Upper Grand District School Board
Special Education Advisory Committee
Notes
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The Special Education Advisory Committee of the Upper Grand District School Board met
on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the Boardroom at 500 Victoria Road
North, Guelph.
The following Association Members were present Carrie Proudfoot, Autism OntarioWellington County, Laurie Whyte, FASworld Canada
Present from Staff were: Trudy Counter, Coordinator of Communication, Language and
Speech Services, Tracey Lindsay, Superintendent of Program, Cheryl Van Ooteghem,
Principal of Program, Christine Kay, Principal, Jeni Vaughan, Vice-Principal, Special
Education Consultant, Carla Anderson
Trustees Present: Linda Busuttil
Regrets: Don Richardson, Integration Action for Inclusion in Education and Community
(Ontario), Stacey Stevens, VOICE for Hearing Impaired Children, Jacqueline Foster,
Special Education Coordinator, Ben McCabe, Mark Howe, Special Education Consultants,
Sharon Dills, Learning Disabilities Association of Wellington County, Bruce Schieck,
Trustee
Absent:, Sue Shaw, Autism Ontario-Wellington County, Jason Offer, Association for Bright
Children-ABC, Dr. Mary Susan Crawford, Chief Psychologist, Special Education
Consultants, Kathy Green, Jackie Speers, Naomi Theodor, John Potocska (Public
member)
Tracey Lindsay, Superintendent of Program called the meeting to order and welcomed
Jeni Vaughan, Vice-Principal to the committee.
There was no quorum and the agenda and the January 14, 2015 meeting minutes were
not approved. The committee will ratify at the March 11, 2015 meeting.
Action Items
Tracey Lindsay reviewed the Action Items chart and provided updates from the January
14, 2015 meeting.
• The Special Education Plan and Report will be reviewed earlier this year. SEAC
members are asked to download the documents from the website and forward to
their associations for revisions and updates and to bring advice and suggestions to
March meeting.
• Inclusion information was provided to Tracey Lindsay from Don Richardson.
Presenter from Waterloo Board will be at the May Family of Schools meeting with a
mini presentation to Principals and Vice-Principals.
1
Upper Grand District School Board
Special Education Advisory Committee
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Brainstorming for SEAC Agenda is scheduled for today. Items will be included in the
PAAC calendar for planning.
Tracey Lindsay contacted the Ministry for additional information for dispute
resolution. There isn’t a formal process beyond the process in the “Shared
Solutions” Ministry document.
Parent Guide to IEP is in its’ final revisions. Considerable feedback from parents
was received at the Island Lake IT/IEP workshop held on January 24, 2015. Booklet
will be uploaded to SEAC folder on UGCloud for viewing when all items have been
incorporated. All parents will receive The Parent Guide to IEPs in September 2015
with their student’s IEPs. Links will be embedded in letter being sent out with the
Parent Guide and also in the Special Education Plan that will be posted on the
Board website. Parent Guide will also be available on the Staff Portal.
Yearly update of the Parent Guide will be included in the PAAC calendar. Parent
updates will be collected throughout the school year and brought to SEAC for
inclusion to guide.
School bullying will be addressed by Bonnie Talbot, Superintendent of Education at
SEAC meeting. Item to be added to the Action Item chart.
No update from Sharon Dills, Learning Disabilities regarding funding. Linda Busuttil
will contact Sharon Dills for drafting letter of support.
SEAC website was compared to the Parent Involvement Committee website and
the Safe and Equitable website. Carrie Proudfoot had recommendations that Tracey
Lindsay will bring to Web Master.
Correspondence
Draft letter dated February 11, 2015, addressed to the Honourable Liz Sandals, Minister of
Education and the Honourable Brad Duguid, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
from Carrie Proudfoot, Upper Grand District School Board SEAC Chair was circulated to
committee for review. UGDSB SEAC is in agreement with correspondence received from
Thames Valley District School Board and Hastings and Prince Edward District School
Board advocating for mandatory special education preparatory courses for all teachers
graduating from teacher education programs in Ontario. In addition to the mandatory
special education course, Upper Grand District School Board SEAC is advocating for the
addition of practicum training that includes working directly with students with special
needs and applying the skills learned to Special Education Part 1.
Letter dated November 25, 2014 addressed to Michael Barrett, President of OPSBA, from
Ruth Tisdale, Thames Valley District School Board Chairperson, requesting support from
the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and its member boards in their efforts to
raise awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the lack of service supports and
assessment mechanisms for students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder was
discussed. Laurie Whyte, FASworld Canada, requested that we support this letter and ask
our Board to endorse it as well. She stressed that Ontario is the only province that has no
formal strategy. Linda Busuttil will forward this request to the Board.
2
Upper Grand District School Board
Special Education Advisory Committee
Class Placements
Tracey Lindsay presented the statistics for class placements that have been finalized for
2015-2016.
• 4.5 LD (Learning Disabilities) classes, one additional class from 2014-2105
• 12 MID (Mild Intellectual Disability) classes, two classes less from 2014-2015
• 6 Gifted classes at Waverley in Grades 4-6 (status quo)
• 2 Gifted classes at Spencer in Grades 4-6 (status quo)
• 1 DD (Developmental Disabilities) additional class in elementary from 2014-2015
• 1 DD (Developmental Disabilities) additional class in secondary from 2014-2015
Class lists have been sent to the schools.
SEAC Agenda Planning
Brainstorming session produced agenda items for future meetings. Topics will be dropped
into Google docs and will be put in priority sequence at the March meeting. Committee has
requested that the SEAC meetings become a collaborative working group with limited
presentations. Future agendas will be determined and presenters will be given a list of
questions from SEAC to include in their presentation.
Topics for agenda (Please note all topics should relate or show data that are specific to
students with Special Needs):
• Safe, Equitable and Inclusive Schools (Bonnie Talbot to update yearly)
- Suspension and Expulsion Rates
- Bully Plans
- Inclusion
- Equity access
• Itinerant teachers
• Technology workshops for students (specific questions – students come in and
show programs)
• Pathways (how to guide students in the pathways)
• Student Success – supports for students with Special Needs
• Summer Students – how are they supported?
• EQAO Results for students with Special Needs and trends year over year
• In-depth Presentations on Student Success and Program Services departments
• Inclusion
• VTRA – review and provide statistics related to Special Education
• Mental Health Strategy update – specific questions related to Special Education
• Special Needs Strategy Report
• CEC – Hot Jobs
• Experiential Learning ( ie: CELP, Headwaters, COOP) through the lens of the
students with Special Needs
• BLV, DHH & ITRT specific questions
Additional questions for next month’s presenters.
3
Upper Grand District School Board
Special Education Advisory Committee
Open Forum
Sharon Dills (Learning Disabilities Association of Wellington County) – Information about
free webinar from LDAO, presented by Dr. Marjory Phillips on February 26, 2015 at 6:00
p.m. Go to LDAO site for details. Topic is LDS and Mental Health. LDAWC is hosting a
workshop on May 26, 2015, with Peter Wright, focusing on math and LDs. Another
workshop is scheduled in April with Norfolk Psych services; topic to be determined. The
next newsletter will focus on technology. Website www.ldawc.ca
Carrie Proudfoot (Autism Ontario-Wellington County) – There is a planning resource on
the autism website www.autismontario.com . This webinar can be utilized by anyone.
Topics include legal rights, RSPs, wills and estate planning.
Updates from the Superintendent of Program
•
IEP workshop at Island Lake on January 24, 2015 coupled with IT was a great
success. Twenty-seven brochures were distributed to parents for IEP information.
Kathy Green and Lesley Anne Jordan were in attendance and provided parents with
detailed information regarding a student’s IEP. Chromebooks were distributed
based on the number of people that signed in digitally per school. A spring
workshop is planned for the north. IT advertising will include the IEP workshop.
Trustee Report
Linda Busuttil – A Special Board meeting was held on February 10, 2015 to approve Option 5 of
the Report #2 posted on the Board website. This option is as follows: “That Grade 4-6 students
residing in the Edward Johnson PS boundary as shown on Map 3 in Appendix C remain at Edward
Johnson PS during the 2015/16 school year and allowed to continue at Edward Johnson PS until
they graduate to King George PS for Grades 7 & 8”.
Meeting Summary, Recommendation(s), Motions(s) and Action(s)
Other
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
4