August 10, 2011
Welcome Back!! I hope that you have enjoyed your summer and feel rested and ready for the 2011 -2012 school year. This summer has been very busy. We have had many openings in the Pupil Services Department to fill. Let us welcome the following new hires.
At the High School, Emily Minty is a Guidance Counselor; Amanda Magnan is an interim Guidance Counselor; Christine Robinson is the Social Worker; Elizabeth MacKay is the School Psychologist for the High School and Out of District students and Dennis Jackson is the Special Education Teacher.
AtMarshallSimondsMiddle School, Monica D’Angelo is the Guidance Counselor and Jackie Soll is the School Psychologist for the Middle School and Out of District students.
At Fox Hill, Kim Settelen is the School Psychologist (with shared responsibility at the PreSchool) and Anne Gorman is the Special Education Teacher.
At Francis Wyman, Michelle Gilbert is the Special Education Teacher; Judy Havens is the Speech and Language Pathologist for the maternity leave; Lela Lituri is the interim Guidance Counselor; and Kelli Stromski and Anne Rigby are the Response to Intervention Instructional Assistants.
At Memorial, Madeline Hale Sedovic is the School Psychologist (with shared responsibility at the PreSchool); Danielle Flaccavento is the Guidance Counselor; Courtney Murgia is the Speech and language Pathologist; Vanessa Monsour and Ashley Cirrone are the Special Education Teachers; and Deanna Drugg and Lindsey Marek are the Special Education Instructional Assistants.
At Pine Glen, Lea Garneau is the School Psychologist (with shared responsibility at the PreSchool); Lindsey Bourgault is the Speech and Language Pathologist; Julie Particelli is the Special Education Teacher and Alexis Carlson is the Special Education Assistant. There is a new program, designed by Louise D’Amato, beginning with Julie and Alexis. The program is calledDevelopmentalSkillsCenter. Many of the students who will attend this program have a significant history or diagnosis of delay. It has been very exciting to see the program take shape with curriculum.
The Burlington Integrated Preschool continues to grow and develop to meet the needs of Burlington’s youngest students. In September we will have 6 integrated preschool classrooms. We are excited this year to pilot a new program that will be a pre-kindergarten classroom. This classroom will be for four year old students only that will transition to kindergarten in the fall of 2012. The school day will mirror the kindergarten and they will have a very strong curriculum that focuses on the 5 principles of reading as well as math and social skill development. We will also have 5 sessions of integrated preschool that are multi age and meet the needs of many diverse learners. In addition to have 2 full day classrooms. The full day programs meet the needs of students that are on the autism spectrum or have significant global developmental delays.
NOTE: If any of the new staff need to participate in a mentor program in order to receive DESE professional certification, please be in touch with me.
Goals for September
- Role clarification: it will be critical to clearly define each person’s role and responsibilities as we work together to educate students and implement the special education process. Our September meetings will focus on role clarification to meet the needs of your level and building.
- Program Clarification: it will be critical to define the programs at the preschool and elementary levels in order to provide TEAMs with the information needed.
- iPad: it will be exciting to experience the change in education as we implement the use of iPads in educating students. If you do not have the programs loaded onto your iPad then you need to contact your computer teacher at your specific school. If you do not have an iPad then please contact my office; we have a list of staff for whom the iPad was purchased for this school year. Please check the professional development offerings for the first days of school for iPad users with Deborah Clark and Melissa Angelo and we will see you there.
Monthly Special Education Meetings in each building are as follows:
| Fox Hill 8:30 | Francis Wyman 8:30 | Memorial 7:50 | Pine Glen 8:30 | |
| 9/20 | 9/14 | 9/23 | 9/28 | |
| 10/3 | 10/12 | 10/21 | 10/26 | |
| 11/1 | 11/2 | 11/18 | 11/23 | |
| 1/10 | 1/11 | 1/27 | 1/25 | |
| 3/6 | 3/7 | 3/23 | 3/28 |
The topic for the September meetings is role and responsibility clarification. The topic for the October meetings in each building is the District Programs. I will make arrangements for the District Teachers to attend the October meeting in each building and discuss the class. Susan Astone will also attend the meeting to discuss the referral process.
School Psychologists will meet once a month with Dr. John Shoudt. John will facilitate the group. The meetings are scheduled from 12:30 – 2:30 in the small conference room in Central Office on the following dates:
| August 30 |
| September 19 |
| October 17 |
| November 14 |
| January 23 |
| March 19 |
Special Education Central Meetings (TEAM Chairs, Out of District Liaison, Director of Intervention Services, School Psychologists, PreSchool Director) will meet and Attorney Tom Nuttall with be joining Cath to present on the following dates in the School Committee room in Central Office from 10:00 – 12:00 :
| September 16 | Legal updates and cases and Disability Categories |
| October 7 | Transition, Age of Majority, working with agencies and cost shares |
| November 4 | Independent evaluations, neuropsychs, parent observations, Cases |
| January 13 | Student Discipline andBurlingtonforms |
| March 16 | Student Record Regulations, where are protocols, unapproved programs and sole source. |
If others would like to attend one or some of these meetings in Special Education Central, first contact your principal then contact me so I can keep track of numbers of staff and copies of materials for the presentations.
I wish you well for this school year!
Sincerely,
Cath
