UPPER GRAND DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES
2011 02 09
The Special Education Advisory Committee of the Upper Grand District School Board met on
Wednesday, February 9, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in the Boardroom at 500 Victoria Road North,
Guelph. The following were present:
Association Members
Pauline Busby, Community Living Guelph-Wellington
Heather Clemmer, Easter Seals Ontario
Sharon Dills, Learning Disabilities Association of Wellington County
Patricia Hlushko, Autism Ontario-Wellington County (Alternate)
Sue Shaw, Autism Ontario-Wellington County
Katie Vanderyt, VIEWS for Children Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision
Laurie Whyte, FASworld Canada (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders)
Staff
Sue Adams, Special Education Consultant
Heather Boswell, Superintendent of Program
Bonnie Burgess, Coordinator of Speech-Language Services
Dr. Mary Susan Crawford, Chief Psychologist
Stephen Gayfer, Secondary Vice-Principal
Chris Kay, Elementary Principal
Sandra Szpular, Collaborative Projects Lead/Special Education Coordinator
Bonnie Talbot, Principal of Program
Barb Tomkins, Special Education Consultant
Trustees
Marty Fairbairn
Jennifer Waterston
Regrets
Kim Brenner, Parents for Children’s Mental Health-Wellington County
Beth Haworth, Community Member at Large
Jason Offer, Association for Bright Children of Ontario (ABC)
Stacey Stevens, VOICE for Hearing Impaired Children
Laurie Whyte called the meeting to order. She then read an article entitled “Alot of people in
this community make good things happen.”
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Moved by Marty Fairbairn
That the agenda of the February 9, 2011 meeting be approved.
The motion carried.
Special Education Advisory Committee Minutes … Page 2
February 9, 2011
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Moved by Katie Vanderyt
That the minutes of the meeting held on January 12, 2011 be approved.
The motion carried.
THE ACCESSBILITY PLAN OF THE UPPER GRAND DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
Sandra Szpular, Collaborative Projects Lead and Mark Weidmark, Webmaster presented
Access Upper Grand – The Annual Accessibility Plan of the Upper Grand District School
Board 2010-2011 which was distributed this evening. This document is published on the
board website at www.ugdsb.on.ca.
Sandra Szpular began the presentation by reminding everyone that all Upper Grand DSB
staff have taken the Accessibility Training for Customer Service on the appropriate ways to
deal with people with disabilities who may want to access board services. She then
reviewed the Introduction, Rationale, Objectives, and the Boards Commitment to
Accessibility Planning. Attention was drawn to examples of some recent barrier removal
initiatives under each of the following categories: physical, architectural, informational,
communicational, attitudinal and policy and practice.
Under the Progress Report of Recent Initiatives and Next Steps, Sandra Szpular referred to
the “Toward Seamless Transitions” DVD just released for the Dufferin area, and the Special
Equipment Amount (SEA) claims process to assist students access the curriculum and
attend school. Mark Weidmark then displayed UG2GO which was developed to be an
accessible homework support site for students in our board. The barrier identification
methodologies used by the Accessibility Steering Committee, work plans and timelines, and
the review and monitoring items were outlined, as was the communication of the plan.
Mark Weidmark demonstrated the changes made to make the Accessibility Plan an
accessible document.
Katie Vanderyt inquired whether there is a way of determining the number of people
visiting certain sites on our website. Mark Weidmark responded there is, noting that the
newer sites tend to have more people accessing them.
Sue Shaw asked about accessibility standards in each school to which Sandra Szpular
responded there is criteria for all locations and there is still work to be done around
accessibility.
NEXT STEPS – COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING - DR. ROSS GREENE
Dr. Mary Susan Crawford, Chief Psychologist spoke about the Collaborative Problem
Solving initiative and presentation by Dr. Ross Greene who refers to the phrase “Kids Do
Well If They Can”.
Action
Special Education Advisory Committee Minutes … Page 3
February 9, 2011
The Collaborative Problem Solving presentation which took place on January 6, 2011,
was sponsored by the Student Support Leadership Initiative of Wellington and Dufferin.
A large number of staff from our Board, members from Trellis, Dufferin Child and Family
Services, Wellington Catholic DSB, Dufferin-Peel DSB, Family & Children’s Services
(Guelph) were in attendance. The goal was to develop common language and
approaches used when working with students with ongoing behaviour issues who are
sometimes referred to as “frequent flyers”, and their families. On January 7, 2011, a
smaller group from our board and agencies attended a session with Dr. Greene looking at
how we start to implement the strategies presented in our schools, and to build
community partnerships. The feedback received was very positive.
The next steps include continuing to develop community partnerships, promoting the
school-based Behaviour Intervention/Mental Health Program which provides
Collaborative Problem Solving inservices and support for schools and teachers and, the
Specialized Support Team (SST) which now provides seamless access to service with
agencies and incorporates Collaborative Problem Solving in the service delivery model.
On January 31, Child & Youth Counsellors (CYC) attended an in-service where examples
of Collaborative Problem Solving they had tried were shared. Graphs shown displayed
the percentage of elementary Child & Youth Counsellors using the model directly with
students and the percentage of elementary Child and Youth Counsellors helping teachers
use Collaborative Problem Solving with students.
As we move forward we will be providing inservices to schools and assisting schools to
develop a core team to implement the Collaborative Problem Solving model.
Following an inquiring from Sue Shaw about the number of Child and Youth Counsellors
in our board, Mary Susan Crawford noted that the Principals are the lead, and the special
education resource teacher would be another school lead in the team. The Child and
Youth Counsellors will be supporting the process at schools.
Heather Boswell reminded everyone that this model has been used by the Behaviour
Interventionist – Child and Youth Counsellors in elementary schools since September
2009. All elementary schools received a copy of the book “Lost At School” by Dr. Ross
Greene last year and secondary schools received copies in December.
Sharon Dills inquired about any plans to extend this training to the Educational Assistants
in our Board. Sandra Szpular responded that we are planning to offer it at their April
Professional Development day.
Jennifer Waterston congratulated Mary Susan on this exciting start noting it sounds like a
positive way to work with kids.
Laurie Whyte inquired about engaging parents. Heather Boswell and Sandra Szpular
suggested we consider inviting Brenda Courtney and someone from Trellis to attend a
SEAC meeting to further discuss this issue.
Special Education Advisory Committee Minutes … Page 4
February 9, 2011
Sharon Dills noted that New Heights, New Hopes and the “Toward Seamless Transitions”
DVD are good examples of how collaboration is working for families, children and
schools.
Mary Susan Crawford concluded her presentation by saying that Collaborative Problem
Solving is a very simplistic model but it does take a lot of practice.
THE SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT
Sandra Szpular referred to the handout distributed this evening that incorporates the
changes and re-working of the following sections of the Special Education Report:
•
The Board’s General Model for Special Education
•
Roles and Responsibilities
•
Early Identification Procedures and Intervention Strategies
•
Educational and Other Assessments
Members divided into groups to review the various sections. Sandra reminded everyone
that the goal is to ensure the document contains clear and concise language throughout.
The suggested recommendations were shared. These recommendations will be
reviewed and the changes made will be shared at the March SEAC meeting.
OPEN FORUM
Pauline Busby noted that information about workshops being offered during exam week
had not been distributed. Parents are concerned about the lack of work placements for
students in secondary school developmental disability programs as there does not
appear to be enough Educational Assistants to work as job coaches. Pauline referred to
the change in age when students in developmental disability programs will be graduating
from secondary school. Heather Boswell made note of the issues. Pauline also referred
to information from Family Alliance Ontario that there are over 7,000 families waiting to
receive Special Services at Home funding. Pauline will forward the information to Laurie
Whyte for those interested in learning more about this.
Sharon Dills reported that the Planning Committee has started planning for spring. The
next LDAO newsletter will be arriving in March. The Learning Disabilities Association is
fundraising by selling Guelph Storm Hockey tickets for a game on Family Day.
Pat Hlushko noted that Kerry’s Place is offering a March break camp for 6-17 year olds.
Trellis is offering a Stress Management for Parents course (January through March).
KidsAbility and Trellis offer camps to children all year round. For more information
contact Trellis. More information about the Parent to Parent initiative can be obtained
through KidsAbility.
Katie Vanderyt referred to the VIEWS Camp at Lake Joseph this July. More information
can be found on the VIEWS website.
Special Education Advisory Committee Minutes … Page 5
February 9, 2011
Laurie Whyte inquired whether there were “cheat sheets” available for SEA training.
Sandra Szpular responded that Laurie should speak with the resource teacher. She also
inquired about the eligibility around students taking part in the Special Olympics. Sandra
Szpular will check into this further and respond at a future SEAC meeting. Laurie noted
a concern about the plans for the culinary arts programs offered at secondary schools in
light of the new guidelines being implemented and hoped to invite the Principal from
College Heights S.S. to speak about this. Heather Boswell commented that the Food &
Beverage Policy Committee is working with Superintendent Fyfe who we could contact
regarding these concerns. Heather also noted that senior administration has begun
discussions about how to minimize the impact of these changes. The Dufferin Parent
Support Network is offering a series of spring workshops. More information can be found
on their website. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care - School Health Support
Services report and on-line survey link will be forwarded to everyone. The deadline for
the survey completion is March 27, 2011. Lastly, FASD is having a one-day Conference
on March 24, 2011.
UPDATES FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PROGRAM
Heather Boswell spoke about the Violence Threat and Risk Assessment two-day training
sessions for administrators at the Upper Grand DSB schools taking place February 8
through 11. The goal is to develop a protocol to establish a multi-disciplinary team –
educators, police, community agencies – who would respond to violent incidents. This is
a collaborative approach to keep children safe in the school environment.
On January 11, 2011, the Special Education Class Placement Committee met to review
the placement requests for 2011-2012. Heather Boswell shared the proposed changes
for special education classes beginning next year. These include additions, increases,
and reductions to special education classes as well as, classes that will no longer be
offered next year because of low projected enrolment for these classes.
TRUSTEE REPORT
Trustee Waterston and Trustee Fairbairn have nothing to report this month.
ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Pauline Busby that the meeting be adjourned at 9:46 p.m.
The motion carried.
Donna
Glodziak