core and allows our teachers to appropriately
accommodate and modify instructional materials.
SuMMit
SuMMit’s school year is off to a great start, thanks to the hard work of returning staff and the
addition of some new educators. Sean McDonald, a long-time SuMMit staff member rejoined
the SuMMit team as a Teacher in Residence and is now working with the 9 th graders, aided by
paraprofessional, Tammy Kent. Diana Coleman has taken helm in the 7th and 8th grade class
and is joined by paraprofessional Shannon McGuire. Veterans of education but new to the
SuMMit campus, Ellen Williams and Sue Beauregard, join Terri Ann Rose Wright in the 5th -7th
grade classroom. Kelli Green completes the high school staff as a new paraprofessional for the
10th – 12th graders. And last but not least, Krystal Wright serves the students of both the
Leadership Academy of Excellence and SuMMit as the on-site psychologist.
SuMMit is entering its first year of Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS). This
implementation year will be characterized by daily teaching and re-teaching of SuMMit’s
behavior expectations, bi-weekly PBIS honors assemblies, recognition of positive behaviors, the
awarding of Lion Pride Tickets and a variety of motivational events. The kids already appear
excited and encouraged by our new system. We look forward to seeing many successful days.
Board of Education
Denise Guenther, President
Janeane Candelaria, Vice-President
Rose Marie M. Monks, Member
Bob Dailey, Member
Steve Johnson, Member
Positives
The Exceptional Student Services Department received its PEA Determination from the Arizona
Department of Education on July 27. This measures performance indicators in a variety of areas
and assesses the educational agency’s practices for students with disabilities. The most recent
determination was for fiscal year 2013 where FUSD met requirements in all areas, receiving a
100% compliance rate.
We had a couple staff members selected for professional workgroup committees. Alicia Miller,
school psychologist at Anthem, was selected to participate on Diane Douglas’ committee
reviewing the impact of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (vouchers). Nikki Fyfe, special
education teacher at Poston Butte High School, was selected by the Arizona Department of
Education to work on the standard setting panel for the National Center and State
Collaborative to review and revise the standards for state alternate assessments.
Challenges
We have received an influx of new students at many of our schools, creating some challenges
with providing the necessary services outlined on the various IEPs and 504 plans. Each of our high
schools has received many open enrollment applications as well. Educational advocates
continue to present obstacles to collaborating with parents in effective ways. With new
guidance from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Department of Education,
advocates are forcing school districts to spend unnecessary funds on needless litigation and
assessments.
Adam Leckie
Director of Exceptional Student Services
Board of Education
Denise Guenther, President
Janeane Candelaria, Vice-President
Rose Marie M. Monks, Member
Bob Dailey, Member
Steve Johnson, Member